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A Horse Timeline

Animals we call horses have been around for roughly 55 million years. Based on horse paintings on the walls of Lascaux Cave in France, humans have demonstrated an awareness of them for 17 to 20 thousand years.

Domestication of horses began around 5,500 years ago in modern Kazakhstan for food and milk. Around 4,200 years ago, a different horse lineage in the region north of the Caucasus Mountains was used for transportation and warfare. This Egyptian painting from around 1420 - 1375 B.C. shows a horse-drawn mechanism used to measure agricultural fields for taxation purposes.

Assyrians were reputed to be warlike, an assessment supported by many examples of bas relief artwork. The one below depicts an activity that is a little less hostile; a lion hunt dating from 875 B.C. to 860 B.C.

Greeks used horses, too, as shown by this bas relief from the 4th century B.C.

Romans were fond of sports and games of various sorts. This Roman bas relief from 117 to 150 A.D. may be an example.

Japan is not to be left out. Many haniwa, terracotta figurines of various sorts, surrounded burial mounds during Japan's Kofun Period (250 to 538 A.D.). It is believed that they afforded protection for the dead. This is one of them.

There is a belief that horse statues of Civil War riders signaled the fate of the person represented. If the horse had two feet off the ground, it is supposed to mean that the rider died in battle. If one foot was in the air, it means the rider was wounded in battle. If all four feet are on the ground, the rider survived the battle unscathed. This Gettysburg National Military Park statue of the Union's General Reynolds shows two feet in the air, signifying that he died. He was struck in the back of his neck by a bullet on the first day of the battle, and he died almost instantly. General Reynolds was the highest ranking officer on either side to die at Gettysburg.

The belief is a myth. Though many horse statues at Gettysburg conform to that supposed rule, there is no consistency for statues in other places. 

Horse heights are measured in hands (4 inches) from the ground to their withers, a slight hump at the base of their necks. The chart below provides some information about horse anatomy.

Another size comparison is the photo of a human standing next to Clydesdales. She (the human) doesn't appear to be very tall, but the comparison should give some idea of the relative heights of these horses.

lydesdales and some other breeds have "stockings" on their lower limbs. White stockings are common but not the only color Clydesdales can have. Budweiser Clydesdales, however, are bays (deep mahogany brown body, black mane, and tail) that are bred for white stockings and blaze (forehead marking), The "feathers" covering their stockings are also not unique to Clydesdales, but Clydesdales stand out for the length and silkiness of their feathers.

Ponies are relatively small horse breeds. For a horse to be a pony, its adult height must be no more than 14.2 hands (14 hands plus 2 inches). Height is not the only defining characteristic of ponies, but it is the primary one. Other characteristics include a stockier build, shorter legs, a thicker neck, and a broader head compared to most other horses.

Many people believe that a pony is a young horse. It isn't. A young horse, up to about the age of one year, is a foal. A yearling is a young horse between one and two years of age. Otherwise, young males before adulthood are called colts and young females are fillies. Adult females are mares and adult males are stallions. If a male has been castrated, it is a gelding. Horses that have reached old age are sometimes referred to as geriatric horses. They are potentially subject to all sorts of ailments, one of which can be a bad back; i.e., a swayback. The condition is, unfortunately, as painful as it looks.

Horses as Part of Human Civilization

Horses have long played a significant role in support of human civilization, both physically and symbolically. Everyone who has seen one of the Ben Hur movies and/or read the book knows of Roman chariot races.

Here are several other types of races involving horses than chariot races.

Horses are used in some kinds of performance art and recreation

Until World War II, horses, along with mules, had long played important roles in warfare. A lot of it was hauling supplies, canons, and such. Fighters rode horses into battle, too. A heavily armored knight wasn't very effective on the ground, so armor was provided to protect their horses, too. Different countries and eras, different armor.

Of course, there were always cavalry horses. The painting below, The Cavalry Charge (1907), was painted by Frederic Remington.

Horses were put to work, too, and some are still working today.

The downside of horses is that problems of waste removal came with them. Owners paid for feed, but the public was responsible for handling the other end of the gastrointestinal process. In 1894, there were hundreds of thousands of horses in New York City actively producing gigantic amounts of manure and urine that had to be removed somehow. Carcasses of dead horses, literally worked to death, had to be collected and disposed of, too. There is very little that is fictional about the children's book, Black Beauty. Tax money was required to pay for such services. Removal wasn't very efficient, and the accumulation led to muddy (euphemism) streets when it rained and choking clouds of dust when it was dry. All of this attracted flies which helped to spread diseases like typhoid and infant diarrhea. Some reports claimed that there were tens of thousands of human deaths per year due to manure-related illnesses. That was a major contributing factor in the rapid adoption of mechanized transportation, automobiles and such, exchanging piles of manure for smog and global warming.

There are a lot fewer horses today than there used to be, and distance in time has helped most people forget the problems that came with large, concentrated, masses of horses. We are left with the romantic visions of popular culture like the one below.

The closest most of us come to horses these days is to works of art like this.

Kaihō Yūshō (1533 – 1615)

Yūshō was a Buddhist temple priest before he took up painting when he was 40. He studied art under masters of the Kanō school. He later worked under the patronage of the famous general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the Emperor Go-Yōzei. Among Yūshō's works is this pair of 6-fold byobu depicting wild horses.

Yosa (no) Buson (1716 – 1784)

Buson was one of the Edo Period's (1603 - 1868) greatest poets, ranked beside such other greats as Matsuo Bashō (1644 – 1694). He was also an accomplished painter. Little is known about his youth, but as an adult, he traveled widely throughout Japan, experience reflected in many of his paintings. Buson produced many haiga (haiku with accompanying painting). He would write the haiku first, then add the painting afterward. The artwork below is a simple sketch.

Chiura Obata (1885 – 1975)

Obata was a Japanese American who came to this country when he was 17. He initially worked as an illustrator and commercial decorator before advancing his career as an artist. Obata joined the faculty of the Art Department of the University of California, Berkley in 1932. His tenure there was interrupted for a few years when he was sent to a Japanese internment camp in Utah during World War II. While there, he founded an art school for the other internees. This horse painting is one that he produced while at that camp.