Posted on 03/30/2012 7:17:50 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Deep in Tibet... the explorers came upon the first of the enigmatic creatures. They saw one, and then three of them grazing in the open forest. Soon, to their astonishment, a whole herd of the unusual horses appeared.
"They looked completely archaic, like the horses in prehistoric cave paintings," said Michel Peissel, a French ethnologist and the expedition leader. "We thought it was just a freak, then we saw they were all alike."
A team of French and British explorers, who have just returned here from a six-week expedition in Tibet, say they believe that they found an ancient breed of horse previously unknown to scientists.
The Riwoche horse, as the explorers have named it after its home region in northeastern Tibet, is close to four feet high, about the size of a pony. Its head is triangular and has the same wedge shape as the zebra or as the vanished horses of European stone-age drawings. It has a beige coat, bristly mane, black stripe on its back and black lines on its lower legs.
The explorers and other scientists say the breed may provide a new piece in the puzzle of equine evolution. Although for many centuries horses have been vital to humans in work, transport and warfare, scientists say the tale of how horses developed and diversified is far from complete.
They say it took perhaps 50 million years for a small browsing animal, less than two feet high, named the Eohippus, to evolve and branch off into rhinos and tapirs as well as into the species that eventually developed into the zebra, ass, donkey and horse. The modern horse is thought to be five million years old. Cave men hunted it and ate it. Only for the last 3,000 to 5,000 years has the horse been domesticated.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Being from Texas and fan of all things western, here’s a little something that sorta tracks along with the stone age horse story.
When the Spaniards brought the horse to the Americas, as we all know their horses were Andalusians with a lot of Arabian bloodlines. As many of them escaped into the wild, they became almost a new breed, a reversion of evolution if you will, known as Mustangs.
One of the characteristics of some of these horses, was a bay color with black stripe down the back and black stockings. The Spanish term was ‘bayo coyote’
Pictures of horses with similar markings can be seen in caves in Europe and here is a You Tube video of one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZjNNjvSuqE
It’s too bad they didn’t take a picture of them. Or at least make a cave drawing.
I think people would pay good money to go to rodeos and see the bucking rhinoceros riders.
The Mongols bred their horses for endurance. If you have ever read anything about Ghengis Khan and his exploits (GK is my true hero) there were some bits about arabians and Chinese bred horses that did not stand up to the rigors of the movement of his troops. Maybe these are more modern say around 1200 or so, left over from the Reign of Ghengis Khan.
Looks like a bear with a large salmon to me.
That’s what I thought at first but I’m trying to curb my cynicism. :-)
The Tibetans were horseback warriors too at one time. A pre-Buddhist king conquered nearly as much territory as Genghis Khan did. As far south as Delhi, north to Mongolia, as far east as Beijing and he started moving west through what is now Afghanistan scaring the crud out of the Muslims. He was a lot like Khan in his methods too. Once the opposing force surrendered the men were all welcomed into his army and the people were protected, as his subjects, from reprisal, looting, raping and so forth.
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