Sino-Platonic Papers, 177 (August 2007)

Timeline of the Development of the Horse

by
Beverley Davis

Except possibly for the dog, no animal has contributed more to humanity than the horse. It has fed and sheltered us, and provided us with clothing and transportation; it has been both worshipped as a god and slaughtered to appease the gods. No one could write the entire history of the horse, but the facts gathered here may make it easier to understand horses and the importance they once had for us.

Beverley Davis

BJB75149@aol.com

Glossary

* indicates an imported breed.

ApHC:

Appaloosa Horse Club

AQHA:

American Quarterhorse Association

BCE:

Before the Common Era

BLM:

Bureau of Land Management (U.S. Department of the Interior)

Carousel:

A riding extravaganza at the French court; gave its name to the fairground ride

Cataphract:

A heavily-armored cavalryman

CE:

In the Common Era

Glaciation:

A period when glaciers were on the land

Hand:

Unit of measure for the height of a horse: four inches

mtDNA:

Mitochondrial DNA

MYA:

Million years ago

NCO:

Non-commissioned Officer

Overo:

A type of spotted horse characterized by having no white across the back (See tobiano)

Petrogylph:

Rock art created by incising, pecking, carving, and abrading the rock surface

ProtoArab:

Any one of a number of ancient breeds that contributed to the development of the Arabian horse

QH:

Quarterhorse

Red corn:

A roan horse with appaloosa markings

Remount:

A horse requisitioned for the U.S. Army

Sabino:

A type of pinto horse, often roan-based

Scalae:

Predecessors of stirrups

SMR:

Spanish Mustang Registry

Taki:

Mongolian name for the 66-chromosome horse

Tobiano:

A type of spotted horse characterized by having white across the back (See overo)

Tovero:

A horse that is half overo, half tobiano (See overo, tobiano)

TWHBEA:

Tennessee Walking Horse Breed registry designator

Timeline of the Development of the Horse

Years Before the Common Era

Stratus Map for the Evolution of the Horse courtesy of Dr. Bruce MacFadden, University of Florida

75 million BCE

• The dog-sized, five-toed Condylarth inhabits early Eocene forests.

55 million BCE

• Hyracotherium, also known as Eohippus (dawn horse), has four toes.

Eohippus from Prague, Czechoslovakia

53 million BCE

• Orohippus coexists with Hyracotherium but is not as numerous.

37–32 million BCE

• Mesohippus lives in Colorado and the Great Plains of the United States, in the Oligocene Age.

32–25 million BCE

• Miohippus gives rise to numerous species of equids.

24–19 million BCE

• Kalobatippus, a long-legged browser, lives in the western U.S.

24–17 million BCE

• Parahippus, a three-toed link between browsers and grazers, is the size of a German shepherd and lives in the Great Plains and Florida.

21–13 million BCE

• Archaeohippus, a collie-sized browser, whose remains have been found in Nebraska, Oregon, California, and Florida, lives.

17–11 million BCE

• Hypohippus is a pony-sized browser, whose remains have been found in Nebraska, Colorado, and Montana.
• Merychippus, first known browser and a three-toed ancestor of modern horses, lives in the Miocene Age.

16–5 million BCE

• The most successful hipparion horse, the three-toed Neohipparion, lives in North and South America.

15–11 million BCE

• Megahippus, the last of the browsing, three-toed horses in America, is, for its time, quite large, weighing as much as 600 pounds.
• Nannipus is smaller than its ancestor; its remains were found in Florida.

13–5 million BCE

• Dinohippus, the powerful horse, the closest relative to Equus, lives.

12–6 million BCE

• Pliohippus thrives on the Great Plains and in Canada. It evolves into the Plesippus.

10 million BCE

• A volcanic eruption in Nebraska kills hundreds of Miocene Age horses, camels, rhinos, and birds.

5 million BCE

• Equus appears and continues to the present.
• mtDNA research shows that the various families of Equus split off in the following order: mountain zebra (E. hippotigris) first, then the asses, the Damara and Grant zebras, the Grevy zebras (Dolichohippus), the hemiones, and, lastly, the horse, E. Caballus and Przewalski. Plains zebras are E. burchelli and E. quagga.

2 million BCE

• The Pleistocene Age takes place.
• The last of the hipparions, Cormohipparion emsliei, becomes extinct.
• Hippidion lives in South America until 10,000 BCE. This equid was the size of a Clydesdale and may have had a flexible nose.
• Equis livenzovensis, with large, not very involved upper teeth and slender bones, enters Europe. (E. stenonis, the oldest species of true horse, which evolved from Plesippus, arrives later. Equus scotti was its North American counterpart.)
• E. sanmeniensis, E. sivalensis, and E. namadius enter Asia.
• E. koobiforensis enters Africa.
• E. sussenbornensis arrives in Europe late in the Pleistocene Age, at the same time as E. altidens. Sussenbornensis is the largest equid in Europe and seems to be adapted to open environments.
• E. giganteus, which is the size of the modern Quarterhorse, is the largest Pleistocene horse in North America at this time.

1.5 million BCE

• E. stehlini, a wild ass, lives in Italy.

1 million BCE

• The ass and the onager separate.

650,000 BCE

• A super volcanic eruption in Wyoming creates the Wyoming caldera and Yellowstone; the climatic changes are devastating.

200,000 BCE

• The Yukon horse (Equus lambei), 12 hands high and similar to the Przewalski horse, is a common ungulate in parts of Alaska, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territory.
• A similar species of small wild horse, Equus caballus lenensis, lives in the unglaciated regions of Siberia.
• Equus complicatus (so named because of its teeth) is the most common horse in the eastern and southern U.S.
• Equus mexicanus, a type of onager, is common in North America.

136,000 BCE

• Equids leave North America for Asia, while Bison priscus enters North American, by the Berengia Land Bridge.

74,000 BCE

• Super volcanic eruption of Toba in Sumatra leads to a major ecological catastrophe, threatening even the human population with extinction.

40,000 BCE

• Cave art in France and Spain depicts the Taki, ancestors of the Sorraia.

Lascaux Horse

32,000–12,000 BCE

• An estimated 30,000 horses are killed during this time period at one site in Europe. This does not include the remains at other sites.

18,000–16,500 BCE

• Paintings of a big-bellied horse, a bust of a horse, and engraved horses exist in Cosquer Cave, France.

Ivory Horse Head

16,000–15,000 BCE

• Remarkable paintings of horses and other animals are made at Peche-Merle Cave, France, including two horses with spots, which were long thought to be representations of leopards until Alexander Marshak, using infrared photography, showed them to have been created over hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.
• Rising temperatures in the northern hemisphere cause glacial melting that leads to widespread flooding, as the oceans rise 120–130 feet worldwide.

The horses of Peche-Merle

12,000 BCE

• The Yukon horse, E. lambei, becomes extinct.

10,000 BCE

• Hunters in Alberta, Canada (St. Mary’s Reservoir), butcher horses for food. Equus conversidens, also called the Mexican horse, coexists with the larger Equus occidentalis. Some think that the Mexican horse is an onager.

8000 BCE

• The city of Jericho is founded, the oldest human settlement on earth. Cattle, sheep, and goats, but no horses or asses were present.

6000–4000 BCE

• The horse is domesticated in southern Russia. The first horsemen are the Indo-Iranians and Celts. Archaeological evidence indicates that the first bits were made of wood.

5960 BCE

• Mt. Vesuvius erupts, one of the largest eruptions in European history. (Could it be that the resulting climatic change allowed the steppe peoples to save the horse from extinction?)
• North Africa at this time has abundant water and rainfall. Prior to the eruption it was two degrees warmer than currently. Wild asses and zebras are present.

5700 BCE

• Mt. Mazama erupts in the U.S., and Crater Lake is created. The resulting ashfield extends from New Mexico to Alberta, causing a major disruption of the ecosystem.

3000 BCE

• Petroglyphs found in Armenia (one of the possible sites for the Indo-European homeland) show the oldest pictures of men driving chariots, wagons, and plows, with horses doing the pulling.
• The wild ass is domesticated in Africa.
• The Nile floods start diminishing.
• The European wild ass, Equus hidruntinus, becomes extinct.

2675–2565 BCE

• Tombs from the Fourth Dynasty in Egypt show that large herds of donkeys were being kept by wealthy people. A pharaoh is entombed with six.

2500 BCE

• The Sumerians of Ur use onagers, controlled with nose rings that often leave them bloody, to pull heavy chariots.

Royal Standard of Ur

2000 BCE

• Celts enter Europe with their small, gaited horses; bays and tobianos are common. Their goddess is Epona, who gives her name to the word “pony.” Austurcons, Galacians, and Garranos are descendants of the Celtic pony. (DNA testing has confirmed relationships between the breeds, as well as a relationship between the Sorraia, Konik, and the recreated Tarpan.)
• Primitive wagons dating from this time have been found in excellent condition in Armenia. These are the oldest known wagons in the world.
• The Elamites first mention a horse people called the Kassites.
• The European wild horse is almost extinct.

Celtic Horsemen in Art

1900–1800 BCE

• Indo-European horsemen arrive in Asia Minor. King Anittas of the Hittites follows and sacks the cities of the indigenous people, including Hattusas, an important Hatti city. Prior to this time there were no domestic horses in Asia Minor, the Middle East, or Africa.

Hittite chariot team from Metropolitan Museum of Art

1800 BCE

• Damascus, Syria, is the center of the trade in donkeys. Large, white riding donkeys and gently gaited donkeys for women are two of the types sold here.

1759 BCE

• The Hyksos, believed to be from the Phoenician city of Ashkelon (also spelled Ashqelon, classical Ascalon or Askalon), a city on the coastal plain of Palestine, invade and conquer Egypt, introducing the horse and wheel. These are the first horses to enter Africa. They are probably of the Hittite strain, based on the politics and alliances of that time.

Userhat hunting with red and white chariot horses

1750 BCE

• The Hittite Old Kingdom is founded by Hattusilis I, and Hattusas is his capital. Hittite horses rank among the first horses in the Middle East. Artwork shows that they belong to the same family of horses that gives rise to the Arabian.

1700 BCE

• Gandash is king of the Hittites, with his capital at Dur Kurigalzu.

1650 BCE

• The Minoan island of Thera (Santorini) erupts, the greatest volcanic eruption in the last 10,000 years. Tsunami waves of 100 feet in height cross the Mediterranean. Minoan art shows that their horses were elegant animals.

Horse effigy from ancient Armenia

1620–1590 BCE

• Hittites and Kassites are allies during the reign of Hittite king Murcilis, a man bent on conquering as much land as possible. Babylon falls to him, but he leaves it in the hands of the Kassites, who introduce the first horses into Babylon.

1500 BCE

• The Mittani arrive in the Middle East and ally with Egypt; Wassukkani is their capital. The famous black horses of Nefertiti were probably Mittani.
• Horses are introduced into northern India at this time, the beginning of the Vedic Era. Mittani and Indian horses belong to the same family.
• Sometime between 1500 and 1450, King Shaushshatar of the Mittani loots the Assyrian city of Ashur, teaching its citizens the importance of the horse.

1415 BCE

• Menna, an official of Thutmose IV, has pictures of his red overo chariot horses painted on the wall of his tomb.

1400 BCE

• Celts enter northern Spain with the domestic horse.

Epona, Celtic Horse goddess courtesy of Chris Hopkins, Parthia.com

1360 BCE

• After the death of Tushratta, last king of the Mittani, a war of succession leads to the Mittani becoming a part of the Hittite Empire. Mittani and Hittite horses are crossed to produce a superior horse suitable for war, chariot pulling, and racing.

1350 BCE

• Kikulli of the Mittani writes the first book, in cuneiform, on the care and feeding of chariot horses.

1318–1304 BCE

• Seti I defeats the horseless Libyans (Berbers) at Karnak. His horses are depicted, when painted on walls, as a deep sorrel color, very Arabianesque.

1307–1275 BCE

• Adad nirari I makes the lands of the Mittani horse a part of the Assyrian Empire. Assyrian art shows that these horses were very like Arabians.

1300 BCE

• Metal bits are now in use.

1286 BCE

• Hittites defeat Ramses II at Kadesh in Syria, using 3,500 chariots.

King Tut chariot horses similar to the ones Ramses used

1200 BCE

• Hattutas, the Hittite capital, is sacked and burned by “sea peoples,” probably Greeks. The era of the Hittite chariot horse is coming to an end.

1200–900 BCE

• The Celtic people arrive in Great Britain.
• Horsemen arrive in China. Legendary Emperor Mu has a shaggy black horse that looks like a dog and runs away whenever people come near. The Chinese word for horse, ma, appears to be related to the English “mare,” the Irish mark (horseman), and Persian maal (workhorse).
• The Latini migrate to Italy from the Danube region; they have their own horses.

1170 BCE

• The Kassites disappear as a world power. In Persian times they raise great horses for the Shah of Persia and have dealings with Alexander III. The Elamites drive them into the Zagros Mountains.

1110 BCE

• Phoenicians from Tyre found a trading post in Spain at Gades (Cadiz). Horses of the Indo-Iranian line are traded to Iberians for silver and gold. Iberians start to kill off their native Takis to protect these valuable mares.

1100 BCE

• Utica in North Africa is founded by Tyre. Ruins indicate that the Phoenicians traded with the locals for dried fish. Eventually they brought horses into region for their own use.
• Ceuta is settled by the Phoenicians. Spanish horses are shipped to Africa.

1074 BCE

• Tiglath Pilser I becomes the first great king of the Assyrian Empire. The need for horses drives him into the lands of the Indo-Iranian horse peoples and Armenia.

1000 BCE

• A new breed of horse is being developed in Central Asia. Ram-headed and bred in every color including appaloosa, it is called Nisean after its breeding grounds in Media (now Turkmenistan).
• Archeological evidence indicates that Rome began at this time.
• The Etruscans, non-Indo-Europeans, arrive in Italy.
• The Garamentes, a Berber people closely related to the Tuaregs, enter North Africa and acquire horses for the first time.

Etruscan terracotta art

885 BCE

• Ashurnasapal of Assyria goes to the land of the Kirruri for horses.

865–727 BCE

• The Assyrians begin their spring military campaigns by taking Medean horses.

Assyrian saddle horses

860 BCE

• The Assyrians wage a merciless war of conquest against the Arabs, who do not have horses at this time. Tens of thousands of their camels are slaughtered.

850 BCE

• Assurnasirpal II hunts a captured lion from a chariot.

Hunting lions from a chariot

814 BCE

• Carthage is founded. Their horses are well-bred Indo-Iranian animals.

800 BCE

• Homer’s Iliad begins. The Greeks believed the mares of Spain were born of a harpy impregnated by the West Wind.

Horses of Achilles, classical Greek Art

745 BCE

• Tiglath Pileser III of Assyria sends his general, Ashur danai, as far as the land of the Medes and the Caspian Sea for horses. Cavalry is adopted at this time. Urartu (Armenia) is conquered by Assyria.

717 BCE

• The last Hittite city, Carchamesh, falls to Pileser III; the inhabitants had paid tributes of chariot horses to the Assyrians.

710 BCE

• Cimmerians move out of the Ukraine into Central Asia and ally themselves with the Medes. Their art shows an Arabian-like mount.

700 BCE

• Celtic Lusitanians arrive on the Iberian Peninsula, giving their name to the region of Iberia they occupy, Lusitania. One breed of Portuguese horses is called Lusitano.

680 BCE

• A four-horse chariot race is added to the Olympic games.

A Three Horse Tethrippon

645–635 BCE

• Although they are surrounded by horse cultures, the Elamites still use onagers.

Onagers were also once common in North America

634 BCE

• Defeated by the Scythians, the Cimmerians ravage Phrygia and Lydia, taking horses with them.

631 BCE

• The Greek colony of Cyrene is founded in Libya, by Greeks, who are obeying a Delphi oracle that insisted upon it. These Greeks came from Thera, a Lacedamonean island; they bred beautiful horses that they imported from their colony in Spain. Greek coins show these horses to very like Arabians.

625 BCE

• Cyaxares the Mede has a banquet and invites all the chieftains of Scythia to it. While they are drunk, he kills them and begins a war against Assyria.

624 BCE

• First Olympic games to include mounted racers are held.

616–579 BCE

• Tarquinius Priscus, the Etruscan king of Rome, is credited with starting the Circus Maximus, Rome’s great horseracing arena.

Plan for the Circus Maximus

614 BCE

• Cyaxares lays siege to Assur, an important Assyrian city, and captures it.

612 BCE

• The Medes, with the help of their Babylonian allies, capture Nineveh and put an end to the Assyrian Empire.

600 BCE

• Celts from Galacia, Spain, arrive in Ireland. Their horses found the Irish hobby.

590 BCE

• Urartu falls to the Medes; Armenia is the Roman name for the region.
• The Scythians drive the Cimmerians out of Central Asia. There is a belief that the Cimmerians join up with the Huns and become the Wu-sun (Wusun), who are also known for the quality of their horses.

580 BCE

• Cyrus the Great comes to power in Persia and makes the Nisean the imperial horse of Persia, dedicating it to Ahura Mazda and Mithra, and sacrificing it to Mithra on December 25 and New Year’s Day. Cyrus drains a river for drowning one of his white stallions.
• First “Pony Express” began in Persia. The riders would go the entire day and change off at the end. Herodotus said this about them: “Neither snow, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

573 BCE

• Tyre falls to Nebuchadnezzar II. Exportation of horses slows.

529 BCE

• Queen Tomyris of the Massagatae kills Cyrus the Great. The Magi sacrifice white horses at his tomb.

529–530 BCE

• Cambyses II conquers Egypt. The great horse of Persia is in Egypt. (The Berber name for horse is Aiis—similar to aspa, the Persian name. The Mittani and Sanskrit word is Ashva, and the Hittite is Aswa.)

525 BCE

• Cambyses II captures Cyrene and receives tribute of fine horses.

521 BCE

• Cambyses II falls off of his horse and is mortally wounded by his own sword. Darius the Mede succeeds him as king of the Persians. Darius’ stallion is tricked into whinnying at the right time, assuring his master the rule of Persia.

520 BCE

• A Celtic princess is buried in Gaul with a five-foot krater believed to have been made during the reign of Spartan king Cleomenes I. The horses depicted on the krater are tall and slender with long manes and tails, perfect examples of Spartan chariot horses.

Spartan horses on the Vix krater

509 BCE

• Romans get their independence from the Etruscans but retain many Etruscan ideas and creations, notably the Circus Maximus.

481 BCE

• Xerxes invades Greece. While in Thessalonia he races his mares against the legendary Thessalonian mares and beats them. Experts speculate that Nisean stallions were put on Thessalonian mares to make the offspring faster and that the Nisean horns were transferred to this new breed.

479 BCE

• Persian forces under General Mardonius are defeated at Plataea. The general is killed beneath his injured white stallion. Greeks acquire Persian horses.

416 BCE

• Notorious Athenian aristocrat and politician Alcibiades enters seven chariots in the Olympic games, placing first, second, and either third or fourth.

Corinthian race horses included tobiano pintos

415 BCE

• Athens uses Iberian mercenaries (horsemen) in the war against Sparta and Sicily, but unsuccessfully. (Xenophon claims they fought for Sparta.)

396 BCE

• Kyniska, a Spartan princess, wins the tethrippon (four-horse) race and becomes the first woman to win a horserace at the Olympics; she repeats the victory four years later.

390 BCE

• The Gauls plunder Rome.

362 BCE

• Euryleonis, a Spartan woman, wins the synoris (two-colt chariot) race.

356–330 BCE

• Xenophon writes The Cavalry Commander, a book on horsemanship, in which he mentions that there are wild horses in the mountains above Sparta that can only be tamed with harsh bits.

Athenian horsemen from the Parthenon

350 BCE

• The Greeks capture an Iberian town, renaming it Saguntum. Spanish horses are shipped out of this port to mainland Greece and her colonies.

334 BCE

• Alexander III of Macedonia invades Persia. Although Bucephalus is his favorite mount, Nisean warhorses replace the aging stallion. Alexander holds a Kassite village hostage until it hands over the horses that the inhabitants had been breeding for the Shah. Ultimately Alexander demands a tribute of thousands of Persian horses.
• Bucephalus means “Ox-head” and it is possible that the name might come from the calcium “horns” that are found on the foreheads of horses descended from the Persian. Thessalonia was an ally of Persia when Xerxes stopped by.
• The Cassaeans promise a tribute of 100 horses a year.
• Aspendus of Phrygia promises 50 talents and Nisean horses if Alexander spares his people.

A Greek coin depicting Bucephalus

328 BCE

• Permanent starting gates are placed at the Circus Maximus, the most famous racetrack in the ancient world.

300 BCE

• City of Mamshit is founded by the Nabateans.

Mamshit stables courtesy of the Jerusalem Internet Post edition

268 BCE

• Belistiche of Macedonia becomes the third woman to win an Olympic horse race, with her polikon tethrippon (four-colt chariot).

247 BCE

• Arsaces I founds the Parthian empire. Legend has it that the first appaloosa was a red corn stallion named Rakush. Parthian armor both man and horse with chain mail.

241 BCE

• Hamilcar Barca fights the Celto-Iberians in Spain, and the Lusitans put up a stiff resistance. Carthaginians want the Spanish to mine more silver to fight the Romans. Trade in horses ceases,

228 BCE

• Hamilcar founds the city of Cartgo Nova (Cartagena). Horses and mules from Spain are used in the war against Rome.

221 BCE

• Hannibal Barca, son of Hamilcar, comes to power.
• Qin Shi Huangdi becomes the first emperor of a unified China.

Terra cotta horses from the first emperor Qin’s burial mound

219 BCE

• Hannibal attacks Saguntum, and Romans use the event as an excuse to wage war on Carthage.

218 BCE

• The Second Punic War begins, and Hannibal marches on Rome. Thousands of Spanish horses and enslaved Iberians are enlisted. Elephants cross the Alps.

206 BCE

• Romans capture Cartgo Nova. Scipio Africanus makes Iberia part of the Roman Empire. Romans think very highly of Spanish horses and start incorporating them into their army and using them as racehorses.

201 BCE

• Second Punic War ends in favor of Rome after 16 years of terrible fighting.

176 BCE

• The Hsiung-nu (Xiongnu) horsemen attack Western China.

146 BCE

• Viriato (wearer of arm bracelets) becomes chief of the Lusitans.

145–125 BCE

• Tocharians and Scythians (the Yüeh-chih [Yuezhi]) flee China ahead of marauding Huns. Their conquest of Bactria, still very Greek from the days of Alexander, leads to the founding of the Kushan Empire. The horses of the Tocharians form the rootstock of the Marwari, Kathiawari, and other related “Indian” horses.

144 BCE

• Lusitans are forced to fight the treacherous Romans.

141 BCE

• Viriato defeats a Roman force under Fabius Maximus (18,000 troops and 1,600 cavalry) with 6,000 Lusitan warriors, horse and foot soldiers combined.

139 BCE

• After a peace treaty is signed, the Romans hire two of Viriato’s men to murder him in his sleep. Viriato is regarded as a hero of Portugal.

130 BCE

• The Asi, Pasiani, Thogarii, Sakauraka, and Tocharians take Bactria. The first four peoples are believed to be Sakas, the latter group closely related to the Celts.

128–127 BCE

• The Parthian king is killed by Tocharians who ravage Parthia.

123 BCE

• Mithradates II comes to the throne of Parthia. Romans and Chinese send envoys to him. Chinese are looking for horses and allies. The great horses armored in chain mail impress the Romans.

122 BCE

• Gaius Gracchus has the Equites, members of Rome’s equestrian order of knights, declared a political power second only to the Senators.

111 BCE

• Emperor Wu Ti (Wu Di), desiring high quality horses to help protect China from raiding nomads, sends envoys to the Wusun to buy them. He trades an imperial princess for the animals, only to learn that they are not true “Heavenly Horses,” which are only to be found elsewhere.

Flying horse

103 BCE

• Chinese capture Kokand in Ferghana and take two-dozen Nisean horses back to China, where they are named T’ien Ma (Tianma)—Heavenly Horse. Chinese art shows that palominos and appaloosas are most popular. One Chinese emperor names his favorite appaloosa stallion Night Shining White. Another favored his palomino battle stallion so much that its image is still found at a number of sites in China.

Night Shining White by Han Gan

96 BCE

• Cyrene becomes a Roman province.

84 BCE

• Timareta of Elis wins the synoris (two-colt chariot race) at the 174^th Olympiad. Theodata, also of Elis, wins the polikon tethrippon.

79–23 BCE

• Pliny of Rome writes about the Austurcon ambling horse of Iberia, famous for its long mane and tail as well as its gait.

75 BCE

• Pompey attacks and almost destroys the entire region of Valencia. He brings Italian-bred horses with him there.

54 BCE

• Marcus Lincus Crassus, the man who defeated Spartacus, wages war on Parthia. Destroyed by General Surena, who uses a cataphract along with a supply of camels carrying arrows for his light horsemen. The Romans leave behind thousands of Iberian and some Celtic horses, mounts of the Gaulish mercenaries.
• The Belgae, a Celtic people, rebel against Roman rule. The Remi, the leading Belgae tribe, is famous for the quality of its horses.

52 BCE

• The Gauls unite under Vercingetorix, who has a 15,000-horse cavalry at his disposal. Julius Caesar brings in German tribes to aid him; their horses are notably inferior to the Gallic animals. Caesar crushes the Gauls.

50 BCE

• Strabo of Rome writes about the horses of Spain, more specifically the horses of the Lusitans and the ambling horses of northern Spain. He calls the Nisean the most elegant riding horse alive.

Locomotion, a modern ambling Spanish Colonial Horse
Owned by Vickie Ives of Karma Farms, Texas

46 BCE

• Numidia is conquered by Rome and becomes a part of Ifriqia Nova.

45 BCE

• Rome, under Julius Caesar, invades Great Britain and takes along Gaulish horses, which are closely related to the Celtic horses of Spain. Two thousand cavalrymen and their mounts are part of the expedition. (Ambling horses were once common in England.)

36 BCE

• Marc Antony takes a 10,000-horse cavalry, most of the animals coming from Spain, to Syria in his war against Parthia. He loses the war and ravages Armenia, returning to Egypt with Armenia’s king and the first large number of Nisean horses in the Roman Empire. Augustus Caesar ends up with them after defeating Antony.

6 BCE

• Birth of Christ the Messiah. A Parthian saying goes, “When you see a Parthian charger in front of the Temple, you will know the Messiah has come.” The Three Wise Men are Magi, an Iranian word, and they visit Christ on horseback; camels are regarded as fit only for carrying goods.

Adoration of the Magi – Renaissance horses resemble the ancient Persian breed

 

In the Common Era

7

• Dionysius of Halicarnassus describes the Circus Maximus as the most beautiful structure in Rome. The racehorses are housed at Campus Martius. The best horses come from Roman stud farms in Spain and North Africa. One breeder in Carthage paved his floors with mosaics of racehorses and their drivers.

North African mosaic shows a fine if spirited riding horse

28

• The Friesians revolt against forced tribute to Rome. The Friesian horse belongs to the Germanic breeds.

36

• A peace treaty is ratified between Rome and Parthia; some trade in horses begins.

40–41

• Emperor Caligula attempts to make his favorite racehorse, Incitatus, a Roman senator. It eats out of an ivory manger and is covered with a purple robe.

45

• Romans take more Gaulish horses to England.

48

• The Hsiung-nu Empire is defeated by the Hans with their “Heavenly Horses.”

Jade horse from the Han Dynasty

55–120

• Roman historian Tacitus calls the Friesian horse strong but ugly.

58

• Rome is at war with Parthia.

61

• Rome defeats Boudicca in England. Gaulish horses mix with British horses; they are related breeds.

63

• Rome treats with Parthia and settles the Armenian question.

67

• Emperor Nero moves the date of the Olympics from 65 to 67 so that he can compete in other games. He wins every competition including a ten-horse chariot race, a remarkable feat since he did not finish it. His “victories” are later thrown out.

71

• Hadrian builds a wall separating Roman England from pagan Scotland. One of the units assigned to protect the wall is II Austurm, an Iberian unit on Austurcon ponies. Austurcon ponies play a role in the development of the English and Irish hobbies—ambling horses. They may also play a role in the development of the Galloway (one of the ancestors of the Thoroughbred) and the Fells pony.

73

• The Roman Timontium (Melrose, England) has a stud of at least 1,000 horses. Skeletal remains show that ponies, riding horses, and draft horses were kept.
• Alans (Sarmatians) invade Armenia and Parthia, taking Nisean horses.

79

• Mt. Vesuvius erupts. The resulting ash causes temperatures all over the world to drop by one degree Celsius.

80

• A terrible fire destroys the Circus Maximus, and many horses are lost.

91

• The  Equus Domintiani statue is erected in the Roman forum.

98

• Iberian-born Trajan becomes Caesar. Trajan’s Column in Rome has an engraving of a Sarmatian cataphract on it. Two horses and their riders are seen covered in mail with basket-like eye protectors on the horses. These horsemen are culturally and linguistically related to the Parthians and Scythians.

A Saka horseman, Chris Hopkins at Parthia.com

99

• The Kushanas (Saka and Tocharians) send a delegation to Rome; Kushana horses are known in Rome.

100

• A Roman legion (III Augusta), based in Numidia, protects imperial interests from Berbers. The legion uses Spanish horses in North Africa, and its emblem was Pegasus.

103

• Emperor Trajan rebuilds the Circus Maximus and makes it one of the finest structures in Rome.
• Roman satirist Juvenal laments the fact that an Iberian charioteer, who came to Rome as a boy with a string of Spanish racehorse, is making more money and attracting more women than anyone else in Rome.

106

• Nabataea becomes a Roman Province. Mamshit breeds horses for Romans. The ruins of the stables show that the animals were very well kept. Modern Arabs say the Mamshit horses are ancestors of the Arabian.

111–114

• The Romans build the Via Nova Traiana from Bostra to Aila on the Red Sea—267 miles. Roman cavalry units routinely patrol the region, which by now has taken up chariot and mounted racing.
• The Samaritans of Judea are avid racing fans.
• Armenia, the breeding ground for the Nisean horse, is annexed by Rome.

115

• Jews revolt in Cyrene. The city is ruined, and the countryside is plundered. Some of the revolutionaries are Berber converts to Judaism who take horses and cattle.

116

• Emperor Trajan captures Ctesiphon; Nisean horses are also captured.

120

• Frieslanders move to Scotland to guard Hadrian’s Wall. The Friesian horse and the Celtic pony of Scotland mate and thereby create the Fells and later Dales ponies. (There is some question about the exact influence on the Fells pony.)

125

• The plague hits North Africa and kills millions. Nomadic tribes have better survival rates than sedentary peoples and acquire many ownerless animals.

135

• General Julius Severus puts down the Jewish Revolt in Jerusalem and plows the city under with oxen. He gives the land to his Arab allies and renames the region Syria Palestina. Many of the horses in his army come from Mamshit.

153

• Kasia of Elis becomes the last women to win an Olympic race (the 223^rd games), in the four-colt tethrippon.

181

• Lucius Astorius Castus is sent by Emperor Commodus to guard Hadrian’s Wall. With him is a 5,500–horse Sarmatian cavalry. He is believed by many to be one source of the Arthurian legends (the Sarmatians did indeed ride Niseans with heavy chain mail armor).

186

• Mt. Taupo erupts in New Zealand. Results were devastating for horsemen on the steppe because of the resulting global cooling and severe winters. Horses starve.

193–235

• Romans strengthen their defenses on the Arabian frontier to counteract the rise of the Sassanid Empire in Persia. The Romans see the value of a heavy, well-trained cavalry on fast horses.

200

• Septinius Severus builds a hippodrome in Byzantium, which is destined to become the most famous racetrack in the Roman Empire.
• The Yamato dynasty of Japan begins; it is believed that all current Japanese horse breeds arrived at this time.

206–268

• Emperor Galliensis reorganizes the Roman cavalry into separate and more efficient units.

224

• Ardasir I revolts against the Parthians.
• The Sassanid Empire begins.
• Horses wear chain mail armoring only in the front.

259

• The Roman emperor Valerian is captured by Sapor I, the Sassanid shah, and is humiliated before he is killed, forced to kneel down so Sapor could mount his horse from his back. A famous rock carving depicting this event survives in Iran, and shows Sapor’s horse to be a large Nisean stallion. Sapor gives his Jewish subjects a white stallion so their Messiah, when he arrives, will not have to ride an ass, as predicted in the prophecies.

Persian shah on a large Nisean stallion

269

• Zenobia, female ruler of Palmyra, Syria, attacks Roman territories in the Middle East, including Egypt. Her strategy involves using both a light horse and a heavy chain-mailed horse cavalry.

271

• Emperor Aurelian of Rome declares war on Zenobia. One of his tactics includes wearing out her heavy horse cavalry.

286

• Emperor Mauritius writes a book on horsemanship that mentions two scalae on the saddle, for mounting.

300

• Diocletian separates Provincia Arabia into separate districts. Arabia Felix, the most important, is now modern Yemen. Arabia Deserta is Saudi Arabia, and Arabia Petraea (Stony Arabia) is modern Jordan.

302

• Earliest documented example of a mounting stirrup is buried in a Western Jin tomb in China. The Scythians had earlier used straps that had fulfilled the same purpose.

304

• St. George, patron saint of horses and horsemen, is martyred in Lydda, Palestine.

330

• Constantine the Great moves the capital of Rome to Constantinople. Very interested in the Persian cavalry, he divides the Roman cavalry into two types: clibanarri—light horse—and cataphract—heavy horse, based on the Persian model.

337–351

• Constantius II, second son of Constantine the Great, sends 200 Cappadocian racehorses to the Prince of Arabia Felix as an enticement to Arian Christianity. These animals are recognized as the ancestors of the Arabian horse.

339

• Symmachus of Rome asks Bassus, another important Roman politician, to send his son some racehorses from his farm in the Camargue of Gaul.

Bassus mosaic

346

• Emperor Theodosius I is born in Spain; horses are his passion.

363

• Ammianus Marcellinus is serving in Julian’s Persian expedition; he calls the Asiatic pony tough but misshapen.

364

• Armenia is back under Persian control although population is now predominantly Christian and hostile to Zoroastrianism. Pastures are still needed.

378

• The Visigoth cavalry, historically the best of the Germanic horse tribes, destroys Emperor Valens of Constantinople and his soldiers of Adrianople on August 9.

Map used with permission from North Park University, Chicago

389–395

• Chandragupta II Vikramaditya begins his wars against the Kushanas. The Tocharian horse, a brave, handsome horse of ancient Celtic breeding, is incorporated into the Indian horse family.

390

• Flavius Vegetius Renatus writes that Asian ponies have great hooked heads, protruding eyes, narrow nostrils, broad jaws, strong stiff necks, mane to their knees, over-large ribs, curved backs, bushy tails, cannon-like bones of great strength, small pasterns, wide-spreading hooves, hollow loins, bodies angular all over with no fat on the rump or muscles of the back, their stature inclined to length rather than height, the belly down, the bones huge. The very thinness of these horses is pleasing, however, and there is beauty even in their ugliness. He also states that the superiority of the Cappadocian horse for chariots is renowned, with an equal prize (or one very close) in the Circus going to the Spanish horse. Sicily produces horses not inferior to these for the Circus, and Africa is accustomed to offer swift horses of Spanish blood. Persia in all its provinces has horses that excel for saddle use, and supplies horses valued at the worth of ancestral states, soft and energetic to ride, of great value because of the excellence of their step.

394

• Alaric, a young Visigoth noble in service to the Romans, leads his cavalry against the Huns, successfully driving them back.

396

• The Huns raid Armenia, looking for horses and riches.

400

• Two Roman legions, eight elite cavalry vexillations (equites), six regular cavalry units, and five infantry cohorts are in the Middle East under the command of the dux Arabiae.

406–453

• Attila the Hun possesses one of the greatest mounted armies in history.

410

• Alaric and his Visigoth army ride into Rome on August 24 after ravaging the countryside from Greece to Italy. The Visigoths take good horses to replace their steppe horses, which by now are becoming rare because of constant fighting.
• The Romans leave England.

415

• Gunderic, king of the Vandals, Alans, and Suevi, arrives in southern Spain with the permission of the Roman emperor. The province is renamed Vandalusia.

425

• Vandals destroy Cartagena.

428

• Vandals (80,000) cross out of Spain into North Africa at the request of Roman warlord Bonifatius and land near Tangier, bringing Spanish horses and cattle with them.
• Visigoths are fighting for control of Spain.

Mosaic from a Vandal villa

439

• Utica and Carthage fall to Vandals. Appaloosas and gaited horses appear in Vandal art.

440

• The White Huns, also called the Hephthalites, invade Central Asia and capture Sogdiana. The Heavenly Horses of Ferghana are now in their hands. This event places the first true Mongolian horses in Central Asia. (Attila was consolidating all the steppe horse tribes, and this move may have been intended to avoid subjugation to him).
• Theodosius II, emperor of Rome, passes laws that limit saddle weights to 60 pounds, and saddlebags to 35 pounds. To disobey this law meant the equipment would be confiscated. Imperial horses do not begin their training until age six and must be retired at twenty.

450

• Theodosius, who loves horses so much that he passed laws to protect them, falls off of his own mount and dies.
• Honoraria, sister of Emperor Valentinian III, sends a love letter to Attila the Hun. He ravages the western empire, insisting that she be handed over to him. Steppe horses are deep in Western Europe.
• The Anglo-Saxons invade England. According to legend, they are led by Hengist (stallion) and Horsa (horse), a tale similar to the ancient Indo-European story of immortal twins. This move may have been encouraged by Attila’s presence.

451

• Romans under General Aetius and the Visigoths led by King Theodoric defeat the Huns at the Battle of Chalons or Caralaunian Fields. The Visigoth cavalry makes the difference in the outcome. King Theodoric dies during a cavalry charge. The surviving Visigoths and their families leave for Spain.

453

• Attila the Hun dies on his wedding night, either of a stroke or murdered by his German bride (he had killed her father). The Huns for the most part leave Europe and return to the Steppe.

454

• The Goths drive the Huns out of Pannonia (Hungary).

469

• With the death of their king, Dengizik, the Huns disappear from history.

484

• Akshshunwar leads his White Huns against the Sassanids and kills Shah Peroz in battle. This gives them control of Merv and Herot.

490

• The White Huns invade India and destroy the Gupta Empire by 535.

518

• Justinian comes to throne in Constantinople; he sets up imperial stud in Bythnia for Nisean horses and begins a policy of giving horses to the Arabs to kill Persians. The Persians retaliate in kind. (One pro-Persian Arab named al-Mundhir bragged about sacrificing 1,000 Christian virgins to his gods.) Horse racing is very important in Constantinople.

Roman racing team – The Reds

529

• Samaritans, fanatical racehorse breeders, revolt against Rome and are crushed. Most of their horses go to pro-Christian Palestinians.

530

• The last Roman troops leave the Middle East, bringing an end to limes Arabicus, the desert frontier of the Roman province of Arabia Petraea. Protection of the region is now in the hands of the Ghassanids, a Christian Arab tribe led by Al-Harith. (Some of the ruined Roman forts are spectacular; the one in Jordan is particularly haunting and well preserved.)

533

• The Roman war against the Vandals begins, and the largest-ever Roman cavalry lands in North Africa (Tunisia). The Byzantine cataphract is a forerunner of the Age of Chivalry. Six hundred Hun horsemen are also present. The Vandals are demolished. Gelimar and surviving fighters go to live with sympathetic Berbers for a year. Berber horses are freshened by their horses’ blood. Gelimar may have owned a leopard stallion (works of art indicate that a powerful Vandal leader had one). The Berbers call themselves the Amazighe—Proud Raiders.

534

• Utica is captured by Byzantines from Vandal sympathizers.

535

• Berbers fight Byzantines and lose.
• Krakatoa erupts in the South Pacific. Ten years of brutal winters follow, killing thousands of horses on the Central Asian steppes and destroying many horse cultures. The Avars move east and do not recover until they reach the Crimean region of Russia. The Romans record only four hours of light each day. Plague returns. Three hundred thousand people die in Constantinople alone.

548

• General John Toglita suppresses a Berber revolt and brings the Berbers into the Roman military. Their cavalry becomes a supplemental unit of the Roman cavalry.

551

• A Byzantine cataphract under General Lucius helps Athanagild become king of the Visigoths; he cedes Andalusia to the Byzantines, whose capital is at Seville. For almost a hundred years the Byzantines control this part of Spain. Seville is the brightest city in the West and learning there is at its zenith. A stud farm for warhorses is established at Seville, based on Roman battle stallions crossed with the best local mares.

555

• The Ostrogoths pass through the Tyrol valleys in an attempt to get away from the Byzantines. According to legend, the horses that could not complete the trip were left behind and became the ancestors of the Haflinger pony.

561

• Persian king Chosroes II, allied with Istemi, Khan of the Western Turks, whose capital was in the Altais, and India, mercilessly destroys the White Huns. The Turks get Sogdiana as their part of the conquest. This is the first confirmed date for spotted horses in the Altais—citations before then are speculative.

580

• Emperor Maurice Tiberius publishes a manual (strategikon) that makes stirrups a requirement.

584

• Cordoba, the last Byzantine possession in Spain, falls to the Visigoths.

599

• The Avars are in Europe. They murder 12,000 Byzantine prisoners because Emperor Maurice will not ransom them. The Avars are gathering huge numbers of horses, cattle, and slaves in their raids.

600

• St. Isidore, archbishop of Spain, writes Laudies Hispanie, in which he says, “The Iberian horse is the best in the world.”

610–620

• General Shahbaraz begins the second Persian conquest of Egypt, going as far as Libya. Egyptian textiles from that period show beautiful Persian horses with wings. This is the last time the great horse of Persia is known in Africa.

618

• The T’ang dynasty in China becomes obsessed with Persian great horses and polo. Palominos and appaloosas are given imperial blessings. The breed is called either T’ien ma (Heavenly Horse) or Soulon (i.e., Sulong, Vegetarian Dragon), and gait is encouraged because neither stirrups nor scalae are available.

Tang Dynasty horse

620

• The Norsemen invade Ireland.

624

• The Prophet Mohammed and his followers attack Sabatean caravans and Jewish settlers, the Banu Qainuqa, in Arabia. Mohammed loved horses, and his favorite is named Os Koub, the Torrent. Bays are his favorite color.

636

• Muslims take Mamshit and the Nabatean-Roman breeding farm located there.

651

• Sassanid shah Yazdgerd III is captured and killed by Arab Muslims. Surviving Persians flee to China (Tang dynasty), taking many imperial horses with them.
• The Tang dynasty adopts polo and plays it to the exclusion of almost any other activity, leading ultimately to a crisis of power.

693

• Al-Kahina, Berber queen and daughter of Tabat, chief of the Jarawa tribe of the Aures Mountains, is killed leading her people in battle against the Arabs in Algeria. Her deeds are recorded by Ibn Khaldun.

697

• Carthage, famous for the quality of its horses, is destroyed by the Arabs.

700

• Utica is destroyed by Arabs, and Berbers are forced to convert to Islam or die. By the end of the eighth century almost all Christian communities in North Africa are destroyed.

711

• The Berber Tarek, with the help of the Byzantine governor of Ceuta, whose daughter had been raped by Roderick, king of the Visigoths, crosses the straits and invades Spain from three boats. Visigoth nobles, who do not support Roderick, throw the battle to his enemies.
• Muhammad Bin Qasim invades northern India with the Sind, founding Pakistan. The Sind acquire one type of Tocharian horse.

718

• Relayo is elected king of the Visigoths in Asturia and defeats the Muslim army at Alcma. The cataphract is successful against the invaders.

720–722

• The Sogdians, breeders of a particularly fine line of Nisean referred to as the Heavenly Horses of Ferghana, rebel against the Muslim Omayads. After a long siege at Castle Mugh, the Arabs are victorious and crucify Devastich, the Sogdian leader. The Chinese abandon their forts in Sogdiana, and the surviving Sogdians return with them to China.

731–741

• Reign of Pope Gregory III, who bans the eating of horseflesh in Europe.

732

• Battle of Tours, in which Abderrahman leads Arab invaders into France, and is routed by Charles Martel. The Spanish cataphract helps Martel to victory and gives him the idea for armored knights.

751

• The Arabs defeat the Tang Chinese at the Battle of Talas.

776

• Empress Irene of Constantinople rescues the imperial stud in Bythnia from an Arab attack, using cavalry loyal to her, after a confrontation with the iconoclasts.

777

• Charlemagne invades Spain but is driven out by the Basques. Using Spanish and Byzantine horses, he lays the groundwork for the French Limousin breed.

780

• The artist Han Gan is active in China and is famous for his imperial horses.

A Groom and Two Horses by  Han Gan

791

• Charlemagne crushes the Avars. The best horses in Europe come to Aachen.

800

• Vikings colonize the Faroes Islands, bringing ponies with them.
• The Magyars, an Ugric people related to the Finns and Estonians, leave western Siberia and move toward Europe in search of better pastures for their horses.

844

• Vikings sack Lisbon and take horses as a part of the loot.

868

• The Mameluke Ahmad Ibn Tulun captures Egypt and builds a hippodrome for his best horses.

874–930

• Iceland is settled by Vikings. Icelandic horses come from Norway and Ireland (Dublin was the Viking capital in Ireland). The Irish horses were based on the gaited Spanish horses of Northern Spain, introduced 600 years B.C.E.

895

• Magyar horsemen arrive in Hungary and settle on the great central pasturelands. They become famous as horse and cattle breeders.

930

• Icelandic law (Althing) bans the importation of any more horses to the island kingdom after a nearly disastrous attempt to “improve” local horses with Eastern blood almost destroys them.

970

• Arabs lay waste to Tunisia.

988

• Basil II makes an alliance with Prince Vladamir of Kiev and gives his sister in marriage to him. Imperial horses are included in her dowry.

995

• Basil II, with 40,000 men on Byzantine mules, travels almost 1,000 miles in two weeks to relieve the siege of Antioch from Egyptian Muslims. After leaving Damianos Dalassonos as governor of Antioch, Basil II returns to his campaign in Bulgaria. His personal bodyguards are Varangians.

Icon of Basil II

997

• Istvan is crowned the first king of Hungary. Emperor Basil II of Constantinople sends him a jeweled crown and some valuable Byzantine horses.

1010

• Ferdowsi, whose real name is Abu Ol-qasem Mansur, translates the Khvataynamak, an ancient story of the Persian kings from mythical times to the reign of Chosroe II, into Persian, and names it the Shah-nameh.

Takh-e-Soleyman

1012

• Saxon Bishop Awlfwold of Creition mentions the Dartmoor in his will.

1040

• El Cid, the hero of Spain, is born.

1064

• Einsiedeln, the world’s oldest continuously running stud center, is opened in Switzerland. Benedictine monks had bred horses here a hundred years earlier.

1066

• William of Normandy invades England, bringing French warhorses.

1075

• Seljuk Turks capture the imperial stud of Bythnia and take the best horses with them.

1098

• The Crusaders take Jerusalem. Sir Godfrey’s two-day blood bath nets the crusaders Middle Eastern horses and mules.

1099

• Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, El Cid, dies in battle, but his lifeless body is carried toward the Moorish army by his stallion Babieca, causing the Moors to flee in panic.
• The Count of Rotrou, a returning French crusader, brings eastern horses back to France, Byzantine horses among the spoils.

1100–1135

• Henry I uses a Dartmoor stallion with his royal mares.
• The Age of Vikings comes to an end. Spotted horses appear in their art.

1134

• A riding academy is established in Naples, based on Byzantine riding principles, the first academy of classical horsemanship. Neapolitans prove to be excellent dressage horses.

A beautiful Neapolitan horse

1147

• In June, Anglo-Normans from Louis VII’s Second Crusade arrive in Portugal to help Alphonso I liberate Portugal. Spanish horses are taken back to Normandy.

1172

• Henry II begins the Norman invasion of Ireland and introduces Norman horses there. These horses add size to the local Celtic breeds.

1188

• The Welsh hills are full of semi-wild ponies.

1191

• Richard I, the Lion-Hearted King of England, marries Princess Berengia of Spain on Cyprus. Andalusian horses are a part of her dowry.

Statue of Richard I, Westminster by Carlo Marochetti

1201

• Traders in Devon, in southwest England, start using a clean-limbed draft horse for hauling goods. (The region abounds in words about horses.)

1206

• The Mongolian Temujin defeats his rival and becomes Genghis Khan, the Universal Ruler. His warhorse string consists of eight palomino geldings, called shargas. One of his breeding horses introduces the pacing gait into the Mongolian breed.

1216

• Horses are slaughtered at the funeral of King John

1222

• Genghis Khan’s western raid takes him through Persia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, and he spends the winter on the Caspian Sea.

Is this the face of Genghis Khan?

1223

• Genghis Khan fights Prince Mstitslav of Kiev at the Kalka River. The Mongolian cavalry routs the Russian army.

1225

• Genghis Khan, ruling from the saddle, reigns over all lands between the Caspian Sea and Korea.

Persian conquest by the Mongols

1227

• Genghis Khan, when a Taki spooks his horse, falls off his mount while leading an army against the Tangut in northern China, and dies. The Darkhad, elite Mongolian families, dedicate ceremonies and shrines in his honor to his eight palomino geldings and Ondogon Chagaan, the pure white stallion of the Eternal Blue Sky. Forty horses are sacrificed at his funeral.

Takis in a paddock

1240

• The Fourth Crusade brings about the sack of Constantinople by Norman and Venetian soldiers. The French Boulonaises and Percherons were improved at this time. Crusaders seeking to refine their horses cross them with surviving Persian horses.

1244

• On August 5, Edward I of England (Longshanks) marries Eleanor, Princess of Castile, in Spain. Andalusian horses form a part of her dowry.

1270

• King Louis of France campaigns in Tunisia. Royal Limousins are used in the French cavalry along with simpler French breeds. There is no evidence that French horses were lost.

1276

• Domestic Mongolian horses are introduced into Cheju Island, Korea.

1298

• Edward I purchases a spotted Welsh Cob from Robin Fitzpayne of Powys, Wales. It is one of the most expensive horses ever listed.

1301

• Ghazi Ozman, founder of the Ottoman dynasty, defeats Byzantine forces near Nicaea, once home of the Nisean stud. Turk cavalry out-maneuvers Greeks.

1309

• The Castilians capture Gibraltar from the Spanish Moors.

1314

• Robert the Bruce of Scotland is victorious against a larger English army at the Battle of Bannockburn. He is riding a Hebrides–Eriskay horse. (One myth has it that mounted Knights Templar aided him.)

1316

• Wild ponies are living in the area where the Dulmener pony now lives. (DNA testing shows that the Dulmener are an ancient breed.)

1325

• Ibn Battuta, a Berber from Fez, Morocco, begins his travels, and writes that the Turks have sent 6,000 horses at a time to the Sind in India (now Pakistan). Because food is scarce, the horses must be fed forage, but many still die or are stolen. The horses are used for warfare. When the Sind want racehorses, they import them from Yemen, Oman, and Fars in Persia; these horses are quite valuable.

1333

• The Moors take back Gibraltar.

1360

• Sir John Froissart in his Chronicles (originally in French) gives an illustration of a spotted chestnut cob.

1377

• Richard II becomes King of England at age. He abdicates in 1399 after losing two armies in Ireland. Shakespeare, in his play about the king, names his horse “Roan Barbary.” (Roan is not a common African Barb color.) Richard II’s murder in 1400 was the first casualty in the War of the Roses.

1378

• Horses are slaughtered at the funeral of Holy Roman Emperor Karl IV.

1421

• Admiral Cheng Ho (Zheng He) and the Chinese Starfleet, the largest fleet on any sea, stops at the Arab port of Hormuz and purchases horses for the Chinese emperor.

1453

• Constantinople falls to the Turks. Turkish art from Persia and Constantinople shows that the imperial horse still survived. Turks liked to depict heroes riding leopard appaloosas, perhaps a Turkish version of Rakush.

1458

• On October 23, the Portuguese capture Morocco from the Moors. Morocco becomes a Spanish colony after Phillip II becomes king of Portugal and Spain. Andalusians, a magnificent breed with great color, are used.

1462

• Spain captures Gibraltar, and the Moors never get it back.

1474–1516

• Isabella and Ferdinand begin the final war to take Spain entirely from the Moors. Palominos in Spain are called Golden Isabellas.

Queen Isabella on a pinto horse

1476

• The Carthusian monastery of Jerez de la Frontera starts breeding horses.

1492

• Spain is completely liberated from the Moors.
• Columbus enters the Americas.

1494

• Columbus takes 24 stallions and 10 mares to Hispaniola.

1495

• Fourteen mares arrive on Hispaniola, and 106 more arrive from Seville and other places later. Columbus notifies the rulers of Spain that they ought to send mares with every ship to the New World. Four Spanish caravels leave Spain for the New World, each carrying six brood mares on board. Four jacks and two jennies are also part of the cargo.

1498

• Forty horses and horsemen arrive with Columbus’ third voyage.

1500

• The Spanish crown possesses a ranch with 60 mares on Hispanola.
• Pedro Alvares Cabral discovers Brazil, claiming it for Portugal.
• Beginning in the 1500s and ending in the 1600s, the Kalmyks, descendants of Genghis Khan, settle between the Volga and Don Rivers, bringing their Mongolian-type horses and cattle with them.

1501

• Don Nicholas de Ovando arrives on Hispanola with 18 of his best horses.

1502

• Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon arrives on Hispanola to act as a judge.
• On September 18, Columbus leaves 52 Jewish families in Costa Rica; some horses and cattle are left with them.

1505

• The Portuguese build garrisons on the Moroccan coast in an effort to take it from the Muslims. Nobles ride well-bred Spanish horses.

1508

• Ferdinand of Spain joins the League of Cambrai, which returns Apulia to Spain, along with southern Italy, the port of Brindisi, and Sardinia, where he founds an Andalusian stud at Abbasanta. Several other Andalusian studs follow. Italian horses receive a heavy dose of Spanish blood, particularly Neapolitan.
• Spain colonizes Puerto Rico, home of the Paso Fino horse.

1509

• In May, Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Isabella and Ferdinand, marries Henry VIII and becomes Queen of England. Andalusian horses are a wedding present. Henry also imports six Spanish racehorses.
• The Spanish capture the Algerian port of Oran. Spanish conquistador Cortez participates in this raid, intended to rid the Mediterranean of Muslim pirates.

1510

• Spain captures Tripoli and Bougie and establishes a fort on the island of Penon overlooking the harbor of Tripoli. Spain does not control the main land of Algeria, but only what goes in and out by sea. Piracy is the premier business in Algeria, where thousands of Christian slaves are imprisoned until they can be disposed of in the Turkish Empire.

1511

• Diego Velasquez conquers Cuba and becomes its first governor.

1514

• Pedro Arias de Avila, nearly 70 years old, leaves Spain with the largest expedition ever bound for the New World: 19 ships and 1,500 men, plus horses for his cavalry. He reaches Santa Maria, Columbia, and goes to Darien to see Balboa.

1518

• Ottomans take control of Algeria at the request of the local people, whom the Spanish boycott is hurting. Turkish horses are not imported in any real numbers as local animals are accessible.

1519–1530

• Hernando de Soto explores Central America

1520

• On March 30, the king of Spain declares an embargo on the exportation of Spanish horses to the Americas.

1521

• Hernando Cortez arrives in Mexico with 19 horses, among them his black stallion El Morzillo.
• Lucas de Ayllon captures a Seoux Indian near Winyaw Bay, South Carolina, and takes him back to Spain as proof that such exist.
• Francisco Gordillo, on orders from de Ayllon, sails up the coast to Cape Feare in North Carolina, and captures 60 people, but most die before reaching Cuba. He loses some horses on the beaches.
• Ponce de Leon tries to colonize Florida with 200 men and 50 horses from Puerto Rico. No one knows exactly where he tries to build his fort, but attacks by natives force him to withdraw. A number of men are killed. De Leon dies after reaching Havana, Cuba. The horses are left behind.

1523

• Wild horses are reported on the banks of North Carolina.

1524

• Pedro de Alvarado invades El Salvador and introduces the horse there.

1526

• Lucas de Ayllon tries to settle a colony at Cape Feare (then called Cape Lookout) in the Carolinas. Many of the 89 horses with him are left behind when the colony is abandoned after de Ayllon dies. The colony moves to Winyaw Bay, South Carolina.
• King Louis II of Hungary uses a Friesian stallion at the Battle of Mohacs against the Turks.

1527

• Phillip II is born to Charles V of Spain and Isabella of Portugal. In his adulthood, he becomes obsessed with breeding the perfect Spanish horse.

1528

• Cabeza de Vaca arrives with 42 horses in south Florida, but has lost almost as many during a storm.
• The Knights of St. John form a garrison at Tripoli under the auspices of Charles V. They use only the best Andalusian horses.

1529

• The first livestock association, for breeders of horses, cattle and sheep, is formed in Mexico City.

1530

• Archbishop Olaus Magnus mentions the Dole-Gudbrandsdals breed.

1531

• Francisco Pizzaro leaves Jamaica with 180 men and 37 horses, at least 25 of them stallions. Accompanied by Hernando de Soto, he destroys the Incan Empire.
• Twelve jennies and two jacks are shipped to Mexico for mule breeding.

1534–1535

• Cortez explores Lower California (he dies at Seville in 1547).
•  Spain captures Tunis and makes the Hafsid ruler a vassal of Charles V.

1535

• Pedro de Mendoza founds Argentina. The Criollo is descended from the horses introduced at this time.
• Francisco Pizzaro founds Lima, Peru, where he is murdered.
• Henry VIII orders all ponies under 13 hands to be killed.
• French draft horses are introduced into the Scottish Highlands to increase the size of the native ponies. (Spanish horses are also used by some of the clans.)

1537

• Charles V of Spain names Hernando de Soto governor of Cuba and Florida.

1539

• De Soto, with 600 men, arrives in Florida near Tampa Bay. He has either 237 or 350, depending on the historian consulted.

1540

• Francisco Coronado travels in New Mexico, looking for the legendary Seven Cities of Gold. The expedition includes 1,500 horses and mules. (Coronado is at this time governor of New Galacia, Mexico—today the districts of Sinaloa and Nayarit.)
• DeSoto meets the Chickasaw and is almost killed by them in a fight over pigs. (The Chickasaw do not want the Spanish horses at this time.)
• The first horse race in the New World is held on December 27 between Rodrigo Maldonado and Francisco Vazquez de Coronado. Coronado falls off his horse and is hit in the head by Maldonado’s horse.

1541

• Hernando de Soto is the first European to see the Mississippi River. During the winter of 1541 and 1542, he and his men camp at the junction of the Canadian and Arkansas River in Oklahoma. On May 24 de Soto dies and is buried in the Mississippi River. Indian raids had cost him men; more than likely some horses got loose.
• The first Spanish horses arrive in Chile, brought from Peru by Pedro de Valdivia; they are descended from Pizzaro’s animals.
• Viceroy Mendoza in Mexico mounts Aztec chieftains on horseback for the first time, to help them lead their troops in the Mixtos War of Central America.

1544

• Father Rodrigo Gonzalez Marmolejo is the first breeder of horses in Chile (Nuevo Toledo). Mapuche Indians aggressively defend their lands, eventually acquiring Spanish horses and becoming formidable opponents.

1546

• The Indian hero Pratap Singh I of Mewar battles the Mogul ruler Akbar at Haldi Ghati near Udaipur, India. Chetak, the hero’s prized stallion, repeatedly leaps up so that his owner can shoot arrows into the carriage of a sword-swinging elephant. Although he has lost part of his leg, the valiant stallion carries his owner to safety, even making a great leap over a gorge, before dying in Singh’s arms.

The great stallion Chetak

1547

• Antoni de Mendoza, governor of New Spain, has over 1,500 horses on 11 haciendas.

1548–1572

• King Sigmund Augustus of Poland keeps Arabians at Kayszn.

1549

• On March 29, Toma de Sousa creates Brazil’s first capital at Salvador.

1550

• Portuguese royalty assert control over Brazil and the island of Timor.
• Morocco regains its independence from Spain. Ceuta remains in Spanish hands.

1551

• The Ottomans finally drive the Christian knights out of Tripoli.

1554

• Philip II of Spain marries Mary Tudor, Queen of England, a political marriage that permits some Spanish influence in English politics.

1555

• Villegaignon of France establishes a colony in Brazil in the area of modern Rio de Janeiro. French horses and ponies are introduced.

1557

• Garcia Hurtado de Mendoza, the new governor of Chile, arrives with 42 well-bred horses from the herds of the Guzmanes and Valenzuelas.

1558

• Elizabeth I ascends the English throne and dedicates herself to fighting the Spanish. (Barbed comments now accompany all references to Spanish horses.) She repeals her father’s law legislating the death of small horses.

1560

• Queen Elizabeth I and her Master of the Horse, Lord Robert Dudley, spend so much time riding the Irish racers he imports (English horses are too slow), that many of her ministers complain that the affairs of state are being neglected.

1562

• King Frederick II establishes the Royal Fredericksburg Stud of Denmark, using Andalusians and Neapolitans.

1565

• On August 28, Pedro Mendez de Aviles, with 11 ships and 2,000 soldiers and settlers, founds St. Augustine on the site of a Timucuan Indian village. Some horses and cattle are there at this time, and trade with Cuba brings in more. Mendez destroys a nearby French settlement.

1566–1567

• Juan Pardo leads an expedition through North and South Carolina. He is the first to mention the Iswa (Catawba) Indians.
• The Spanish settle on Cumberland Island, which they call San Pedro, and build a fort and presidio, and introduce horses.

1566–1576

• Pedro Menendez de Aviles establishes a Spanish colony at Santa Elena, South Carolina. (The wild island ponies are descended from his stock.)

1567

• Phillip II of Spain decides to breed the perfect Spanish horse, and 1,200 mares are selected for this project. They are crossed with only the finest Neapolitans, a closely related breed that had been heavily crossed with Andalusians during the time of Ferdinand. Jerez de la Frontera is not a part of this breeding program, although later one of their best “Carthusian” stallions is actually one of Philip’s.

1567–1570

• Phillip II of Spain wages war against the Moriscoes—Muslims still living in Spain and supposed to be plotting to return the Arabs to the country. This action was brought about by the earlier liberation of Morocco from the Moors.

1568

• Spanish farmers and artisans along with horses and cattle arrive at Santa Elena.

1570

• Menendez attempts to settle along the Chesapeake Bay (Fort Axacan). The expedition, led by Fathers Seguara and Louis Quiro, is betrayed by a converted Indian. All Spaniards are killed.

1571

• The Spanish capture Tripoli, a city synonymous with piracy. The English import horses from this region.
• Mendez sends an expedition to punish the attackers; the fort is recaptured and the Indians hung. Spanish horses from the failed colony are loose in the area.

1572

• The first foals of Phillip II’s project—to develop the perfect Spanish horse—are born and exceed all expectations. Philip decides to save these animals for his own use and to present them as gifts to other royals. Highly colored, they are elegant, with an elevated gait, and capable of performing the difficult “Airs above the Ground.”

1573

• The Marbach Stud in Wurttemberg is founded by Ludwig von Wirtemberg. It is now the oldest state-owned German stud.

1574

• The Ottomans take Tripoli.

1576

• A French ship is wrecked off Port Royal Sound.
• The first Noriker stud in Schloz Rief near Hallein, Austria, is established.

An extremely rare leopard Noriker

1580

• The population of settlers at Santa Elena numbers 400. Gutierre de Miranda has a sizable estate in the area that included well-bred horses.
• King Sebastian of Portugal dies after the Battle of the Three Kings, during his failed attempt to overthrow the Sultan of Morocco (1578) at Qasr-al-Kabir. This places a large Iberian cavalry in Morocco. With Sebastian’s defeat, many Iberian horses were left behind.
• Phillip II of Spain becomes the ruler of Portugal.
• A settlement, which includes Andalusian horses, is established at Buenos Aires.
• Ceuta in North Africa is taken from the Portuguese by the Spanish, who still control it.

1583

• Archduke Charles of Austria takes select Andalusians to Lipizza.

1585

• On June 6, Sir Richard Grenville purchases Spanish stallions and mares for Roanoke colony from the Spanish governor of Haiti.

1586

• Francis Drake attacks and destroys St. Augustine, Florida. Surviving cattle and horses become wild. St. Elena is abandoned, and all personnel and supplies are sent to St. Augustine, which is salvaged and reinforced.
• William Camden mentions the horses of Suffolk in his Britannia.

1590–1610

• Spanish-induced plague wipes out 70 to 90 percent of Native American population in the southeastern United States.

1592–1676

• English riding master William Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, is alive at this period. He unsuccessfully tries to introduce classical riding into England. A famous painting of him shows him riding a dark chestnut Andalusian at the levade. He is quoted as saying, “The Andalusian is the noblest horse in the world.” He supports the Stuarts against Cromwell and instructed Charles II in horsemanship in France.

1593

• Privateer Hawkins attacks Buenos Aires.

1600

• Volcanic eruption in Peru produces a severe winter in England.

1604

• M. L’Escarbot imports horses from Normandy and Brittany into Acadia (Nova Scotia). Norman horses are famous as hardy trotters.

1607

• The Jamestown colony is settled by the English near the site of de Ayllon’s failed colony. Eight English-bred horses are included.

1609–1614

• Spanish Moriscoes arrive in Algeria and Tunisia.
• The Spanish pilot Ecija reports that Jamestown Colony is near de Ayllon’s failed colony.

1610

• Sante Fe, New Mexico, is founded and becomes an important trading center for Spanish horses brought from Mexico. According to the University of Calgary, Canadian Blackfoot Indians travel as far as Santa Fe to obtain these horses. (El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro extended 1,550 miles from Mexico City to San Juan Pueblo, just outside Santa Fe.)

1611

• The Spanish ally themselves with the Tuscarora on the Carolina coast. The Tuscarora keep horses as pack animals.

1612

• Horses are shipped to Acadia (Nova Scotia) from France.

1615

• The Dutch of the West Indian Company build Fort Orange on Castle Island near modern-day Albany, New York, and trade firearms and trinkets for beaver and otter pelts.

1616–1619

• A smallpox epidemic in New England wipes out between 30,000 and 300,000 Native Americans.

1616

• Samuel Argall of Virginia raids Acadia (now Nova Scotia) for French horses.

1620

• Twenty English mares are brought to Jamestown, Virginia.

1621–1623

• Spain occupies Flanders, and Spanish horses are used to improve the Flanders line.

1623

• In June, New Amsterdam is recognized as a province of the Netherlands. The first settlers were the French-speaking Walloons.

1624

• The Dutch West India Company sends more settlers to the New World, supplying them with horses, land, and cattle, including Friesian horses.
• Classical dressage is being taught in Italy. Powerful Neapolitan stallions perform the “Airs above the Ground” between pillars.
• Friesian horses are sent to royal stud in Prussia by Prince George William.
• The last jousting tournament in England is held.

1625

• Flemish horses are imported into New Amsterdam.

1628

• Shah Jahan, Moghul ruler of India, founds the city of Jahanabad. Paintings show him and his sons mounted on colorful, gaited Marwaris.

The sons of Shah Jahan

1629

• Francis Higgonson, a Puritan minister, imports 25 mares and stallions from Leicestershire, England, into Salem, Massachusetts, arriving on June 29. A stallion and seven mares arrive later that year.

1630

• A few English stallions arrive at Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

1632

• Several different French breeds are shipped to Acadia.

1634

• Percheron Postiers are taken to Canada by Robert Giffard.

1635

• Dutch ships bring 27 Flemish mares and three stallions to Salem, Massachusetts.

1637–1641

• The Spanish raid Ute villages for slaves, many of whom escape and take horses back to their homes with them.
• Spanish and Portuguese unity ends.

1640–1880

• This is the era of the Indian horse culture on the Great Plains.

1643

• The Dutch living in New Amsterdam reported having a large number of horses.

1647

• A well-bred French stallion of an unknown breed is sent to Quebec.

1648

• Oliver Cromwell’s army, the roundheads, break the Royalist line at the Battle of Marston Moor. The Duke of Newcastle, a famous English horseman, leads a section of Charles I’s cavalry. Newcastle goes into exile in France, where he teaches horsemanship to Prince Charles, later Charles II.

1650

• William Smith of Ireland is defeated in battle by Cromwell and deported to the Virginia. He brings with him 21 Irish horses whose lineage can be traced back to the Andalusians bred by his grandfather, Sir Francis Bryan.
• Reports indicate that wild Spanish horses abound in the Virginia colony.

1653

• Horses from Java are shipped to South Africa.

1654

• Sixteen horses are hitched to a vacuum sphere and fail to pull it apart.

1658

• The British establish a consulate in Tripoli and export horses to England.
• The Flyinge Stud of Sweden is opened by Charles X of Sweden.

1660

• The Iroquois drive the Shawnee out of their ancestral homelands into lands adjoining the Cherokee and Chickasaw, notable because it was the Shawnee who gave the Chickasaw their first horses, and the Chickasaw horse plays a role in the creation of the Quarterhorse (Tennessee Walker and American Saddlebred).
• Peleg Sanford and Bros. are shipping goods and horses from Boston and Newport to Barbados.
• Gervase Markham writes that the Scottish Galloways are tough, finely shaped ponies that are easy-paced are as good as any other pony breed.
• Charles II brings horseracing back to England.

1664

• Peter Stuyvesant surrenders New Netherlands to the British.

1665

• Louis XIV sends two stallions and 20 mares to Quebec; eight mares die en route.
• Horseracing, America’s first organized sport, is introduced on Long Island. Narragansett Pacers are popular at this time in America. (Irish Hobbies played a part in their creation.) Wild Spanish horses are extremely common.

1667

• Count Anton Gunther von Oldenburg dies; he created the Oldenburg horse, based on Spanish, Neapolitan , and Friesian horses.

1668

• The treaty of Aix-Chapelle ends the French occupation of the Spanish Netherlands. Spain regained Cambrai, Aire, Saint Omer, Franche-Comte, and Flanders.

1670

• The French encounter the Shawnee on the Cumberland River while the French are trading Spanish horses for deer hides and slaves. This is Cherokee country, but the Cherokee are using the Shawnee as buffers between themselves and the Chickasaw and Catawba.
• The king of France sends one stallion and eleven mares to Quebec.
• Narragansett Pacers are being bred chiefly for export to the West Indies.
• The English settle Charleston, South Carolina, at the mouth of the Ashley River.
• The formation of the Hudson Bay Company leads to conflicts between the French and English.

1671

• The Danish Tiger Horse is popular in Europe.

Danish Tiger Horse

1673

• Marquette and Joliet, French explorers, report that the Chickasaw are living on the bluffs over Memphis, Tennessee.

1674

• The British encounter the Shawnee, who are serving to buffer the Cherokee from the Catawba, on the Savannah River.
• The Spanish establish a mission for the Chatot Indians, who are related to the Choctaw, west of the Apalachicola River in Florida. The Mission keeps horses and cattle; Cracker horses and cattle can be traced back to these days.
• Plymouth Colony bans racing horses in the town streets.
• The first “quarter miler” horse race is run in Enrico County, Virginia.

1675

• A Spanish priest in Florida warns the settlers against the fearsome “Chata,” or Choctaw. The Choctaw take Spanish horses.
• Roland Robinson purchases land from the Narragansett Indians in Pettaquamscutt and Port Judith, Rhode Island. (No mention is made of wild horses.)
• La Pie, a bay sabino Limousin mare with a bald face, owned by Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne, continues to charge the Austrian lines at Baden-Baden even though her rider is dead.
• A jeweler named Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, Baron of Aubonne, visits Shah Aurangseb, the second son of Shah Jahan, and reports that his horses, imported from Arabia and Persia, each cost between 3,000 to 10,000 ecus. Each horse has its own groom and is forced to eat a mixture of wheat flour and butter.

1676

• Narragansett Indians (500 women and children) are shipped to the West Indies.

1680

• The Pueblo Revolt takes place in New Mexico, led by the Indian Popé. Spanish colonists are driven out of Santa Fe. Comanches acquire their horses, probably from the Utes.
• Sleepy Hollow, New York, is settled by Frederick Philippe of Holland, and Dutch horses are in use there.

Comanche on horseback

1682

• Contact is made between the French and Chickasaw Indians, in which the latter help the French look for a lost man. The French supply the Chickasaw with Spanish horses.

1683

• A black Spanish stallion named Superbe is imported to the Fredericksborg Stud and is used to improve the quality of the Danish Tiger Horse.

1685

• James II of England gives the Appleby Fair a royal charter to sell cows, horses, and goods— the fair is still going strong.
• Lion- d’Angers Stud in France is founded by Colbert.

1686

• Robert Cavalier, Sieur de La Salle, French explorer, acquires five horses from the Caddo Indians in Texas.
• Colonel Nathaniel Byfield ships Narragansett Pacers to French Guiana, South America, on the Bristol Merchant.
• Laws are passed in Scheswig-Holstein, Germany to encourage the breeding of high quality horses.
• The Spanish abandon Cumberland Island and their horses to the English.

1687

• William Penn of Pennsylvania enacts a law that any horse under 13 hands at 18 months must be gelded.

1688

• Capt. Robert Byerley captures a dark brown charger at the Siege of Budda, Hungary. The horse becomes known as the Byerley Turk.

The Byerley Turk

1689

• Henri de Tonti, looking for LaSalle, writes about the Caddo horses.
• On May 3, Fray Massanet convinces one Capt. De Leon to give the chief of the Tejas Indians a horse in the interests of peace. (De Leon wants to attack them for destroying the fort of Guadalupe and killing all the men there.)

1690

• The Battle of Boyne is fought in Ireland. King William imports 1,000 horses, many of them Dutch drafts. Sixteen horses are required to pull each of his 40 Dutch cannons. The Irish cavalry is under the command of Viceroy Tyrconnell. The Byerley Turk is in this battle.

1692

• Diego de Vargas returns to Santa Fe with colonists and horses.

1693

• The Chickasaw come into contact with the French. Many of the Scots from Charleston marry Chickasaw women.

1694

• The Sultan of Morocco attacks Ceuta and begins a 26-year siege; inhabitants of Ceuta want to remain part of Spain. Spanish horses are shipped into Africa from Ceuta.

1695–1705

• English slave-traders raid the Chatot villages; horses and mules would have been taken as well. Creeks also attack the mission.

1697

• Richard Minshull of Buckingham, England, has his bloodstock horses seized by the government because he is Catholic.

1698

• Henry Curwen imports two Barb stallions from the court of Louis XIV, horses that had been presented to the French king by the king of Morocco. Curwen sells one to John Parsons and keeps one, whose pedigree shows up in some modern Thoroughbreds. He may also have imported an Arabian mare.

1699

• Pierre le Moyne establishes the first French settlement in Mississippi at Biloxi, and Iberville is also founded. The Choctaw become French allies, which they remain for 65 years.
• King William III’s studmaster goes to Morocco and returns to England with five mares and nine stallions. Moonah Barb’s dam, one of the founding dams of the Thoroughbred, is in this group.

1700

• The Comanche (who called themselves Nemene—the People) separate from the Eastern Shoshoni and move south out of Wyoming. They remain trading partners with the Shoshoni. sending slaves and Spanish horses northward.
• The Chickasaw are living in the area around Tombigbee River, Mississippi.
• Until 1711, John Lawson explores the coast of North Carolina and reports that the Indians (Tuscarora) feed maize to their horses and use them to pack game home, but do not ride them.
• A painting of Cortez’s arrival is made, showing the different horses introduced into the New World. Clearly visible are bays, pintos, and leopard appaloosas.

1704

• The Darley Arabian arrives in England from Syria.

The Darley Arabian

1706

• French Government sends agent to the Levant to buy horses; he is ordered not to buy Egyptian horses as they lack “bottom” and “spirit.”

1708

• Algerian troops take Oran from the Spanish, who have controlled the region for almost 300 years.

1710–1713

• The Tuscarora declare war on the English, who have been preying upon them for slaves. The Tuscarora are defeated and move north to join the Oneida.

1711

• Queen Anne has the racecourse at Ascot—purchased for 558 pounds—laid out.

1715

• The Cherokee join up with the Chickasaw, who are both pro–British, to fight the Shawnee, who are pro–French, at Nashville, one of the main Shawnee camps.
• The royal stud of Le Pin is established in France; Limousin horses are bred there.

1716

• The Comanche drive the Jicarilla Apache into the mountains of northern New Mexico
• William Robinson, future governor of Rhode Island, finds wild horses at Point Judith. Old Snip, foundation sire of the Narragansett Pacer, is among them.
• Captain Hutton ships 45 Narragansett Pacers to Barbados.

1717

• The French supply horses to the Caddo to help fight against Chickasaw raids.

1718

• Mission San Antonio de Valero, Texas, is founded. Many of the original Spanish settlers come from the Canary Islands. Horses are brought into Texas from Mexico.
• Maryland passes a law that all stray horses will be shot on sight.

1719

• The first recorded Comanche raid into New Mexico for Spanish horses takes place.

1720

• The Spanish expedition out of Taos, New Mexico, takes place, with the object of investigating rumors that French traders on the plains are being annihilated by Indians, probably Pawnee.
• Sardinia passes from Spanish control into that of the House of Savoy, and horse breeding declines.

1722

• The Tuscarora, called the “Little Brothers of the Oneida,” become the sixth nation in the Iroquois Conference.
• The Duke of Lancaster purchases a gray Arabian stallion from a Mr. Alcock, hence the stallion’s name, the Alcock Arabian. Although he died the next year, having sired only five foals, he was responsible for the gray color in the Thoroughbred.

1723

• War between the Comanche, Ute and Apache reaches its climax. The Spanish allies of the Apache are unable to find the Comanche or Ute.
• One group of Shawnee settles on the Savannah River, invited by the British.

1724

• French traders are in southern Kansas, trading pistols to the Comanche for Spanish horses and mules.
• Battle at Great Mountain of Iron results in a devastating defeat for the Apache
• Cayuse Indians acquire their first horses of Spanish descent from the Snake Indians of Utah.

1725

• Nathan Harrison imports an Arabian stallion into the United States.
• The mare David, foundation ancestress of the Senner breed, is foaled. The breed exists near Paderborn, Germany, and DNA tests show a link to the Arabian.

1727

• George Hamilton creates his famous painting of the mares at Lipizza, beautiful animals that include blacks, browns, bays, duns, palominos, and appaloosas.

1729

• Godolphin Barb is imported from France into Great Britain by Edward Coke. Legend says he was found pulling a water cart in Paris, and that he battled Hobgoblin for the mare Roxanne. (This was told in the early 1800s, about 40 years after his death, by people who had known him. Although now called an Arabian, his true pedigree is unknown and his conformation can be found only in two existing breeds, Welsh cobs and Colonial Spanish.)
• Louis XV (1715–1774) becomes king of France, and the ruler of Tunisia presents him with horses.

The Godolphin Barb

1730

• Samuel Gist imports Bull Rock, the first Thoroughbred to come America.
• On April 3, Sir Alexander Cuming oversees a ceremony making Chief Moytoy of the Cherokee, emperor of the Cherokee, on behalf of George II, at Franklin, North Carolina.
• Blackfoot Indians acquire their horses.

1731

• Comanches steal horses from the Presidio of San Antonio de Bejar.

1732

• Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia opens the Royal Trakehner Stud.

1734

• A fire at the imperial Spanish stables at Cordoba kills many valuable animals. The king replaces them with horses from the Jesuits.
• Horse racing exists in the Carolinas.

1735

• William Robinson of Narragansett, Rhode Island, imports two Andalusians from Spain to improve the Narragansett horses running wild on his property; he ships horses to Cuba and the West Indies.

1736

• Mares sired by Esclavo (a gray, and the foundation sire of the Carthusian line and a King Phillip stallion) are given to the Carthusian monks to settle a debt of Don Pedro Picado.

1737

• The Rev. Andrew Le Mercier of Boston sends the first horses to Sable Island to graze.

1738

• French fur trapper Pierre Gaultier de La Verendrye reaches a Mandan village on the Missouri River that has no horses but knows of tribes to the south that do.
• George II, king of England and elector of Hanover, opens the Celle Stud to breed Hanoverian horses, founded on Holsteiner and Spanish horses.

1739

• Horse racing is recorded in Virginia.

1740

• The Comanches live in Texas on the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains).
• French traders live among the Wichita on the Red River.
• The Crow acquire their first horses.
• Mr. Nelson of Virginia imports a beautiful stallion named Spanker from Andalusia, whose daughters produce some remarkably speedy colts when they are crossed with Janus colts. George Washington is given one of Spanker’s sons.

1743

• Comanches are first mentioned as being in Texas.

1744

• Capt. Potter of New England trades Narragansett Pacers for mahogany planks and molasses in French Guiana.

1745

• The Cheyenne first get horses, from French traders, who trade Comanche horses for beaver skins, buffalo hides, etc.
• The first Thoroughbred race in America is staged by Gov. Samuel Ogle in Annapolis, Maryland. Selma, daughter of the Godolphin Barb, is imported to America.
• Lingcropper, believed to be a Galloway pony, is found with a saddle on his back during the Jacobite rebellion in Scotland; he is an important sire of the Fell pony.

1746

• Comanches attack the Spanish settlement of Pecos, New Mexico (and do so again in 1750, 1773 and 1775).
• A major war erupts between the Comanche and Osage over horses. The Osage prefer to kill the Comanche and steal their horses rather than trade for them.

1747

• The French arrange a peace treaty between the Comanche and the Wichita.
• Samuel Ogle imports early Thoroughbreds Queen Mab and Spark from England.

1748

• Alter Real is developed at the Vila de Portel in the town of Alter do Chao in Portugal, using purebred Andalusian mares. Tobianos were present in this breed until recently.
• Matchem, grandson of the Godolphin Barb and foundation Thoroughbred sire, is foaled in England.
• The Portuguese School of Equestrian Arts is founded.

1749

• The Ute ask the Spanish for protection from Comanche raids.

1750

• The Ute and the Jicarilla Apache become allies against the Comanche.
• The Wichita arrange a truce between the Comanche and the Pawnee.
• The Chickasaw in the Carolinas acquire their first horses, from the Shawnee.
• The Nelson Spanish horse is shipped to North Carolina, where he stands at stud.
• The Danish Tiger Horse is at the peak of its popularity.

1752

• The first steeplechase is held in Ireland by men named O’Callaghan and Black. They race from Buttervent Church to St. Leger Church, which is the reason is it called a steeple chase.
• The Jockey Club (Great Britain) is formed to promote horseracing and the breeding of Thoroughbreds.
• William Byrd III of Virginia imports Tryal from England. On December 5, a four-mile race is held, at Byrd’s insistence. Selima, the great Thoroughbred foundation mare, dominates the race for her owner Col. Tasker of Maryland. Tryal comes in fifth.

1755

• The Packington Blind Horse, foundation sire for the Shire horse, is standing at Packington, England.
• Original Shales 690 is foaled. He is regarded as the ancestor of the Hackney.

1756

• Mordecai Booth imports Janus, foundation sire of the Quarterhorse, a sorrel with snow flaking on his hindquarters, from England.

1757–1758

• The British allegedly contaminate blankets with small pox, which then sickens the Shawnee—but the Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw also are infected, with devastating results.
• The French cavalry, rained in classical horsemanship, is overrun by the Prussian cavalry of General Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz at Rossbach. The Prussian cavalry attacks in tight ranks and encircles the French cavalry.
• The Kladruber Stud is burned during the Seven Years’ War.

1758

• The Comanches, Wichita and Caddo destroy the Mission of Santa Cruz de Saab in Texas and make off with almost a hundred Spanish horses. (The Apaches had requested that the fort and mission be built here as a buffer between themselves and the Comanches.)
• The Thoroughbred foundation sire Herod, descended from the Byerley Turk, is bred by William, Duke of Cumberland, “the Butcher of Culloden.”
• Carl Linnaeus (Carl von Linne) develops a classification system for animals and first used the names Equus caballus and Equus asinius.

1759

• The Comanche and the Wichita on the Red River defeat Colonel Diego Parilla’s army. The winners kept the loose horses.

1760

• Comanches raid Taos, taking many horses.
• The Teton Sioux (Dakota) get horses from the Arika.
• The French stud at Le Pin offers an Arabian stallion at stud to the local farmers.
• Boston merchant Thomas Hancock sends 60 Acadian horses to Sable Island.

1761

• The Comanche steal horses from a Lipan Indian mission on the Nueces River.

1763

• France relinquishes its colonies to Spain. Natchez, Mississippi, and New Orleans are in Spanish hands until 1798. Spain cedes Florida to England to regain Havana.
• The few surviving Chatot Indians appear on the Sabine River in Texas and later join the Choctaw in Oklahoma. It is conceivable that they might have had a few Florida Spanish horses with them as pack animals.

1764

• Chief Pushmataha of the Choctaw is born at Noxubee Creek, Mississippi. Choctaw horses are well known and highly appreciated.
• Eclipse, a Thoroughbred foundation sire, is foaled on the Duke of Cumberland’s estate. Although also a member of the Darley Arabian line, he is closer to the Godolphin Barb on his maternal side.

1765

• Pluto, pure Spanish and a foundation sire for the Lipizzan breed, is foaled at Fredericksborg Stud in Denmark.
• Marske, a Thoroughbred from the stud of the Duke of Cumberland, is living among the New Forest ponies, in an effort to improve the pony breed. The success of his thoroughbred son, the great Eclipse, saves him from obscurity.
• The first modern horserace is held in France between French horses and English Thoroughbreds. The French horses lose.

The great English Thoroughbred, Eclipse

1765–1775

• New England exports over 37,000 horses, most Narragansett Pacers. (George Washington’s mother rode a Narragansett as a girl and raced at least one.)
• Wildair, sired by Cade, son of the Godolphin, is imported to the colonies by James DeLancey of New York and sold to Edward Leedes of Yorkshire in 1773 because of the Revolutionary War.

1766

• The Lindsay Arabian is imported to Connecticut, where he sires a line of handsome halfbreds called Rangers. George Washington acquires one that he names Blue Skin.

George Washington on Blue Skin

John Faed, 1899

1767

• Conversano, a black Neapolitan stallion, is foaled, later to become the second foundation sire for the Lipizzan breed.

1768

• Thomas Crisp’s Horse of Ufford, foundation sire of the Suffolk Punch, is foaled in England.

1769

• California ranching—Los Californios—begins to take shape.
• The Jesuit priest Junipero Serra founds the San Diego Mission. Horses and cattle are introduced there from Mexico. The priests build 21 missions in California.
• The Babolna Stud is established in Hungary as an addition to the main stud of Mezohegyes. Quality horses for cavalry and artillery are bred and kept there.

1770

• Thoroughbred imports into America cease because of hostilities with Great Britain.
• The Yankton Dakotas are in possession of Spanish horses.

1771

• English Thoroughbreds are banned from Virginia.
• Friesians are first sent to the Kladruber Stud.

1773

• Guldenstadt, a German writer, describes a herd of 3,000 Russian horses of the Belsans breed (used in the development of the Karbardin).
• The first donkeys arrive in Australia from Calcutta.

1774

• Louis XVI of France keeps 1,800 horses as riding and carriage horses.

1775

• One Comanche band, the Yamparika, are in the Black Hills, fighting the Lakota and Cheyenne. No tribe goes as far or is as willing to fight as the Comanche, who are recognized as the premier horse breeders on the Great Plains.
• Choctaws help colonials against the British, some acting as scouts for General Washington. The quality of their horses is noted.
• The History of the New World Called America is published in Dublin, Ireland, and mentions the Narragansett Pacer, which is part Andalusian at this time.
• The census taken in Natchitoches, Louisiana, includes 1,258 horses, most of them from Texas.

1776

• The Escalante Dominguez party encounters Paiute women gathering seeds. This is the first contact between Paiutes and Europeans.
• San Francisco is founded.
• Paul Revere’s famous ride is on a Narragansett Pacer, though he actually walked most of the way. Dawes did most of the hard riding.
• George Washington’s favorite horse is a chestnut given to him by Gov. Thomas Nelson of Virginia that was named Nelson and sired by the governor’s Andalusian. Washington rides it for most of the war.
• The American ambassador to the French court requests a Narragansett Pacer for Queen Marie Antoinette.

John Wooten was a popular eighteenth century painter
This one is entitled Lady Conaway’s Spanish Jennet

1777

• Count Alexius Grigorievich Orlov crosses the gray Arabian stallion Smetanka with a Fredericksburg mare to produce Polkan. He is crossed with a Friesian mare to produce Bar I, foundation sire for the Orlov Trotter breed. Smetanka is an unusual Arabian as he has a long back and 17 ribs. Purchased from the Turks, he dies a year later.
• Regular mail service by coach begins between Boston and New York.
• William Byrd III, early supporter of the Thoroughbred in the U.S., shoots himself.

Count Orlov and Bars I

1779

• Gov. Juan Bautiste de Anza of New Mexico, with 500 Spanish and 200 Utes and Apaches, captures a Comanche village; he later kills Green Horn, a Comanche leader, in battle. Comanche horses are divided between the allies.
• Favory, a dun stallion, is foaled at the Imperial Kladruber Stud in Bohemia; he eventually becomes foundation sire no. 3 for the Lipizzan breed.

1780–1781

• Small pox decimates the Comanche and the Wichita, who pass it on to the Shoshoni and Blackfoot. Trading slaves and horses helped spread the disease.
• Whirligig, who belongs to Col. Wadsworth, is standing stud in Hartford, Connecticut, and is considered a very valuable horse, producing handsome bay colts.
• An English Thoroughbred named Messenger is imported into the United States. He is the great-grandsire of Hambletonian 10, the foundation sire of all Standardbreds.

1782

• The Lipan Apaches meet the Tonkawas, Atakapas and Caddos on the Guadalupe River, to trade. A thousand Spanish horses are exchanged for 270 guns. (This rendezvous continues for four more years over Spanish objections.)

1783

• Americans confiscate Chickasaw lands as punishment for supporting the British. Chickasaw horses are taken and become foundation stock for a number of American breeds, including the Quarterhorse.
• The 1771 Non-importation Act of Virginia, under which no English Thoroughbreds were permitted into the state, is repealed. Among the first to arrive is Medley, the sire of the great Lexington’s dam, deemed “impure.”
• The eruption of Laki and the Grimsvotn caldera in Iceland results in the death of 9,350 people from starvation. After eating fluorine-contaminated grass on the island, 75 percent of the horses and 50 percent of the cattle die. Global cooling leads to crop failure and starvation in Europe.

1785

• Gov. Domingo Cabello of Texas signs a peace treaty with the Comanche.
• Philip Nolan visits Texas to hunt mustangs.
• The king of Spain gives George Washington a large black jackass to encou