in stature and unprepossessing to look at. Appearance was not a primary objective: these people needed horses to sustain their way of life, and, as such, the horses were bred as tough, fast, and able to subsist on small rations in a harsh environment. Warring tribes plagued the borders of China, which led both to the building of the fortification walls (The Great Wall) along the northern border and to the Chinese implementing their own systematic horse breeding program. The Chinese made enormous advances in horse harnessing, including developing the breast strap harnessing system for use in driving horses and the single horse hitch with lateral shafts. They were the first to drive in tandem and to develop the stirrup. The actual ancient likeness of Chinese horses can be seen in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang (259–210 B.C.E.). Within the tomb, around six hundred life-sized terracotta horses with carriages and soldiers were discovered. The horses bear much in common with Mongolian stock, although are marginally taller, and appear to be well fed and strongly built.
In the middle of the second century B.C.E., there was a concerted (and bloody) effort to improve Chinese horses under the rule of the Emperor Wu Ti (141–87 B.C.E.). He embarked on several missions to “obtain” large numbers of the much sought-after “Heavenly Horses” of Ferghana. These horses are believed to have been the ancient Turkmenian horse and were quality desert animals with a great turn of speed. Improving the quality of the Chinese horse was necessary both to aid military endeavors and for transport, as well as for entertainment purposes. Breeding exercises reached a peak during the Tang dynasty (618–907). By this time, the Chinese silk trade was well established, and horses were frequently traded for Chinese silk and tea, which saw the introduction of “foreign” horses into the Chinese horse industry. The founders of the Tang dynasty had intermarried with nomadic tribespeople who had become integrated into society. With the horse of central importance to the nomads, this value was in turn transferred onto the Tang, and it became the most horse-oriented period of Chinese history.
Horses from Ferghana and other Central Asian states were used on the mostly Mongolian-derived stock of the Chinese to improve the quality and size of the horses. It was also during this period that polo was introduced to China, possibly by traveling dignitaries from Persia. Horses became not only a means to an end for battle and transport, but suddenly they were also prized for their looks, elegance, speed, and ability to play polo. Surviving pottery models of Tang dynasty horses reveal a horse of great beauty, quite heavy through its frame, but light in the leg, and with a well-set and carried head and neck. Their tack was elaborate, and the horses were often decorated with ornate breast straps and cruppers in a manner not dissimilar to that seen in European horse equipment of the Middle Ages.
While the Tang dynasty flourished in China, farther west the Moorish invasions were sweeping across Europe. The threat of domination by the Islamic Empire led to a rapid turn around in floundering European cavalry tactics and, as a consequence, to the development of an entirely new warhorse, discussed in Chapter Two.
ASIATIC WILD HORSE
PREHISTORIC – MONGOLIA – RARE
HEIGHT
Up to 14 h.h.
APPEARANCE
A small, stocky horse of primitive appearance with a large, coarse head. Stocky, muscular neck, with a distinctive short, upright mane. Shoulders are straight, withers are flat, and chest is deep. Short, sloping croup and short legs with strong, dense bone. Hooves are narrow and oval, but very tough.
COLOR
Dun, often yellow, sometimes with dark markings such as a dorsal stripe and stripes on legs.
APTITUDE
Undomesticated
SOUTHWEST OF MONGOLIA’S CAPITAL, Ulaanbaatar, in the foothills of the southern Khenti mountain range, stretches the magnificent Hustai National Park. Here, amid the sublime steppe landscape of rugged hills, open river valleys, and dense forest, roams the Asiatic Wild Horse, Przewalski’s Horse, or the Taki as it is known to the local people. The herds of these small, primitive horses that live within the sanctity of the park represent a phenomenal international achievement in the reintroduction of these animals to their original wild habitat. Despite their unprepossessing looks, these horses are among the most important and are certainly the oldest living breed of horse that still exists in its original form. They also provide a link between modern horse breeds and the earliest horses that roamed the prehistoric landscape.
The breed hails from the vast steppes of Central Asia and in prehistoric times made its way into Europe, where its likeness was frequently recorded in cave paintings. From extraordinary images such as those at the Chauvet Cave in the Ardèche region in France, which date back approximately 30,000 years, we have a clear vision of just how little the breed’s appearance has changed in the intervening millennia.
The Taki is small, rarely more than 13 hands high, and typically has a coarse and heavy head. The coat is dun with dark legs (which can often exhibit zebra-type stripes), a dark mane and tail, and a pale underbelly. Unlike other horse breeds, the mane grows upright to a length of approximately 8 inches (20 cm), and the tail is more similar to that of a donkey, with short hairs on the upper part and long hairs at the bottom. Most significantly, these horses have sixty-six chromosomes as opposed to the sixty-four of the domestic horse. These differences from domestic horse breeds, combined with the intractable nature of the Taki, which is almost impossible to tame on any level, have led to some doubts that it is a direct ancestor to modern breeds. However, despite the difference in chromosomes, the Taki is able to reproduce with the domestic horse, and the resulting progeny are fertile, although they have only sixty-five chromosomes. When further crossed to a domestic horse, the progeny return to a sixty-four chromosome count. Given the extent and predominance of the Taki from prehistory and throughout the development of the horse, it seems likely that they have contributed at a founding level to some of the more primitive Eurasian horses such as the widespread Mongolian and the horses of Tibet.
Given the extent of its history, it is not surprising that there are many conflicting accounts of the Taki, whose past remains somewhat enigmatic. During pre- and ancient history, these horses were widespread through Central Asia and Europe, but as human cultures flourished and spread, the stout little horses found their natural environment shrinking. Because of their dominant wild nature, it is unlikely that they were favored for capture and domestication, though it is possible that foals might have been domesticated if caught at a young enough age. Far more significant was their value as a consumable, and as a consequence they were widely hunted, forcing them to retreat into increasingly remote areas.
It is unclear when the Taki first disappeared from central Europe, but the first documented mention of it was in the fifteenth century when it was described by Bavarian nobleman Johann Schiltberger (1381–c. 1440) in his unpublished memoirs. Schiltberger had been captured by the Turks in the Battle of Nicopolis in 1396 and passed to the great warlord Timur (1336–1405). After Timur’s death, Schiltberger was given to Chekre, a Tatar prince whom he accompanied on a number of missions across Central Asia. It was while he was with the prince in the Tien Shan mountains that he wrote about the Taki horses, providing the first known reference to them in literature.
The next mention of the horses occurs some three centuries later by John Bell (1691–1780), a Scottish adventurer and doctor. Bell was part of an embassy to China through Siberia and the Tatar deserts, and then attended Peter the Great (1672–1725) on his expedition to Derbend and the Caspian Gates; he recounted his experiences in 1763, providing a striking account of the Taki seen in southwestern Siberia: “There is, besides, a number of wild horses, of a chesnut color; which cannot be tamed, though they are catched when foals. These horses differ nothing from the common kind in shape, but are the most watchful creatures alive.”
It was, however, Nikolai Przewalski (1839–88), explorer