EQUUS IS LATIN FOR HORSE, coming from the Greek ἵππος” (hippos, i.e. horse), and from Mycenean i-qo /ikkos/ – the earliest known variant of the Greek.
Equus is a genus in the mammalian family Equidae including horses, asses and zebras. Equus is the only recognised surviving genus of the family that comprises seven living species. The term equine refers to any member of this group of an odd-toed ungulate mammals:
E africanus – African wild ass
E ferus – Wild horse (
E. f. caballus being the domesticated horse sub-species)
E grevyi – Grévy’s zebra
E hemionus – Onager, Asiatic wild ass
E kiang – Kiang or Tibetan wild ass
E quagga – Plains zebra
E zebra – Mountain zebra
The first known equids were small, dog-sized mammals that lived around 54 million years ago (mya) and were browsers or leaf eaters. They had three toes on their hind feet and four on their front, each with a small hoof in place of a claw, with soft pads beneath. One of the oldest species of true horse is Equus simplicidens which looked like a zebra with the head of a donkey. The oldest remains have been found in Idaho, USA.
Equine species have been known to crossbreed. The most common hybrid is the mule, a cross between a male donkey and a female horse. With rare exceptions, the offspring are sterile and cannot reproduce. A related hybrid, a hinny, is a cross between a male horse and a female donkey. Other hybrids include the zorse, the cross between a zebra and a horse, and a zonkey or zedonk, a hybrid of a zebra and a donkey. In areas where Grévy’s zebras range alongside plains zebras, fertile hybrids have been recorded.
The modern horse (Equus ferus caballus) is one of two surviving subspecies of Equus ferus. The horse has evolved over the past 50-odd million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today.
Humans began to domesticate horses around 6 000 years ago and their domestication is believed to have been widespread by 3000 BC. Horses in the subspecies caballus are domesticated, although some populations live in the wilds as feral horses. These feral populations are not true wild horses, as this term is used to describe horses that have never been domesticated such as the endangered Przewalski’s horse, a separate subspecies, and the only remaining true wild horse.
Some products made from horses
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Blood |
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used to make tetanus vaccines, also antivenom; once used as food by the Mongols; |
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Bones |
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used to make bleach to whiten sugar; made into implements such as shoe horns; |
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Hides and bones |
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used to make gelatin (Jell-o); |
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Hooves |
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made into glue; |
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Meat |
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for humans and their pets; |
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Horsehide leather |
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used for boots, gloves, jackets, baseballs and baseball gloves. Also for making sabas, milk containers in Central Asia; |
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Kunis |
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fermented horse milk; |
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used mainly by nomadic people such as the Mongols; | |
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Premarin |
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a mixture of oestrogens extracted from the urine of pregnant mares, previously widely used as a drug for hormone replacement therapy; |
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Tail hair |
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used to braid ropes and to make baskets, belts, bird nests, hair and industrial brushes, buttons, carpet, curlers, fishing line, furniture padding, hats, lariats, fishing nets, plumes for military hats, horse bridles, surgical sutures, upholstery cloth, bows for string instruments, artists’ brushes, whips and wigs; |
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Tibia |
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sharpened into a probe called a spinto, used in Italy to test the readiness of hams as they cure. |
Breeds
Horse breeds are loosely divided into three categories based on general temperament: spirited “hot bloods” bred for speed and endurance; “cold bloods” such as draft horses and some ponies, suitable for slow, heavy work; and “warmbloods” developed from crosses between hot bloods and cold bloods, often focusing on creating breeds for specific riding purposes such as dressage and eventing, particularly in Europe. There are more than 300 breeds of horse recognised in the world today, developed for many different uses.
Literary References
“When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes.”
RICHARD: A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
CATE: Withdraw, my lord; I’ll help you to a horse.
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
– 14th century ref. to King Richard III, from C11 German proverb – Diz ſagent uns die wîſen, ein nagel behalt ein îſen, ein îſen ein ros, ein ros ein man, ein man ein burc, der ſtrîten kan – The wise tell us that a nail keeps a shoe, a shoe keeps a horse, a horse keeps a man (knight), a man who can fight, keeps a castle.
So I have had to pay in spades for my vanity, because I ought to have understood that my feeble Rocinante could never withstand a horse so immensely strong as the Knight of the White Moon’s.
“My horses understand me tolerably well; I converse with them at least four hours every day. They are strangers to bridle or saddle, they live in great amity with me, and friendship to each other.”
Cannon to the right of them,
Cannon to the left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley’d and thunder’d;
Storm’d at with shot and shell,
Boldyly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.
Since that Neolithic moment when first a horse was haltered, there were those among men who understood this. They could see into the creature’s soul and soothe the wounds they found there.
At the battle of Waterloo men formed squares into which the wounded were brought for medical care. At the height of the battle, in the madness of the cannonading and death, the riderless horses of the cavalry, the caisson horses of the slaughtered gun crews attempted to penetrate the squares to be saved by the humans.
It seems that horses have no relations; at least they never know each other after they are sold.
No matter how good a man is, there’s always some horse can pitch him.
“I don’t like people,” said Velvet. “… I only like horses.”
People may talk of first love – it is a very agreeable event, I dare say – but give me the flush, and triumph, and glorious sweat of a first ride.
Somehow the horse has managed to connect himself with so much that is interesting and valuable in life, that we cannot abuse or insult him without wounding our self respect.
A good rider on a good horse is as much above himself and others as the world can make him.
I always imagined I could read in the conduct of the horse a certain measure of the character of its owner.
You can tell a gelding, you can ask a mare, but you must discuss it with a stallion.
When you are on a great horse, you have the best seat you will ever have.
If I was not a princess, I would like to be a horse.