The National Wildlife Federation estimates that 100 different animal species become extinct every day. The Equus genus has lost 17 breeds that scientists know of. Here are three.
This breed was originally from Bactria (the northwestern portion of ancient Afghanistan and Tajikistan) but was named for the Ferghana region of central Asia. The Ferghana ranged in color from mottled-white to peach and red; had a long, flowing tail; and could travel as many as 300 miles a day. They also had two distinct bloodlines:
•The hotbloods resembled modern Arabians and had a long, narrow head, flaring nostrils, and a light gait.
•The coldbloods had bristly manes that were usually cropped, thick necks, and Roman-style noses.
China’s second-century emperor Wu-ti especially loved Ferghana horses and wanted to bring them east. When the rulers of Bactria objected, Wu-ti invaded and defeated them, and then proceeded to take all the horses he wanted. One hundred of Bactria’s finest breeding stock plus 3,000 other horses were shipped off to China, thus beginning the era of the country’s “sweating blood” horses—so named because the Chinese thought they actually sweated blood.
(Historians think that blood-sucking parasites bit the Ferghana horses as they worked, causing the animals to look like they sweated blood.) Soon these horses became the favored mount of the military and the Imperial Court, and statues of the Ferghana appeared in all types of Chinese art.
Eventually, Ferghana horses arrived in the Middle East by way of the Moors, who took them to Spain. They came to North America in the 1500s via an expedition into northern Arizona. By the 1800s, escaped Ferghanas were running wild all over the West, but over the next 100 years, because of excessive crossbreeding worldwide, the distinctive Ferghana disappeared.
The most remarkable quality of the Turkoman breed—originally from the area that’s now Turkmenistan—was its stamina. These horses could travel 900 miles in 11 consecutive days, drinking water only every three days and eating sparse desert grass. That hardiness made them extremely valuable to early populations in this arid region.
Turkoman horses looked a lot like modern Arabians—slender with lean bodies, small muzzles, and long necks and backs. They stood 15 to 16 hands tall and had generally solid coats of white, gray, or black. The Turkomans had almost no mane, and their coats glistened with a silky metallic glow. Bred and raised on the central Asian steppes, these horses were extremely fast—they could easily outrun and outlast any of the predators of that region . . . and they were equally adept in the water. No one knows exactly when the breed became extinct. They were around until at least the early 17th century, and there are records of them racing on English tracks. By about 1625, though, they were gone.
There’s some disagreement about where the Narragansett pacer came from. Some researchers say the breed was a result of crossing the Irish hobby and the Scottish Galloway pony, but others say the Narragansett came from the Spanish Jennet’s bloodline. Either way, the horse was developed in Rhode Island in the 17th century.
Narragansett pacers were small—about 14 hands tall, on average—and, by many accounts, ugly. They were generally sorrel-colored with a spray of white markings and had unusually long necks. But they were fast and could reportedly travel a mile in less than two minutes.
The American colonists used them as racehorses. But even though the animals were considered equine aristocrats in the colonies, breeders didn’t like their homely appearance. So the colonists carefully selected and bred Narragansetts with the best, fastest, and most handsome English pacers, giving rise to the modern standardbred. By the end of the Revolutionary War, the breed was extinct.
For two more lost breeds, turn to page 92.