76 THE HORSE AND ITS RELATIVES 



states that they were like the domesticated breeds, 

 but mouse-coloured, with a dark streak along the 

 spine, and dark mane and tail. They were not 

 greatly alarmed at the sight of human beings ; but 

 were extremely difficult to mount. Like other 

 game, they were reserved for the table. The 

 mention of dark manes and tails is very important, 

 as it shows that these animals were not onagers, 

 which appear to have ranged into Europe during 

 the later part of the Tertiary period. 



Reverting to Messers Heyn and Stallybrass, 

 it has to be mentioned that, after the account 

 quoted above, they suggest that these horses were 

 not really wild, but the descendants of horses 

 escaped from captivity. 



"The fact," they write, "that in pre-civilised 

 times Central Europe, as far as Spain, was covered 

 with dense forests, makes the hypothesis that this 

 region was one of the natural homes of the horse 

 improbable, for this animal is a native of the steppes, 

 needing wide grass-lands and space in which its 

 speed could be of avail in escaping from the larger 

 beasts of prey. The very way in which some of 

 these facts are recorded seems to point to horses gone 

 wild rather than to those originally wild. When the 

 Vosges horses, though with difficulty, do get broken 

 in ; when Duke Sobeslaus drives home herds of 

 wild mares from Silesia ; when the fishing, the 

 game, and the vagi equi of a Westphalian district 



