6 THE HORSE IN AMERICA 



at all agreed. Some say it was in Egypt, some se- 

 lect Armenia, and some content themselves with 

 the general statement that horses were indige- 

 nous in Western and Central Asia. It would be 

 interesting to go into this discussion were it not 

 that it would delay us too long from the subject in 

 hand. At first they were used only in war and for 

 sport, the camel being used for journeys and 

 transportation, and the ox for agriculture. In- 

 deed, I fancy the horse was never used to the 

 plough until in the tenth century in Europe. The 

 sculptures of ancient Greece and contemporane- 

 ous civilizations give us the best idea obtainable 

 of what manner of animal the horse was in 

 the periods when those sculptures were made. 

 Mr. Edward L. Anderson, one of the most 

 careful students of the horse and his history, 

 says: "Whether Western Asia is or is not the 

 home of the horse, he was doubtless domesti- 

 cated there in very early times, and it was 

 from Syria that the Egyptians received their 

 horses through their Bedouin conquerors. 

 The horses of the Babylonians probably came 

 from Persia, and the original source of all 



