350 UNGULATA. 



THE HORSE. 



Horse is a word often applied to any member of the 

 type species of the Equidse family without regard to sex 

 or age; but strictly speaking the adult male Horse should 

 be called a stallion ; the matured female a mare ; the female 

 foal, a filly; and the male foal, a colt. Pony is a general 

 term for all small horses, and a gelding is a castrated male 

 horse. 



The Horse was probably first domesticated in Asia, long 

 before it was historically mentioned in Egypt nineteen 

 hundred years before Christ. The original wild representa- 

 tive of the species which was at one time found in all parts 

 of Asia and Europe, was of a uniform yellowish grey color, 

 much smaller but stronger than the breeds that have been 

 descended from it. 



It is hard to believe that the single-toed slender 

 Arabian steeds, huge draft horses and diminutive Shet- 

 land ponies all trace their origin back to a common 

 several-toed ancestor scarcely larger than a fox, and 

 presenting few of the features that have since made the 

 Horse the most remarkable of all quadrupeds. It is 

 evident that there must have been a sustained effort all 

 through the centuries to increase the size of the species 

 by artificial selection, and the different structural charac- 

 teristics referred to are probably largely due to difference 

 in food and climate. In the moist temperate regions 

 where the herbage is rank and plentiful, the speed which 

 is the characteristic of the breeds reared in hot dry 

 southern countries where food is scarce, gives places to 

 strength ; and powerful draught horses are just as natural 

 a result in Flanders, as racers are on the Arabian deserts. 

 The smaller relative size of the Norway, Iceland and 

 Shetland ponies is due entirely to the colder temperature 

 of their habitat. 



Horses quickly adapt themselves, to new conditions and 

 circumstances, and can be readily tamed and broke, but 

 it is an interesting fact that if turned loose they will 

 revert to their wild or natural state as quickly as they 

 were domesticated. This probably accounts for the im- 

 mense herds of half-wild ponies that range the Kirghiz 

 Steppes, and other portions of Asia. 



