AMERICAN FARMER'S HORSE BOOK. 



CHAPTER I. 



BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HORSE. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES KEPT IN VIEW IN THIS WORK — REMARKS ON 



CROSSING, ETC. 



The horse is a native of several districts of Asia and 

 Africa ; and in the Southern parts of Siberia large herds of 

 these animals are occasionally seen. In Ukraine, where wild 

 horses are often found, they are rendered no otherwise serv- 

 iceable to man than as food. The wild horses on each side of 

 the Bon are the oft'spring of the Russian horses that were 

 employed in the siege of Asoph, in the year 1697, when, for 

 want of forage, they were turned loose. They have relapsed 

 into a state of nature, and have become as shy and timid as 

 the original savage breed. The Cossacks chase them, but 

 always in the winter, by driving them into the valleys filled 

 with snow, into which they plunge, and are caught. Their 

 excessive swiftness is such as to entirely exclude every other 

 mode of capture. 



The horses of South America are of Spanish origin, and 

 entirely of the Andalusian breed. They are now become so 

 numerous as to live in herds, some of which are said to con- 

 sist of ten thousand. 



The horse, in a domesticated state, is found in almost every 

 part of the globe, except, perhaps, w^ithin the Arctic Circle ; 

 and his reduction and conquest is generally considered as the 

 greatest acquisition from the animal world that the art and 



11 



