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Origin of Domestic Horses? |
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According to an Oklahoma State University article, there is some belief that the Przewalski horse is the ancestor of all modern breeds, though having a smaller, more robust build, and upright mane, and a low-set tail.
There is a Foundation for the preservation and protection of the Przewalski's Horse, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands who have breeding preserves in Askania Nova, Ukraine, in 1992 two combined breeding groups of Przewalski horses were reintroduced to Mongolia with the ultimate plan to reintroduce the animals to the open steppe.
This article states "It was originally believed that the Przewalski horse was discovered by the Russian explorer Colonel Przewalski, for whom it is named, in 1881.
More recent information from the Przewalski Horse Foundation indicates two Europeans saw these animals much earlier.
A Scottish doctor who was sent on an embassy to China by Peter the Great wrote of his experiences in Journey from St. Petersburg to Pekin, 1719 - 1723 and included an accurate description of this Asiatic Wild Horse.
Even earlier, Hans Schiltberger, a Bavarian nobleman, was taken prisoner by the Turks and sold to the famous Tamerlane of the Golden Horde, who in turn gave Schiltberger to a Mongol prince named Egedi. Schiltberger spent several years in the Tien Shan mountains. He wrote of the wild horses he observed in his memoirs "Journey into Heathen Parts". The unpublished manuscript was written in 1427 and is housed in the Munich Stadtbibliotek (municipal library)."
For more information about the origin of the domestic horse and horse breeds visit the university site at http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/
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