Just Horses

I am in love. In love with a noble, beautiful, intelligent creature, that has been a part of human life for many many years now. I am talking about the horse. Equus Caballus.

The horse has been around almost forever, 40 to 60 million years to be exact. Human-kind first interacted with the horse back in the caveman times, mainly hunting the horse for food, and clothing. Somewhere along the line, someone thought that the horse might be more useful then just source of meat. Whoever first domesticated a horse, has left behind one of the most magical legacies that you could imagine.

Horses have played a massive part in the history of man. From pulling carts, ploughs, being ridden into battle, going into the bowels of the earth for coal, exploring and to its more modern uses, sports, and for fun.Back in the Middle Ages, not much would have been achieved without at least one member of the equus family around. Everyone had at least a donkey, a pony or a horse, some even had mules (donkey horse cross).

Empires have risen and fallen to the thundering of hooves from horses. The great Arab empire, came about from the arabic cavalry being mounted on the fleetest, beautifulest horses in the world, the Arabian. The Muslims believe that Allah (their name for God) took up a piece of mud, crafted it into a shape and breathed into it. When he placed it on the earth, it transformed into the noble horse.

So are any of you farmers? Or have you watched farmhands/farmers at work? With tractors? Helicopters? Without the horse, none of that would have occured. For many hundreds of years, horses were the only form of transport. They were the tractors, the cars, the buses, the fire engines, anything you can think of, the horse formed the engine. In fact up until the end of the Second World War, horses were still the main type of “engine power” in most of the world. In some countries, horses still play a massive part in almost anything.

Think of the countries that are too poor to afford oil to make petrol. Those countries still lean heavily on the horse for everything, your people mover if you lived in one of those countries would probably be a cart or coach, depending on your wealth, pulled by up to 8 horses. Your zippy little car, would probably be a pony. Your ‘57 Bel Air or ‘72 Falcon, or even your ‘65 Mustang, would probably be a blue blooded Thoroughbred or Arabian.