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The Tarpan and its Relationship with Wild and Domestic Horses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 September 2014

J. C. Ewart
J. C. Ewart
Affiliation:
Regins Professor of Natural History, University of Edinburgh.
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Extract

In December 1902,1 communicated to the Society a preliminary note “On a New Horse from the Western Islands,” and six months later submitted the results of experiments made with a view to ascertaining whether Prejvalsky's horse is a true wild species, or, as suggested by Flower and others, a chance hybrid between a kyang and an escaped Mongol pony.

The new horse (now commonly known as the Celtic Pony) described in the first paper is characterised by a small head, large prominent eyes, short ears, and narrow nostrils; by a long tail, mane, and forelock, and, during winter, by a thick, light yellow-dun woolly undercoat and a remarkable tail-lock (PL II. 7); by having, like Prejvalsky's horse, only 23 dorso-lumbar vertebræ, and also by the complete absence of callosities from the inner aspect of the hocks and from the region of the fetlocks—i.e. by the absence of the hind warts or chestnuts, and of the four ergots invariably present in typical specimens of the common horse. In speed and staying power, intelligence and docility, the Celtic pony takes after high-caste, fine-tempered Arabs.

Type
Proceedings
Information
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , 1906 , pp. 7 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1906

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References

page 7 note 1 Nature, vol. lxvii. p. 239, 1903.

page 7 note 2 Proc. Royal Soc. Edin., 1903, pp. 460–8.

page 8 note 1 Animals and Plants under Domestication, vol. i. p. 65, 1875.

page 8 note 2 Trans. Highland and Agri. Hoc. Scot., vol. xvi., 1904.

page 8 note 3 In a typical forest horse (Pl. III. 9) the coat is of a dark yellow dun colour decorated by a broad dorsal band, remnants of stripes on the face, neck, shoulders, body, and loins, spots over the hind quarters and bars across the legs to a short distance below the knees and hocks, beyond which the legs are black; the mane, forelock, and tail heavy, consisting of long dark coarse wavy hair—the tail having no tail-lock; the hind as well as the front chestnuts large, prominent, and generally oval in form, and the fetlock callosities long and often curved; the hoofs broad, rounded in front, and wide behind; the head massive but well proportioned, the forehead broad with ridges extending from the prominent orbits towards the occipital crest, the profile convex from below the eyes to the level of the nostrils; the upper lip long and prehensile, and the lower lip thick and often seen projecting beyond the upper; the ears wide, of medium length, and usually carried upright; the neck short and thick; the shoulders straight, ending in broad flat withers; the back hollow and long, owing to the presence of 24 dorso-lumbar vertebrce (18 dorsal and 6 lumbar); the hind quarters rounded so as to form a semicircle between the croup and the feebly-developed second thigh, with the tail inserted near the centre of the half circle; the limbs short and strong with thick fetlock and kneejoints, the forelegs tied in at the elbow and back at the knee, the hind limbs straight and the hocks during action kept well apart. This horse is specially adapted for living in or near forests—for frequenting narrow paths, feeding on coarse grasses, leaves, twigs, and roots, and at need readily crossing swamps and clearing obstacles—by having prominent eyes, large teeth set in powerful jaws, and broad hoofs, and by having a conformation eminently suitable for leaping and sufficient speed to enable it in times of danger to rapidly take cover in scrub or forest. The forest horse, though a clever leaper, has no great speed, but given time and sufficient food, it can undertake long journeys. Though often timid and spiritless, he is intelligent and docile, moves well, and is capable of carrying heavy burdens.

page 9 note 1 Trans. Highland Soc., 1904, p. 259.

page 9 note 2 Science, N. S., vol. xxi., February 24, 1905.

page 10 note 1 Origin and Influence of the Thoroughbred Horse, Cambridge, 1905.

page 11 note 1 By the Tarpan I mean the mouse-dun horse of Russian and other Continental naturalists, not the so-called “true” Tarpan of Hamilton Smith (Naturalists' Library, vol. xii., 1841).

page 12 note 1 Nature, vol. lxv. p. 103.

page 12 note 2 Beddard's Mammalia, p. 241.

page 12 note 3 The chief papers on the Tarpan are mentioned in Salensky, Monograph on Prejvalsky's Horse, St Petersburg, 1902.

page 14 note 1 The wild horse (E. prejvalskii), like Grevy's zehra (E. grevyi), has a very long head, the distance between the eye (inner canthus) and the nostril being decidedly longer than in a forest horse eight inches higher at the withers, and relatively still longer than in the Celtic pony, while owing to the forehead being decidedly convex, from side to side as well as from above downwards, the eyes look outwards rather than forwards. Like the Celtic pony, Prej valsky's horse is of a yellow-dun colour, with dark points and only vestiges of stripes—the dorsal band being narrow and the leg bars faint, especially during winter. Unlike the Celtic pony and the forest horse, the mane is upright during at least autumn and winter; in spring it may be only semi-erect; in young individuals out of condition it may, however, arch to one side of the neck. The distal end of the dock carries relatively few long hairs, the basal portion short hairs, while the middle section consists of hairs long enough to form a fringe around the hairs growing from the end of the dock (Pl. II. 4). As in the forest horse there are four chestnuts and four ergots, but the hoofs are relatively longer and decidedly more contracted at the “heels.” The ears are long and usually project obliquely outwards. In the skeleton it is especially noteworthy that there are only five lumbar vertebra;, and that owing to the sacrum being nearly horizontal the croup droops but little and the tail is set, on unusually high, as in many Arabs. The description of the Asiatic “true” Tarpan given by Hamilton Smith fits fairly well with Prejvalsky's horse. This agreement between the wild horse now living in the Gobi and the Tarpan of the Tahtars has freen specially dwelt on by Professor Eidgeway. It is, however, well to bear in mind that Hamilton Smith's drawing of the Tarpan is about as unlike Prejvalsky's horse as any drawing well could be.

page 16 note 1 Whether the mane is long or short depends on two things: first, on the rate of growth of the hair; and second, on how long the individual hairs persist. In the Celtic pony the mane hairs grow at the rate of nearly one inch per month; in the forest variety they may persist until they reach a length of several feet; even in Prejvalsky's horse they may continue to grow until they are long enough to arch to one side of the neck, but eventually in the wild horse, as in zebras, these long hairs give place to short ones.

page 17 note 1 This condition of the mane is not unknown in cross-bred horses, and it was specially noticeable in two dun ponies, probably of Spanish descent, which I saw last winter in Mexico.

page 18 note 1 Seeing that the mane and tail in various breeds, in the Old World and also in the New, often suggest the Tarpan, it may be inferred that the ancestors of the Tarpan were intimately related to the ancestors of some of the domesticated breeds.