# Was the Horse native to the Americas? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 9, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-horse-native-to-the-americas/485132 "2009-02-09T21:45:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Simple\_Mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7cd45c/32.png) [@Simple\_Mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simple_Mind)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-horse-native-to-the-americas/485132/1 "2009-02-09T21:45:46Z")
And where did it origine from in the begining of time, when did Humans start to use them and where was that? thanks ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-horse-native-to-the-americas/485132/2 "2009-02-09T22:00:01Z")
Horses have been used by European and Asian cultures since the beginning of recorded history, so it’s unlikely they were native to the Americas. There is evidence of horses being domesticated as early as 2000BC in northern Europe and central Asia. AFAIK horses were unknown in the Americas until European settlement began. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-horse-native-to-the-americas/485132/3 "2009-02-09T22:14:24Z")
Actually, the ancestors of the modern horse were from the Americas, with a branch believed to be the forerunners of modern horses emigrating to Asia about 2.5 million years ago. The North American horses all died out about 11,000 years ago (along with many other large mammals). > **[Evolution of the horse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_the_horse)** > > The evolution of the horse, a mammal of the family Equidae, occurred over a geologic time scale of 50 million years, transforming the small, dog-sized, forest-dwelling Eohippus into the modern horse. Paleozoologists have been able to piece together a more complete outline of the evolutionary lineage of the modern horse than of any other animal. Much of this evolution took place in North America, where horses originated but became extinct about 10,000 years ago, before being reintroduced in The h... There’s no evidence that humans in North America domesticated horses. One hypothesis (among others) is that newly arrived humans contributed to the extinction of North American mammals through hunting. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-horse-native-to-the-americas/485132/4 "2009-02-09T22:17:08Z")
Equus species did live in the Americas, but disappeared about 10,000 years ago. From the wiki article: > [@](#): > > Equus stenonis crossed into North America, where similar forms known as Equus scotti are common; some types (Equus scotti var. giganteus) exceeded the modern horse in size. However, all the Equidae in North America ultimately became extinct approximately 11,000 years ago. The causes of this extinction (simultaneous with the extinctions of a variety of other American megafauna) have been a matter of debate. Given the suddenness of the event and the fact that these mammals had been flourishing for millions of years previously, something quite unusual must have happened. Possible reasons include climate change, a pandemic, or over-hunting by humans (the extinctions were roughly simultaneous with the end of the most recent glacial advance and the appearance of the big-game-hunting Clovis culture). > **[Evolution of the horse | Modern horses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution_of_the_Horse#Modern_horses)** > > The genus Equus, which includes all extant equines, is believed to have evolved from Dinohippus, via the intermediate form Plesippus. One of the oldest species is Equus simplicidens, described as zebra-like with a donkey-shaped head. The oldest fossil to date is ~3.5 million years old, discovered in Idaho. The genus appears to have spread quickly into the Old World, with the similarly aged Equus livenzovensis documented from western Europe and Russia. > Molecular phylogenies indicate the most rece... ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-horse-native-to-the-americas/485132/5 "2009-02-09T22:25:42Z")
According to Wikipedia, horses existed in North America in prehistoric times, but they went extinct around the time of the last ice age. If I recall correctly, in _[Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans](http://www.amazon.com/Lone-Star-History-Texas-Texans/dp/0306809427/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1234217490&sr=1-1)_, T.R.R. Fehrenbach mentions the Pueblo Revolt (ca 1680) in New Mexico as being the first recorded time that Spanish horses were released into the wild in North America. Wikipedia claims that the first horses were lost by Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, a century and one half before, which seems more plausible. In any case, horses and horse culture spread across the North American continent and especially across the Great Plains over the next couple of centuries until Native Americans from Canada to Mexico had taken up riding. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-horse-native-to-the-americas/485132/6 "2009-02-09T23:22:24Z")
The most recent National Geographic talks about this a bit, with the pro Wild Horses camp claiming that the mustang packs living in Wyoming and other places are not invasive, but are just reclaiming land that was temporarily without horses (due to the aforementioned die off). Personally, I take the entire article with a HUGE grain of salt due to the authors absolutely crystal clear bias against the humans in the article.