The taipan of Tartary is one of those races of wild horses which are sometimes regarded as original, and not descended from domesticated animals. It is of a reddish color, with a black stripe along the back, and black mane and tail. The eye is small and vicious. Tarpans are sometimes caught by the Tartars, but are with great difficulty reduced to subjection. In some of the steppes of central Asia are wild horses of a white or dappled-gray color.—The wild horse of South America is there called the mus tang. It exhibits considerable diversity of color, but bay-brown is the most prevalent. It is strong and active, and is often taken with the lasso, and employed in the service of man. A curious method is practiced by some Indian tribes of promptly subduing its wild nature, and rendering it tractable, by blowing strongly with the mouth into its nostrils. By other tribes, it is subdued more rudely. It is thrown on the ground, and re it can recover, a man gets upon its back, whom, when it rises, it cannot shake off, and who retains his seat until it is quite submissive.—The koomrah of n. Africa is regarded by col. Hamilton Smith as a distinct species (E. hippagrus). It has no fore lock, but woolly hair on the forehead, is of a reddish-bay color, without stripe on the back or any white about the limbs, has limbs of a somewhat ass-like shape, and the tail covered with short hair for several inches at the root. It is an inhabitant of moun tainous regions.
Of domestic varieties and breeds of the horse, the number is very great, almost every country or considerable district having one or more of its own, and particular breeds being valued on account of their fitness for particular purposes. The breeds are also continually varied by crossing, and great improvements have thus been effected. The superior fleetness of the English race-horse and endurance of the hunter are ascribed to the crossing of the old English breed of light-limbed horse with the Arabian; and the English dray-horse, remarkable for its great size and strength, in like manner owes much of its excellence to the crossing of the largest old English breed of draught-horse with the Flemish. A breed produced by crossing one of the lighter kinds of English draught-horse with the race-horse is in the highest esteem for carriage-horses. North America has a breed of light-limbed horses, remarkable for fast trotting. The Suffolk Punch has been the origin of many of the most useful kinds of draught-horses employed in Britain for ordinary farm-work. The Clydesdale horse is also one of the best breeds of this class, and is an improvement on an older breed. Numerous breeds of smaller size, ponies, have long existed in different parts of Britain, and in almost all other countries. The Shetland pony, which, compared with the dray-horse, is like a pocket edition of a book beside a great folio, is most prized when most diminutive, and sometimes does not much exceed a large dog in stature. A strong man has been seen to lift one with his
arm,- and again to ride on its back, whilst at the same time he walked with his feet on each side on the ground. The Shetland pony is, however, a very hardy animal, and remarkably strong. The Arabian horse has long been the object of untiring care and attention, and to this very much of the excellence of the race is certainly to be ascribed. The regard of the Arab for his horse has long been famous. Very similar in some respects to the Arabian is the Barbary horse, which was highly prized in western Europe before the Arabian was known there, and from the name of which is derived the English word barb.
The horse has been used from the most remote ages both for riding and for drawing carriages, but rather for pomp or pleasure, the chase, and war, than for agricultural or other labors, for which oxen and other animals were for a long time more generally employed. The horse is an animal of no little intelligence, docility, and affectionate ness; qualities of which the display would certainly be more general and perfect, if it were not for the cruel treatment so commonly practiced in " breaking" and otherwise. The horse has a very strong memory of places, and finds again very readily a road which It has once traveled before. Its caution in advancing on swampy ground has often excited admiration. It seems oaten to enter with a kind of enthusiasm into the work in which it is engaged: the war-horse evidently delights in the martial music and military movements to which he has been accustomed; the racer and the hunter seem to know the object of their exertions, and to be as keenly bent upon it as. their riders; and the draught-horse often- exhibits much acquired expertnesS iu situations of considerable dif Acuity. Instances are also on record of the remarkable display of intelligence in such things as the opening of doors, corn-chests, etc.; and two instances are known of horses which have learned to turn the tap of a water-barrel in order to obtain water, one of which also ended by shutting it again. A horse has been seen to procure a supply of apples in an orchard by throwing himself forcibly against the trees and shaking thorn.
The flesh of the horse is used as food in some countries. Its use Las recently found advocates in France and some other parts of Europe. It is sold in London as food for dogs and cats. Mares' milk is much used by some of the tribes whose chief wealth con sists in their horses: and the Kalmucks subject it to fermentation, and distill from it a kind of spirit. The hide of horses is made into leather, which is used for covering large office and board-room tables, etc. The long hair of the mane and tail is used for making haireloth, stuffing mattresses, etc.