The Horse of America in His Derivation, History, and Development

by John Hankins Wallace

When Darius the Mede had extended his empire over the whole of Western Asia and Egypt, he exacted heavy tribute in horses from all subjugated provinces. This was about 520 B.C., and antedated the racing referred to above. In all parts of his extended empire he built roads and established lines of couriers, mounted on fleet horses, that there might be no delay in receiving at his capital and sending out again intelligence of what was transpiring in any part of his dominions. For this service the best and fleetest horses were required, and the only guide we have to determine how these horses were selected we find in the fact that the tribute collected from the little kingdom of Cilicia, formerly a part of Cappadocia, was, in addition to a stated sum of money, one white horse for every day in the year. It is possible that these white Cilician horses may have been the progenitors of the white (grey) race horses spoken of in Media.

In describing the general fruitfulness of Cappadocia, Strabo says: “Cappadocia was also rich in herds and flocks, but more particularly celebrated for its breed of horses.” Strabo speaks of this as a leading characteristic of the country and doubtless it had held pre-eminence in this respect for generations before he wrote. Three hundred and fifty-six years later, when Constantius was selecting his presents of horses for the prince and people of Yemen, in Arabia, he knew just where to look, in all his dominions, for the best of their kind, and selected two hundred “well-bred” ones for Arabia. Sir R. Wilson, in discussing the quality of the Russian cavalry horses about 1810, had evidently heard of this Cappadocian origin of the Arabian horse, but, unfortunately, he got all the parties badly mixed in his reference. He makes Constantine instead of Constantius the donor of three hundred Cappadocian horses, instead of two hundred, and they are given to one of the African princes, instead of to an Arabian prince. The African traveler, Bruce, found some excellent horses in Nubia, Africa, and from their high quality and unusually large size he seems to have jumped to the conclusion that these were the descendants of the three hundred from Constantine.

After glancing over all the different countries in this great zone as defined above, and extending from the Bosphorus to the Caspian Sea, one cannot fail to be impressed with its special adaptation to the production and sustenance of all varieties of domestic animals, in their greatest perfection. Here the country seems to have been made for the horse, and the horse for the country. Here was a country suited to his nativity, and here we find records of his existence centuries earlier than in any other country. The wild ass flourished in this country, but I have not been able to find any evidence or indication that the horse was not always the companion and servant of man. Wherever he is found in a feral state reasons that are amply satisfactory are never wanting to account for that state. Ancient historians have specially noted each of the principal countries embraced in this zone for the superiority and numbers of its horses, but no one has made any allusion to wild horses, nor suggested that there may have been a time when their ancestors were wild.

Now, as we have designated a long and wide region of Western Asia, embracing a number of different nationalities and governments, as the probable original habitat of the horse, can we go further and designate the particular nationality or government in which was his original home and from which he was distributed to adjoining nations or peoples? In answer to this question, we cannot present any dates of record earlier than about 1700 B.C., and this date will apply as well to Media and Cappadocia as to Armenia. We must, therefore, consider it in the light of other facts and circumstances, not dependent upon specific dates. In the first place, and taking the Mosaic account of the deluge as the starting point, “the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat.” This is the original name of a country, intersected by a mountain range, and that range took its name from the country in which it was found. “Mount Ararat” was simply a very high peak in that range. The distinction should be observed here between “the mountains of Ararat” and “Mount Ararat.” In the second place, it is clearly established by all history that near the base of this mountain range Japheth and his descendants had their homes. His son Gomer was highly distinguished in his day, and his grandson, Togarmah, son of Gomer, became a powerful chief. To such prominence did he rise in the affairs of his age that for centuries after his day his country was called “Togarmah.” Hence we have the three names, Ararat, Togarmah and Armenia applied in sacred and profane history to the same country that we are now considering.

During the continuance of the dynasty of King Haic or Haicus, the son of Togarmah, the Armenians became a very prosperous and powerful people. They did not seem to be an aggressive or warlike people, although their boundaries were greatly extended, but a thrifty agricultural and industrious people. Breeding and marketing horses seem to have been their leading employments. In the twenty-seventh chapter of the Prophet Ezekiel he gives a catalogue of the different peoples trading with the great Phœnician merchants and the products of their countries, in which they traded. This catalogue was written five hundred and fifty-eight years before the Christian era, and is very remarkable for its extent and completeness. It not only shows what the Phœnicians carried away to the West, in their “Ships of Tarshish,” but also what they brought back for distribution among their customers in Western Asia. I will quote, from the revised version, two or three of the classes of articles enumerated, embracing both import and export trade. Of foreign imports he says: “Tarshish” (Spain and beyond) “was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kinds of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for thy wares.” Of articles for export he says: “They of the house of Togarmah traded for thy wares with horses and war-horses and mules.” “Togarmah” here means “Armenia,” and this is the only instance in which horses are mentioned in the catalogue. I will give another quotation, not because it is conclusive in itself, but because it is confirmatory of Strabo’s statement that there were no horses in Arabia in his day. He says: “Arabia and all the princes of Kedar, they were the merchants of thy hand; in lambs, and rams, and goats, in these were they thy merchants.” Other products from more southern portions of Arabia are enumerated, but no horses. This is the initial step toward the general distribution of horses, by the Phœnician merchants, which will be developed in the next chapter.

In speaking of Media (Vol. II., p. 265), Strabo says: “The country is peculiarly adapted, as well as Armenia, to the breeding of horses.” Of one district not far from the Caspian he remarks: “Here, it is said, fifty thousand mares were pastured in the time of the Persians, and were the king’s stud. The Nessæan horses, the best and the largest in the king’s province, were of this breed, according to some writers, but according to others they were from Armenia.” Again he says: “Cappadocia paid to the Persians, yearly, in addition to a tribute in silver, one thousand five hundred horses, two thousand mules, and fifty thousand sheep, and the Medes contributed nearly double this amount.”

Of Armenia he says, p. 271: “The country is so well adapted, being nothing inferior in this respect to Media, for breeding horses that the race of Nessæan horses, which the king of Persia used, is found here also; the satrap of Armenia used to send annually to the king of Persia twenty thousand young horses.”

The Nessæan horses, so famous for their speed, were the “thoroughbreds” of their day, and there can hardly be a doubt they originated in Armenia, and, just like our own “thoroughbreds,” they were essentially the result of careful selection through a series of generations, and of breeding only from animals possessing the desired qualifications in the highest degree. In the earlier days of racing in Media, it appears that white was the fashionable color, but I am disposed to think that grey, growing white with age, was the color intended to be expressed by the writers of that period. The “albino” color is abnormal and supposed to indicate tenderness and lack of stamina.

There is one fact, in considering this question, to which I have probably not given sufficient prominence and weight. So far as the records go, the three countries of Armenia, Cappadocia, and Media are synchronous in having mounted troops in their armies seventeen hundred years before the Christian era. We must, therefore, consider the conditions of these countries antecedent to the period of 1700 B.C. Of Cappadocia we know absolutely nothing historically until it was conquered by Cyrus, king of Persia, about 588 B.C. Of Media the earliest knowledge we have of a historical character does not go back further than about 842 B.C. It should be observed that I here speak of “historical” knowledge and not of uncertain traditions of many centuries earlier. Both of these nations with their distinctive nationalities have, long since, been wiped off the surface of the earth.

When we reach Armenia, we reach a people with a most remarkable history, extending back for more than four thousand years. This history, although not wholly free from criticism or doubt, seems to be honestly written and worthy of a liberal measure of confidence. That the children of Japheth should have settled at the foot of the mountains of Ararat strikes every one as a very natural event, but that their descendants should still be there, through all the triumphs and oppressions of four thousand years, is one of the most stupendous facts in the history of the world. From the very first we know of them they seem to have been an agricultural people, strongly attached to their native soil. When they ruled over the land from the Caspian to the Mediterranean, they built no great cities, but adhered steadfastly to the rural pursuits of their fathers, and this, probably, was the chief cause of their weakness. Their wealth and sources of wealth were chiefly in their horses, and these they sold to the merchants of Sidon and Tyre, who carried them to all the nations of Europe and Africa, commencing with Egypt, and supplying all wants as far as Spain and Morocco, and beyond, probably, as far as Britain. The Phœnician merchants were the first to open commercial transactions with Europe and Africa, and they were in control of the commerce of the world long before King Solomon entered into commercial partnership with Hiram, king of Tyre. Armenia had horses to sell long before they had horses in Egypt, and Phœnicia had ships and enterprise to carry them there. There is a fitting of interests here that seems to point to Armenia as the great original source of supply, and as the original habitat of the horse.