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McKayla Gallik

Philosophy of Horses- Final Blog Post- Section 006

Horses appear in our art, myth, religion, poetry, song, philosophy, literature and film and often in a philosophical context. I chose this topic because I have been riding horses since I was 9 years old. I love what horses do for me, they make me feel better emotionally and riding horses will make you physically fit. Horses are great companion animals, but they didn’t start out as companions. Most people don’t even really know about the history of horses.

Throughout history, the horse has occupied a powerful place in the emotional, spiritual and daily lives of human beings. 55 million years ago, the oldest ancestor to our modern-day horse was a small dog sized animal called Hyracotherium. They found the evidence of a small horse in the middle Eocene of Wyoming after about 2 million years after the first appearance of the Hyracotherium was discovered, this creature was called Orohippus. Orohippus have been found in Eocene sediments in Wyoming and Oregon, dating from about 52-45 million years ago. The next few generations of horses were called, Mesohippus, Miohippus, Parahippus, Merychippus, Pliohippus, Dinohippus. The only surviving gene of the horse family is the Equus. Equus is a genus of mammals in the family Equidae, which includes horses, donkeys, and zebras. If you are interested in what these fossils look like, you can visit this website,http://chem.tufts.edu/science/evolution/horseevolution.htm. This website shows each stage of the horse and shows the bone structure and growth. If you scroll down slightly on this website, it’s pretty cool it shows a timeline dating 55 million years ago. Today's horses represent just one tiny twig on an immense family tree that spans millions of years. 

As we can see, horses have gone from small dog sized species to large 16-17 hand species. The tallest horse ever recorded is named Big Jake. His back stands at about 7 feet tall. You can imagine if his back end is 7 feet tall, when he extends his neck out he’s probably 9 feet tall. He is only 11 years old and weighs 2,600 pounds. The Guinness world records http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2012/9/record-holder-profile-big-jake-worlds-tallest-horse-video-44749website also has recorded Big Jake as the biggest horse in the world. The website that I attached gives more information on him. Here is a video of Big Jake! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk6zcCSdmocBig Jake is used in horse shows and just for pleasure riding! Horses today are mostly used for our (human) benefit. We use horses as support animals and companions and we also use horses for money. People breed horses and train them to be very successful, they end up making a lot of money doing so. It’s amazing how horses went from being wild and dog sized to being larger than humans. There still are some wild horses especially out west. We see wild horses in California, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, South Dakota, Arizona and Texas. Nevada is home to more than half of the wild horse populations in North America.

Horses used to be a necessity for food, horsemeat was very common. Since 2007, horsemeat has been banned in the united states. Countries like Mexico, Switzerland, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Japan, Germany, Indonesia, Poland and China still eat horsemeat as if it was chicken or beef. Horses have come a long way over the last 55 million years. Other than meat, horses mostly got used for travel, especially during war times. 

One of my favorite poems is one that Emily Dickinson wrote which is called “The Life That Tied Too Tight Escapes”. 

            “The Life that tied too tight escapes

Will ever after run

With a prudential look behind

And specters of the Rein --

The Horse that scents the living Grass

And sees the Pastures smile

Will be retaken with a shot

If he is caught at all”