by Todd Christian

Created on: February 13, 2008   Last Updated: December 11, 2010

For centuries, horses have been a symbol of nobility and esteem - an unrivaled combination of speed and strength, masked beneath a gentle and disarming exterior. Used as heavy labor and swift transport, their strength and beauty have made them an eternal source of admiration, fascination and obsession.

Evolution
Archaeologists believe the earliest ancestors of the modern horse - a species known as Hyracotherium - arose about 55 million years ago. They were considerably taller than modern horses, had toed feet, and lived in the forest - eating leaves from trees instead of grazing on grass.

Evolution saw a broad expansion of similar species under the order Perissodactyla, creating 12 unique families of equids. Only three of those families still exist - Equidae (horses and horse-like animals), Rhinocerous, and Tapir.

Breeds and Types
The old "Mr. Ed" theme song, which expounded that "A horse is a horse, of course, of course" was a bit short-sighted in the eyes of many hard-core horse enthusiasts. Breeds and types (clusters of breeds) vary wildly. The largest type of horse, the draft horse, stands more than six feet (two metres) tall, compared to the smallest - miniature horses - which is typically less than two feet (about half a metre) tall.

Colonial Spanish horses are those typically associated with common horses, which were spread across much of the world by Spanish explorers. They include a wide variety of mixed and purebreed domesticated horses.

Draft horses are large, muscular breeds raised for heavy pulling or plowing. The most famous example of draft horses are the Budweiser Clydesdales, who trot across TV screens pulling the Bud stagecoach, tufts of long and stringy, white hair dangling over their hooves. They are thought to be descended from Medieval war horses.

Stock horses, which include mustangs, Arabian horses, American Quarter horses and Morgan horses, are usually used in ranch work or stock horse competitions.

Feral horses are often identified as "wild horses," but differ in an important way - they are descended from once-domesticated animals. There is only one surviving breed of true "wild" horses, known as the Przewalski's horse.

How We Benefit From "Horse Power"
The spectrum of horse breeds is a broad and widely contrasted collection of beautiful and valuable animals - though your perception of "value" will likely depend on your needs. While some horses are bred merely for recreational riding, others are bred for racing, ranching, search and rescue

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