[Sidenote: Markings]
Darwin wrote of the probable "descent of all existing races from a
single dun-coloured, more or less striped primitive stock to which
our horses occasionally revert."
The stories of the Great Ice Age and of Bering Land have shown us a
variety of swiftly changing climates in which the original three-toed
dun striped ancestors begat a special type of horse for each kind of
habitat. The high lands and high latitudes, the low lands and low
latitudes, the tall grasses, the short grasses, the open woodlands,
the northern downs and valleys, bred each their special type of the
wild horse.
EVIDENCE OF THE WIND. It is not so very long since the last clumps
of timber vanished from the steppes. Still on the North American
range one finds the trunks and roots of forest trees, which silicate
swamps have changed into masses of jaspar onyx and chalcedony; and
these have not had time to sink as stones do into the soil. In a
seven hundred mile ride across the Canadian plains, I found a living
clump of three pines distant a hundred-and-fifty miles from the edge
of the shrunken forest. Such shelters have indeed so lately
disappeared that the horse has not yet learned the trick of {26} wind
endurance. If his ears and nostrils were not so fearfully sensitive,
he need only face up wind, and the hair of his body would be blown
down flat to protect him. As it is, the extreme sensitiveness of his
face compels him to stand or drift with buttocks turned to the gale,
tail tucked, head down. It is only in that position that the hair is
blown up from the skin and fails to give him protection. We may
conclude then that he was inured to torrid summers and even to polar
winters before he had to encounter strong gales away from shelter.
Long after the three-toed ancestor had become a horse, the steppes
had abundant tree clumps for wind breaks in heavy weather.
[Sidenote: African bays]
THE AFRICAN BAY. In every striped horse it seems a general rule that
the body stripes are curved in such a way as to point to a spot on
the ground midway between the four legs. The leg bands merely cut
the upright lines of the limbs so that these disappear. Some natural
process of colour photography has made the body stripes a bold copy
of the upward and outward spread of the tussock grass. It was for
concealment then among the rich forage of the tussocks that some of
the parent species wore a gorgeous livery which passed on to the
Zebra.
{27}
[Sidenote: The Saharan range]
From all accounts the Sahara is the bed of a recent sea, but,
possibly along its eastern side, a horse range extended from the
Soudan to the shores of the Mediterranean. Such range had not less
than ten inches a year of rainfall, carried by the sea breezes from
surrounding waters. There was moisture enough for trees, and there
are abundant traces of quite recent timber.
The winds were drying, the clouds were burned out, the light was
increasing to a terrific strength, and the tussocks began to fail.
On the American range I have noticed that these tall grasses,
abundant only thirty years ago, have become quite rare since the
pasture was overstocked. As the tall grasses perished and streaks of
naked desert crept into the dying pasture, all hope of concealment
for horses was at an end, the brilliant striping ceased to have any
value, and the need for speed outweighed the need for sleep. Three
and a half hours for sleep, standing, suffices the modern horse.
And as the cover vanished, every possible military precaution became
imperative against surprise by lions. The gay striped painting had
become a danger, and whole colour was the last chance of concealment
for purposes {28}
of rest. Close herding by the stallions, a single line formation
with vedettes and flankers, signals by cries and stamping, and, above
all things, speed, were needed to save the horse under the new
conditions. The arched markings on the face of the striped horse
changed to a star, the leg bands to stockings: white marks to
identify members of the herd on the darkest nights. Such markings
are very common among horses of desert descent.
[Sidenote: Painted horses]
As the deadly actinic rays of light poured into the body between its
bars of painting, the natural dye secreted in the skin began to fill
the bright streaks with strong colour. So the striped Dun became the
desert Bay, with black points and white markings, gifted with the
intelligence needed in family and tribal life, but above all things
endowed with a speed which was the despair of lions and is the glory
of all honest horsemen. So entirely was the danger from lions
overcome that the Bay horse has forgotten the art of bucking, which
once was needed in fighting beasts of prey. Speed has given the
steel-hard hoofs, the steel-strong limbs, delicate modelling to cut
the resistance of the air, the tail set and carried high for the
finest steering, and almost every other trait of our Barbs and Arabs.
So {29} intense is the light in his native pasture that even the
refracted glow from the ground has had to be met by dark colouring of
the under surfaces, wherein he differs from the horses of higher
latitudes.
[Sidenote: Zebra, quagga, ass]
ZEBRA AND QUAGGA. Southward from the great Desert the forest of
Equatorial Africa is bordered to the eastward and the south by grass
lands. In these a few patches of jungle and tussock grasses have
preserved the colouring of striped horses down to our own time.
Their painting is most brilliant towards the Equator, fades in the
higher latitudes, and in Cape Colony only the neck and shoulder
stripes remained in the Quagga breed. The land does not continue
into the latitude of the Dun horse. It is quite possible that with
the coming of the Boers tame cattle ate off the Quagga pasturage, but
rifles have put the wild stock to an end with the advance of human
settlement.
THE ASSES. These creatures of mountainous deserts are coloured like
the boulders of a hillside, but rely for their safety rather on high
intelligence and sure-footed speed. Being desert animals of course
they are dry inside, so that their efforts to produce the most
beautiful music merely rub leather against leather like {30} the sole
of a creaking boot. They should be petted like operatic tenors, and
indeed there are no animals in the world who improve so rapidly in
response to decent treatment.
There is a legend that the ass who carried the Cross of our Lord
Christ upon the way to Calvary had ever afterwards its shadow on his
back, still worn by the African breed as a special badge of honour.
It is called the endurance mark, and this with the same leg bands is
the special brand of the Dun horse of Asia.
[Sidenote: Dun horses]
THE DUN HORSE. It was in the Yellowstone Park that I paid ten
dollars for a thirteen hand pony called Buck, a bright Dun with the
endurance cross and leg bands. Below the black knees and hocks he
wore white stockings, and had black mane, tail and points. He taught
me the real protective colour for short grass. His upper and lower
body lines were the curves of prairie ridges, while the limbs were so
cross-coloured that the upright lines became invisible, save when he
moved, at about two hundred yards. It was lucky that he always came
at my call, because so far as my poor eyesight went, he was lost to
me every evening so soon as I sent him off to graze. His wall eye
and game knee were acquired from meeting Christians, but an odd trick
of carrying {31} the lower jaw sideways while he was thinking, an
unusual sweetness of character, and most uncommon pluck, may have
been primitive traits. He trotted with my pack a thousand miles,
until in Utah I gave him to a cowboy rather than take him on into the
desert ahead, where he might die of thirst. I did not know in those
days that he was a desert horse who knew a deal more about finding
water than ever I shall learn.
[Sidenote: Wild species dying]
The horse became extinct in the Americas, the Quagga in South Africa,
the wild Bay in Northern Africa. The numbers of the wild asses and
of the zebras are shrinking rapidly. The wild Dun, or Tarpan, whose
range was the whole steppe of Russia and North Asia, is now
represented in three small districts of Mongolia by the Prejevalski
herds. So far, then, as wild horses are concerned, the species is
dying out.
Among tame horses, to judge from what one sees in the larger stables,
there must be at least one hundred Bays, Browns and Chestnuts to
every real Dun. All breeders select from the Bay type as
distinguished from the Dun, whose only special value is in endurance.
In the run-wild or feral herds, however, the Duns have a fair chance,
and form a large proportion of the stock. They are not only hardy
but {32} also fertile. If man became extinct, the steppes and
prairies would breed Duns, and gradually kill out the other types.
[Sidenote: Dun and Bay]
From the fierce dry heat of the Gobi Desert to the utmost rigors of
Siberian cold, the Dun will thrive wherever there is grass. His coat
is warm and cool for any climate, greasy enough to shed rain, and
proof against every weather except wet driving snow or a strong gale.
Through the longest winters he keeps alive by grubbing through the
snow to get at grass. The droughts of summer may so increase the
journey between food and water that he gets very little time for
rest, but somehow he manages to pull through, the last of all horses
to yield to difficulties. Lacking the speed and beauty of the Bay,
he lives where the Bay will die. In danger or difficulty the Bay is
a fool in a panic, while the Dun keeps cool, reasons, and uses common
sense with a strong, hearty valour. One would select the Bay for
pleasure, but the Dun for serious work under the saddle, for road
endurance, for long and rapid marches, and all that makes mounted
troops of value in campaigns.
Just as the working man may be rendered irritable and even vicious by
unfair treatment in our social life, the working horse is made {33}
ill-tempered and dangerous to handle by bad horse-mastership. So the
Dun has a terrible reputation, and in his defence I am a sort of
Devil's advocate. He is the typical range horse whose manners and
customs will be the theme of the next chapter.