The native country of the horse seems to have been central Asia. It
became early domesticated in Egypt, and is mentioned throughout the
Bible. The Greeks and Romans had some covering to secure their horses’
hoofs from injury. In the ninth century, horses were only shod in time
of frost. Shoeing was introduced into England by William I., 1066. It is
believed that the original breed of horses is extinct, and that the
half-wild herds existing in many places have descended from animals once
in captivity. Thus, when the horse was first introduced by the Spaniards
in 1537, at Buenos Ayres, there were no wild horses in America. But
individuals escaping ran wild, and, by 1580, their descendants had
spread over the continent as far as the Straits of Magellan. More fossil
horses have been found in the new than in the old world. The horse may
have descended from a striped ancestor, stripes still sometimes
remaining, especially in duns and mouse-duns.