. Cyclopedia of farm animals. Domestic animals; Animal products. Fig. 426. Zebra (Ei/itus zebra). earth did not at first appeal to primitive man. It appears that the horse was first used for food. He was later driven, then ridden, and lastly employed as a beast of burden. The first authentic evidence of the use of the horse by man was discovered in the cave of La Mouthe in France. In this cave, among the inter- esting relics of the stone age are drawings which represent the horse as varying somewhat in size and character but resembling closely the present wild forms. From other sources it seem
. Cyclopedia of farm animals. Domestic animals; Animal products. Fig. 426. Zebra (Ei/itus zebra). earth did not at first appeal to primitive man. It appears that the horse was first used for food. He was later driven, then ridden, and lastly employed as a beast of burden. The first authentic evidence of the use of the horse by man was discovered in the cave of La Mouthe in France. In this cave, among the inter- esting relics of the stone age are drawings which represent the horse as varying somewhat in size and character but resembling closely the present wild forms. From other sources it seems certain that there existed a larger type in the south of Europe and a much smaller form in the north. The progenitors of our present horse can not always be clearly traced. According to Ewart, Ridgeway, Osborn and others there may have been several distinct wild forms directly preceding the modern horse. Ewart has described the Celtic pony, a small dun-colored horse found in the. Fig. 427. Quagga {Equus quagga). islands of the Hebrides and in Connemara, Ireland. This hardy animal resembles closely some of the illustrations found in the cave of LaMouthe and may have been the progenitor of the numerous pony breeds. A second form is much larger, ovet fourteen hands high, also of a dun color, with large coarse head and thick limbs. This form is widely distributed over Europe and Asia. The most ancient horses of the Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and ancient Britons were of this type. It is also prob- able that the horses of the ancient Chinese resembled very closely this unimproved horse. Still another distinct type seems to have existed in the south and later became the foundation stock of the beautiful horses of Persia, Arabia and the Barbary states in northern Africa. It now seems probable that it is principally to this form that we must look for the original stock of the modern Thoroughbred trotting horse, saddle horse and other races of speed horses. This ancient stock, so frui
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Keywords: ., bookauthorbaileylh, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookyear1922