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North American Horses Poster |
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A265 North American Horses
This beautiful poster presents all of the important
North American horses in historic context. The
captions explain that the horse evolved in North
America and in prehistoric times crossed the
Bering Sea land bridge into Asia. Its descendants
migrated to Europe. The horse became extinct in
North America around 11,000 years ago.
Horses were reintroduced to the New World by
Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 when he
brought them to Cuba. Cortez landed them on the
North American continent in 1516. Later explorers
and settlers brought many different breeds. These
“Colonial Imports” are shown on the top three rows.
They provided the bloodlines for all that followed.
The next row presents the feral and Indian horses.
The bottom three rows are devoted to the many
other breeds that originated in North America.
This poster accurately portrays 54 breeds, making
it a valuable identification chart for horse lovers.
Included are four famous horses that were used
so extensively for crossbreeding that the original
stock was bred out of existence; they are now
extinct. They are the Spanish Jennet, Galloway,
Hobby, and Narragansett Pacer. They are included
because of the importance of their bloodlines to
modern-day breeds. (The highly popular Hobby
inspired the toy horse that bears its name and
was the origin of the word as it is used today, for a
recreational activity.)
Most of these magnificent horses are shown in
profile for easy identification, but some of the most
famous breeds are shown with riders in great action
poses to represent a few of the many ways the
horse has contributed to America.
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