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Re: Equids
whittet (whittet@shore.net)
28 Dec 1994 14:45:58 GMT
In article <3di865$4oq@nntp.ucs.ubc.ca>, VINCENT@TRIUMF.CA (Pete Vincent) says:
>
>In <3dgen4$l20@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu> tara@wam.umd.edu writes:
>
>` Pete Vincent <VINCENT@TRIUMF.CA> wrote:
>` >whittet@shore.net writes:
>` >`
>` >` Actually, although the earliest evidence for the domestication of the
>` >` horse consists of bridles from sites in Siberia, circa 6500 BC
>` >
>` >You keep mentioning this siberian evidence. I've never heard of it.
>` >Siberia is not exactly a useful place for horses, being all bogs
>` >and conifer forest. The earliest evidence of which I'm aware is
>` >from the steppes of the ukraine, which makes much more sense.
>` >What's your reference for this siberian material?
>`
>` What about the Yakut? It is a modern day horse currently living in the
>` "coldest" areas of the Yakut territory in the Arctic circle. There are
>` two types of this pony (basically a larger one and a smaller one). Now
>` the larger one is considered a direct derivative of the Asiatic Wild
>` Horse of Mongolia, but the ancestry of the smaller one is not as clear.
>`
>` The Yakut exists in winter temperatures of -40 to -50 degrees Farenheit
>` and in the summer (albeit a very short one) suffer the attacks of
>` blood-sucking insects. Not my type of clime. ;)
>
>I wasn't disputing the existence of horses there, but their
>domestication, and particularly their use as mounts.. The open
>plains of the ukraine would be a much more practical place for
>equine transportation. In siberia, I don't imagine a mounted
>traveller would have any advantage over one on foot, although the
>horse could possibly still be useful as a pack animal. The early
>bridles of which I'm aware were uncovered in the ukraine.
>
>
Edwards mentions adaptations such as browsing on birch and willow shrubs,
digging up roots with the fore hooves, adaptations of the teeth affecting the
shape of the jaw and the head, changes in the horses coat
from dun to near white, and stocking up on the natural hay bone dry grass
in the autum
Siberia is as much a home to horsemen, the Mongols, as is the Ukraine,
we just don't seem to know as much about it for some reason.
>
>
>==========================================================================
> vincent@triumf.ca <== faster % Pete Vincent
> vincent@freenet.vancouver.bc.ca % Disclaimer: all I know I
> % learned from reading Usenet.
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