The five horses that changed history

Horses have shaped history long before the invention of writing or the wheel. A new museum exhibit looks at their place in society. J Edward "Ted" Chamberlin, a horse breeder and professor of comparative literature at the University of Toronto, has collected stories about horses for most of his life. Even so, the author of Horse: How the Horse Changed Civilizations was hard-pressed to narrow down the list of horses that changed history to just five. Horses have shaped history since long before the invention of writing or the wheel. For humans, horses have been food, transport, instrument, symbol and inspiration. Here are Chamberlin's choices of five horses that changed history: 1. Przewalski's horse The Asiatic wild horse, Przewalski's horse, which is called "takh" in Mongolia, is still the closest thing to the prehistoric horse that inspired Stone Age man to paint this image of power and freedom on the walls of a cave. The Przewalski's horse is the only surviving true wild horse. Others, such as the ponies of Sable Island or mustangs of the West, are actually feral horses. It has a slightly different genetic makeup from the modern riding horse, but is closely related to the horses ridden by the Mongol hordes that swept over Asia, conquering everything in their path. Przewalski's horses, once extinct in the wild, were collected in zoos and have been reintroduced in Mongolia, where they are a prized symbol of national identity...more