History of the Horse

The Prehistoric Horse
The four-toed Eophippus, 60 million years ago, was the forerunner of the first horse. He was only 14" high. Over the next 54 million years, he evolved into the Pliohippus. This one-toed horse quadrupled in size to 48 inches.

The Modern Horse
During the early period, several branches of the modern horse developed. The Forest Horse, Asian Wild Horse and The Tarpan and Tundra Horse are ancestors to the Modern Horse.

Domestication of the Horse
Of all the domestic animals, the horse was the last to be tamed. In the early days, the wild horse was a convenient source of food for primitive peoples. The horse was probably first tamed in Eurasia about 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.

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Prehistoric Horse,
from Eophippus to Pliohippus
Eophippus 60 million years ago
Mesophippus 40 million years ago
Miohippus 30 million years ago
Merychippus 20 million years ago
The early ancestor of the modern horse has been traced back sixty million years ago. Scientists called this first horse Eophippus. The first complete skeleton was found in 1931 in the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming. The stages of development culminated six million years ago in Pliohippus, the single-hoofed prototype for Equus.
Pliohippus 6 million years ago