Extinct Horse Breeds

Extinct horse sub-species

Tarpan

Before the availability of DNA techniques to resolve the questions related to the domestication of the horse, various hypothesis were proposed. One classification was based on body types and conformation, suggesting the presence of four basic prototypes, labeled the Tarpan, Forest horse, Draft and Oriental, each of which was hypothesized to have adapted to their environment prior to domestication.

More recent studies suggest that all domesticated horses originated from a single wild species and that the different body types of horses were entirely a result of selective breeding after domestication, or possibly landrace adaptation.

Other human-developed breeds which no longer exist

Angevin horse - The Angevin is an extinct breed of light saddle-horse from western France. It was bred principally in the area around Angers, France. It stood about 149–157 centimetres at the withers. It was used as a mount for light cavalry.

Berrichon horse - The Berrichon is an extinct breed of horse from central France. It was bred principally in the area around Berry, France. It was used in public transportation by the General Omnibus Company to pull buses in Paris Between 1855 and 1900.

Bidet horse - The Bidet is an extinct type of small horse from France. It was a landrace developed principally in the area around Brittany, Morvan, Auvergne, Poitou, and Burgundy. It stood about 10.8 - 13.3 hands at the withers.

Chapman horse - See Cleveland Bay, into which it developed.

Charentais horse, or Vendéen - The Charentais and Vendéen are extinct breeds of horse from western France. They were bred principally in the area around Poitou-Charentes and Vendée, France. The Vendéen breed was originally imported by the Dutch in the seventeenth century from Friesland. They were crossed with thoroughbred stallions and used as a mount for light cavalry.

Mazury horse - The Mazury horse and the Pozan horse were crossed to create the Wielkopolski horse, also known as the  Mazursko-Poznanski.

Navarrin horse - The Cheval Navarrin, also called Navarin, Navarrois, Tarbais, Tarbésan or Bigourdin, is an extinct breed of light saddle-horse from south-western France. It was bred principally in the plains of the Pyrenees around Tarbes, and in Bigorre, now in the Hautes-Pyrénées. It stood about 14.5 hands at the withers. Lively and elegant, it had an excellent reputation throughout the 18th century. It was used as a mount for light cavalry, as a saddle-horse and for classical dressage.

Norfolk Trotter, also called the Norfolk Roadster, Yorkshire Trotter or Yorkshire Roadster

Öland horse - The Öland horse, from the island of Öland, was a close relative of the Gotland, but went extinct in the early 20th century. The Gotland Pony, Hucul and Konik of Poland resembles the now extinct Öland Breed. All of these breeds, it is thought, originally descended from the Tarpan.

Pozan horse - The Pozan  horse and the Mazury horse were crossed to create the Wielkopolski horse, also known as the  Mazursko-Poznanski.

Tundra Horse, the probable ancestor of the Yakutian horse.



Article Index:

History of the Horse

The modern horse, as we know it today, has been around for about 6 million years. The early ancestor of the modern horse has been traced back sixty million years to an animal scientists call Eophippus. The first complete skeleton was found in 1931 in the Big Horn Basin in Wyoming.

Nisean horse

The Nisean horse, or Nisaean horse is an extinct horse breed, once native to the town of Nisaia, located in the Nisaean Plains at the foot of the southern region of the Zagros Mountains in Iran. The first written reference to the Nisean horse was in around 430 B.C. They were highly sought after in the ancient world.

Old English Black or Lincolnshire Black Horse

The Old English Black (also known as the Lincolnshire Black) is an extinct horse breed. During the time of the Norman Conquest in 1066, the conquerors took some of the Great Horses from Europe across the English Channel and crossed them on native mares. Eventually, a distinct type evolved that was known as the Old English Black Horse.

The Anglo-Norman horse
The Charolais horse
The Ferghana horse
The Galloway pony
The Irish Hobby horse
The Jennet
The Karacabey horse
The Narragansett Pacer
The Neapolitan horse
The Norfolk Trotter
The Yorkshire Coach Horse
Turkoman horse