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History of the Spotted Horse
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Introduction:
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Horses became extinct on the North American Continent some 10,000 years ago.
The goal of this web page is to find what breed/breeds had a REAL impact on the Nez Perce Maumin. On this page we will explore all the historical documents, information from researchers who have gone before, and Oral history of the Nez Perce. All sources for information are quoted so you too may check out the validity of the information provided here.
The
Question I always ask is: "How far back does one want to go to find the
starting point of the Nez Perce Maumin breeding stock?" (Nez Perce
word for Appaloosa).
My answer would be, "Only as far back as one needs to go to find
what breed/breeds of spotted horses were in the North American Continent just
before the Nez Perce achieved horse ownership." Your
answer may be different.
If one wants to trace all spotted horses in history back to the very beginning – Tarpan (prehistoric wild horse) works for me. For our purposes here, I will stick to the Spotted Horse In History.
"You
need to know where you have been, before you can know where you are going."
Christy E.
Pre-1500
the
history of all horses
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Photo by Maurice
Thaon, LASCAUX
The spotted horse can be traced back to cro magnun man's time. They drew pictures of them on cave walls. These were the animals early man hunted for food. A few of the round bodied, stick legged animals are depicted as spotted and dappled in color particularly in the Peche Merle site.
It wasn't long in evolutionary time, a thousand years or so, before early man realized the value of horses as transportation rather than food. The horse became prized above all of man's possessions.
Over the centuries, it became more apparent that certain areas were better suited to the raising of the horses and it was in these areas that distinct types of horse were bred and raised. This isolation of populations of adapted horses was the ancient beginning of breeds and types. In the North of Europe continent, the Huns raised hardy horses and became known as fearless riders Huns
Throughout history they have been worshipped by kings and country man alike. Spotted horses date back to 500 BC in Chinese art, and to the 14th century in Persian history. In Spain they were common as far back as the 1100's.
source: Jan Davis The Complete Appaloosa Horse p13-14
Genghis
Kahn (1165-1227):
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In 1206, a man known as Temujen was crowned Genghis Khan - "emperor of all emperors". His mounted Mongol army swept out of the steppes of Asia in an apocalyptic wave to conquer two thirds of the known world.
Genghis Khan lived back in the 12th and 13th centuries. Yet his fame—or infamy—shows no sign of sharing his mortality. Genghis’s icy eyes grace Mongolian money, and his people still cherish the legend that the great ruler will come again.
Why? Because Genghis welded rival tribes into a nation, then made that nation the heart of the largest land empire the world has ever seen. Genghis’s dominion stretched from Central Asia’s Aral Sea to the Yellow Sea of China. The Mongolian Empire stretched from Hungary to Korea. It included most of Asia and extensive parts of eastern Europe. It was the second largest land Empire in human history After his death, in 1227, his descendants pressed farther—reaching the Volga, clutching the Black Sea in their embrace, and unifying China.
Genghis Khan's legacy includes the establishment in 1229 of an efficient horse and rider communication system - the Yam - an adaptation of the Chinese postal relay system.
The Mongolian empire of Genghis Khan and his line ended in 1368 when the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) came to power.
*It should be noted here that while Genghis Khan is credited with possibly "spreading the spots around" through all his conquests, he is NOT credited with bringing the spotted horse to the North America Continent.
Source:
1997 National Geographic Society
1997 The Provincial Museum of Alberta
PBS Nature: Mongolia Through the Ages
Chinese,
Persians, and Greeks:
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The
Chinese, Persians, and Greeks as well, became horsemen of note. Accounts of
Spotted color horses, are recorded in the histories of these people. Many
spotted horses were chosen mounts of emperors, kings, and royalty. The Chinese,
with a heritage of recording history in art, depict many horses in paintings
that show clear spotted coat patterns similar to the American Appaloosa.
Historians believe that reference to the "blood sweating" white horse
in China was actually reference to the "leopard" coat pattern.
Spotted horses were common in China for at least the last thirteen hundred years, but they never composed more than a small fraction of the horses of the country. There is no accurate estimate of the ratio of spotted horses to others, but it seems improbable that this could have been greater than one in ten, even in selected stock. Gradually the Chinese allowed their horses to deteriorate. European visitors in the 19th century found the average horse more like those of long ago - small, coarse, and poorly kept. Paintings of this period still show some good stock, with a spotted horse here and there, and spotted horses were raced at Shanghai as late as 1931.
In Persia evidence indicating the presence of spotted horses in both earlier and more abundant. The Persian plateau passed from one conqueror to another until the Moslems came from the South in 640 AD. Of course there are gaps in the records of Persian art, but extant art objects produced from the 6th century AD to the present show spotted horses. Here again is an indication that such horses were common in Persia long before this time.
source:
Jan Davis The Complete Appaloosa Horse p 14
Francis Haines Appaloosa the Spotted Horse in History p 25-37
Libyan
Leopards, Moroccan Barbs:
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Oral History of the African continent reflects reference to horses but no record of leopard spotted patterns. The people with early ties to the beginning of the Muslim religion forbd the depiction of living creatures in art, so there is a gap in knowledge from that area. The myth of the "Libyan Leopard" and "Moroccan barb" persisted early on as owners and breeders with "unknown" pedigree holes, sought to place an exotic value on the spotted American horse origin.
The confusion here is attributed to the indiscriminate use of the term "Barb". The true Barb horse is a type of desert equine, not as refinded as the Arabian, developed by Peoples/tribes on the African Barbary Coast. History of the Berber tribes' shows no recollection tat spotted horses existed in their herd.
Desert-bred Arabians, from the other side of that continent, documented as the oldest named pedigree lineage in the world, listed in Holy books, had a few documented instance of color. HOWEVER, the Arabians did not have a tradition of spotted horse color, because it was considered bad medicine, if you will, when the color cropped up. one line of Arabian horse documented by first hand account of "Lady Ann Blunt" in her turn of the century quest to collect a breeding herd, noted a few instances of "undesirable white".
Middle
Eastern and African colors of the horse were given mythical value. A horse with
too much white, i.e.: white feet, white body spots, was considered inferior.
However inferior it was considered , the stable of the legendary 
Abbas Pasha had a very SMALL number of parti-colored horses, with white eye
sclera, white body spots, parti-colored skin, stripped hooves, that decended
from two stallions "Al Mahyubi" a chestnut and his full brother "Jadib"
a grey. Both these horses are classes as Seglawi Jedran Arabians.
Two stallions in America Appaloosa pedigrees, foaled BEFORE the turn of the century, the legendary "Mesaoud" and the grey "Leopard" are listed as being Seglawi Jedran, both tracing to the two Abbas Pasha horses. Both stallions influenced early color pedigrees in the U.S. prior to any spotted horse registry, as well as showing up in Standardbred, American Thoroughbred Studbooks. Both of these stallions were non-colored, non-Appaloosa, horses Leopard, a steel grey, was to become one foundation sire of the Colorado Ranger Horse Association through Nebraska Colby herd, and Mesaoud through a chestnut descendant "Ferras" is linebred in the orginal ApHC Registry in the Claude Thompson horses.
source:
Jan Davis The Complete Appaloosa Horse p 16-17
John L. Baker's Mesaoud, the Spotted Wonder
The
Spanish Horse:
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Horses of spotted Appaloosa-type patterns appear in Spanish art as early as A.D. 1109 and recur frequently for the next three centuries (i.e. 1400's).
Archeology, anthropology, paleontology, and other sciences have rewritten history as new facts have been revealed. Invasion by the Arabs brought fresh infusions of Oriental (not Arab) blood to the already renowned horses of Andalusia. Prior to the Muslim invasion, however, the Iberian Peninsula had been invaded and occupied by many others, and the indigenous horses of Spain and Portugal had already received infusions of hot eastern blood as well as cold northern blood.
Great quantities of Oriental blood were introduced into Spain centuries prior to the birth of Christ. Periods of civilization and/or invasion of the peninsula include those of the Iberians (originally from north of Africa), peoples of the Alamanni, Basques (province of Navarre), Carthaginians, Celts, Cimbrians, Franks, Greeks, the Moorish invasion of 172-175 A.D., the Muslim invasion of 711 A.D., Ostragoths, Phoenicians, Romans, Suebi, Teutons, Vandals, Vistigoths, and perhaps some others (and not in order given). Each of these civilizations brought horses that had an influence on the native horses of Spain.
These
were to become the foundation of the Spanish
ancestor of the Andalusian, also known as the Spanish Barb or
Spanish Jennet (Genet).
Some of the new European horses cropped up with color
patterns similar to the Appaloosa as shown in art of the period where many
royals were depicted mounted on spotted "parade" horses.
The new types were called St. Petersborgs or Fredericsborgs, referencing the area of their origin or to the name of the royal breeder who kept them. Selected for color traits, raised in royal studs, the spotted horse came to be as a result of "fashion and fancy" of the mid to late 1600's. Royals favoring the spotted horse in military parade use include Frederic the Great (1712-1786), Empress Elizabeth of Austria, King Christian V (1684), King Christian VI (1745).
King,
Philip II (1527-1588) of Spain set out to create a breed of horses. The
Spanish Barb/Jennet contributed to the development of many European breeds
through the tradition of "Royal Studs", grand stables and
collections
of breeding horses supported by money from the crown of a country. The gift of
Spanish "Andalusian" 9 stallions and 24 mares in
1580 by Phillip II to his
Uncle Ferdinand in Austria were added to the Austrian Royal Stud, which developed
the Lipizzaner. "Pluto" and early Lipizzaner sire, was said to be
prolific at throwing spotted color in his offspring. Antiques paintings of the
horses of the famed Spanish Riding School (Lipizzaner horse) show a lot
of blanket pattern horses in the broodmare herd dated to this era.
When mounted bullfighting was banned in Spain in the early 1700s, the focus of the two countries’ (Portugal and Spain) breeding programs began to diverge. The Portuguese continued to use the bullfight as the proving ground for their Lusitano breeding program, with function continuing to dictate form, while the Spanish Andalusian turned to breeding for the Fiesta and other less warlike ceremonial activities, which encouraged appearance and style of movement to be emphasized.
source:
Jan Davis The Complete Appaloosa horse p17-18
Lady Sylvia Loch/Fernando d'Andrade The Royal Horse of Europe; The Story of
the Andalusian and Lusitano
Francis Haines Appaloosa the Spotted Horse in History
~Horses
became extinct on the North American continent some 10,000 years ago.
~
That is BEFORE Christ's
time folks!
Introduction
of Horses to the Plains Indians:
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*NOTE of interest http://www.conquestchannel.com/inset78mv.html
has a very good interactive map if you interested in learning more in-depth on
the conquest of North America by the Spaniards. Very well researched, easy to
understand format. I am envious of their map LOL!
By
1492, after centuries of conflict and the mixture of the different strains of
horses from invading countries, the Spanish horse had reached it's peak of
development. Having been bred specifically for their easy riding gaits and great
beauty, they were ready for their greatest task: the conquest of the North
American Continent. It was this type of finely bred horses that was to become
the seed stock of the American horse. Long of limb, elegant of carriage, full
flowing mane and tail, an intelligent head set on an arched neck, in an animal
with smooth gaits and proud carriage, was the mode of transportation in New
Spain.
by 1500's Spanish rule was well established in Mexico, with peoples moving into all corners of the new land that had grass and water.
1500: Portuguese mariner with the second Portuguese India fleet, Pedro Alvares Cabral, sights the east coast of what is now Brazil south of Cape Sao Roque. From J. H. Parry, The European Reconnaissance: Selected Documents. London, Macmillan, 1968., p. 172
1517 an official Portuguese embassy with letters from the King went to Canton, led by Toma Pires. The mission was not successful, for many complicated reasons, and the now-exiled Sultan of Malacca evidently answered to Chinese power as a vassal. In 1521 the Chinese emperor died not having seen any Portuguese representative, and a decree was issued forbidding all trade with Europeans. Pires was arrested, ordered to return Malacca to the sultan, refused, and most of Pires' men died in prison. The survivors in their letters home recommended that Portugal make war on China. From J. H. Parry, The European Reconnaissance: Selected Documents. London, Macmillan, 1968., p. 123.
In 1519 Explorers headed by Hernando Cortez reintroduce horses to Central America. They conquer the Aztec Empire, centered on current site of Mexico City, aided by massive disease epidemics in non-resistant indigenous Americans. In 1520 Effective end of Aztec empire in Mexico.
1536: Buenos Aires (capital of Argentina), is founded by conquistador Pedro de Mendoza, but abandoned in 1541, refounded in 1580 by Juan de Garay to defend Spain in Brazil from Portugal.
1539:
Spaniard Hernando de Soto brings 237 horses to north America
and explores
from Tampa bay in Florida north to the Appalachians, and west to the Mississipi.
*Horses captured by native Americans said to
result in Chickasaw Horse breed. DeSoto's army had over two-hundred horses, each
requiring adequate food every day. Horses were so important to his mission that
pasture lands or Indian villages with stored food were always his intermediate
destinations. But American Indians had no horses or cattle, so their lifestyles
were not accommodating to DeSoto's . To make allowance for this, DeSoto marched
his army in six divisions, and each camped separately on Florida's small fields
and Indian villages. DeSoto's army was strewn across the landscape as it
advanced, their campsites often at great interval. Horsemen provided DeSoto with
intelligence for selecting desirable campsites for each, then "posted"
his marching orders accordingly. Horses were kept fit and Captains were kept
aware of the proximity of other divisions in case of attack. Accurate distance
measure was DeSoto's key to these ends, and would serve as the foundation of
land title once his planned colony was selected
1540
Coronado's explorers conduct extensive inland reconnaissance from Mexico and
Arizona to Kansas.
In 1541, Viceroy Mendoza put allied Aztec chieftains on horses to better lead their tribesmen in the Mixton War of Central Mexico. This appears to have been the first time that horses were officially given to the Indians.
By the 1600's Horses gradually spread northward via developing Spanish missions. By 1650 Over 80 Spanish missions are present in North America. After 1680, the Pueblo Indians forced the Spanish out of New Mexico. Many horses were left behind. The Pueblo learned to ride well but didn't live by the horse. They mainly valued the horse as food and as an item to trade with the Plains Indians for jerked buffalo meat and robes. Horses and horsemanship gradually spread from tribe to tribe until the Plains Indians became the great mounted buffalo hunters of the American West.
The
Ute, which spread from the southern Great Basin (today's southern Nevada-
California border) into southern Utah and western Colorado about 1000 AD (Stone
1999: 128).
As slaves of the Spanish in the 1600s, the Ute learned to ride and
were instrumental in trading horses to northern tribes after the Pueblo Revolt
of 1680 (Cassells 1983: 193).
By 1705, Comanche's had obtained the horse and made the shift from being dog nomads to fully adapted horse nomads in an area ranging east from the Front Range out onto the plains. The Comanche became a source of horses for tribes to the north, obtaining their own horses by raids on the Spanish and Americans in New Mexico and Texas and in turn being raided by the Arapaho and Cheyenne from the north (Stone 1999: 152-153).
Wallace Coffey is a Comanche horseman. According to Wallace, when the Spanish introduced the Comanche to the horse, "our responsibility was to be stable hands. We were literally slaves to the Spaniards and were the ones that fed the horses and cared for them. When the horse became an ally to the Comanche," Wallace says, "it wasn't just as a beast of burden. The horse really became a companion and a friend." The Comanche became legendary horsemen, terrorizing their enemies, frightening away settlers, keeping the plains open and wild.
by 1710 Nez Perce people had the starting stock for what they would later selectively breed and call Maumin.
......Drewyer [interrupter] who had had a good view of their [Lemhi Shoshonee Indians] horses estimated them at 400. most of them are fine horses. indeed many of them would make a figure on the South side of James River or the land of fine horses. I saw several with Spanish brands on them, and some mules which they informed me that they had also obtained from the Spaniards.
August 14, 1805
Meriwether Lewis
..... About noon three men, who had gone over to Lewis's river, about two and an half days' journey distant, to get some fish, returned with a few very good salmon, and some roots which they bought at the different villages of the natives, which they passed. One of these men got two Spanish dollars from an Indian for an old razor. They said they got the dollars from about a Snake Indian's neck they had killed some time ago. There are several dollars among these people which they get in some way. We suppose the Snake Indians, some of whom do not live very far from New Mexico, get them from the Spaniards in that quarter. The Snake Indians also get horses from the Spaniards. The meen had a very disagreeable trip as the roads were mountainous and slippery. They saw a number of deer, and of the ibex or big-horn.
June
02, 1806
Patrick Gass Corps of Discovery member
The Spread of Indian Horses from Mexico to Canada
It all
started in the early 1700s, when the Nez Perce' acquired its first horses.
The
tribe's oral history, while not supported by most non-native historians, has
been passed down among some of the Nez Perce'. It states that the first
Appaloosa horses obtained by the Nez Perce tribe came from a Russian ship that
had dropped anchor just off the shore of what is now Oregon. According to the
story, three Appaloosa stallions were sent from the ship to swim ashore to the
awaiting Siletz tribe in Tillamook Bay, in exchange for goods. These were
special stallions that were sold to the Nez Perce, who bred them to some of the
the tribe’s best mares. The results, according to the story, were the
beginning of the Nez Perce Appaloosa. The story tells that these stallions
had silvery white bodies with black marks on their faces and legs and speckles
on their muzzles. These stallions were said to have powerful medicine and were
known as the Ghost Wind Stallions.
The
presence of Russian fur hunters in the North Pacific induced
Spain to occupy
Alta California in 1769. For forty years thereafter, development of the province
continued on a gradual basis. By 1812, though, San Francisco
Bay still marked the northern limit of Spanish settlement. The first significant
contact between the Russians and the Spanish came in April 1806. Nikolai Resanov
had arrived in Sitka the previous year as an "imperial inspector and
plenipotentiary of the Russian-American Company." He found the colony on
the verge of starvation, and decided to sail southward to Spanish California in
hopes of obtaining relief supplies for the beleaguered Alaskan colony. The Juno
was soon being loaded with grain for the starving settlement to the north, and
on May 21 passed again through the Golden Gate. It is currently under study to
see if the Altai, or a near relative, could be the horse the Russians had with
them. Another theory is that the Russians picked up the Spanish spotted horses
in San Francisco Bay and on the way to Alaska, had to trade them for more
supplies.
Another
traditional lore among the Nez Perce's says that they first saw horses among
their close relatives and allies, the Cayuses of Oregon. Learning that they had
been acquired from the Shoshonis, they sent a group south to trade for some. The
Shoshone got their first horses from the Utes and Comanche. The Comanche claimed
that they let the Spanish stay in Texas to raise horses for them, but they still
went to Mexico after more horses. Comanche referred to September as the Mexican
Moon; Mexicans called it the Comanche Moon. September was the month that large
raiding parties went into Mexico after horses and captives. Other northern
tribes followed this practice, and soon a wide trail stretched across the staked
plain (Llano Estacada) of Texas and
New Mexico.
The Apaches conducted the same
kind of raids into Sonora and Chihuahua (Argentine horses). These are photo's of one small band of Pampas around Chihuahua, that still run
wild today. photo's courtesy Jan Davis
These Nez Perce Indians took great care with their horse herds. Almost alone among all the native peoples on the continent the Nez Perces practiced selective breeding. No one knows how they acquired the skill, although it has been surmised that one or more of the far-ranging members of the tribe may have spent some time among the Spaniards in the southwest. In their own region, they were the only Indians who became horse breeders, and they did so remarkable quickly. In 1806, during the visit of Lewis and Clark, a Nez Perce gelded some of the expedition’s horses, and , following the swift recovery of the animals, Lewis noted surprisedly, "I have no hesitation in declaring my belief that the Indian method of gelding is preferable to that practiced by ourselves." Yet the Nez Perce's had only owned horses for just about a 100 years.
Source: California Mission Studies Association
J. H. Parry, The European Reconnaissance: Selected Documents. London,
Macmillan, 1968., p. 225
Library of Congress
Utah Historical Society
California Historical Society
PBS Native Americans and the Horse
Ghost Winds Stallions
Slickpoo, Allen P. Noon nee-me-poo (We, the Nez Perces): Culture and history
of the Nez Perces.
Kate and Sue McBeth, Missionary Teachers to the Nez Perce
University of Idaho Library, Moscow, Idaho
Washington State University
Roe, Frank G. The Indian and the Horse. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma
Press. 1968
Francis Haines Appaloosa the Spotted
Horse in History
1839. Map of North America Designed to Accompany Smith's Geography for Schools.
Donald E. Sheppard Native American Conquest Corp.
Compiled and Researched by Christy E.
song by Bobby Wayne - Ballard of the Appaloosa