Horses and Their Effect on American Culture

Horses died out in the Americas by 9000 B.C. However, horses survived in Asia and Europe and by around 4000 B.C. humans domesticated them. On Columbus’ first voyage with horses, none of the horses survived because whenever the ship was becalmed and lay motionless and scorched by the heat of the tropical sun then the water supplies ran low. When the horses died of thirst they were thrown overboard. Golfo de Yegues means the Gulf of Mares in Spanish. It is an expanse of the Atlantic north of the Canary Islands named for the number of horses lost over the years. Columbus’ second voyage to the New World in 1492 was a success. On the ships were 15 stallions, 10 mares, and some of Columbus’ own horses. The weather was favorable, and the crossing was fairly rapid, twenty-two days from the Canary Islands to landfall in the West Indies. They made a stop in Guadeloupe, stayed anchored for six days while the horses were put ashore for exercise and forage, then were reloaded for the four week journey to La Navidad where they were used against the local Native Americans. Then they were taken by ship to the new colony of Isabella where on January 2, 1494 their ocean voyage ended. These horses were the first in the New World since their wild ancestors so many years before.

After Columbus, more Spanish explorers came with their own horses. Some came in search of great treasures in Mexico while others devoted themselves to ranching. Those looking for treasure had lots of adventure, usually escaping death while rarely ending up with profit. The ranchers, on the other hand, were prosperous and built up large estates. Most often the horses were bought with gold and the ranchers, having experienced great prosperity, had the gold coin necessary to buy what they wanted from Spain. In this way, the West Indies were even able to build up a reputation for raising fine horses during the 16th century. At the end of the 16th century the ranching frontier stopped abruptly just beyond the northernmost mining camps. Where there was no mining there was no market for the rancher’s stock.

As the settlers increased in numbers they drafted Pueblo Native Americans for farm labor and to help with the livestock. Some Native Americans learned to ride and in time became vaqueros, the Spanish equivalent of cowboys. For a time in New Spain both law and custom had frowned on any Native American ever being allowed to ride a horse, but in New Mexico such restrictions gave way before the pressing need for more men to handle the increasing herds. Native Americans came into the possession of horses through trade, from raids, and when horses escaped from the settlers. Horses greatly changed the lives of many Native American tribes, specifically those of the Plains Native Americans and the Plateau Native Americans. A good illustration of how horses affected the Native Americans would be the Blackfoot Native Americans.

Before the horse, Blackfoot Native Americans walked the plains carrying their possessions by dog transport and on their own backs in the quest for buffalo in the warmer weather, retreating to timbered river valleys or to marginal forested areas in winter. Basic economy was characterized by dependence on buffalo for food, clothing, and shelter. When they acquired horses, as horses are plant eaters rather than meat eaters (as the dogs were), good grass became a determining factor in the selection of camp sites and the duration of occupation of those sites, because when the horses consumed the grass in the neighborhood of a camp, that camp had to be moved. Methods of training horses and teaching Native Americans to ride necessitated the learning of new motor habits on the part of the Native American. The manufacture of riding and transport gear became a new home industry requiring specialized manual skills. Adapting horses to the primary uses of hunting, moving camp, and warfare presented numerous problems of varying complexity which challenged Native American ingenuity and stimulated thought.

Horses allowed the Native Americans to follow the buffalo herds making getting food easier and so often preventing starvation. Not only did it make following the buffalo easier, they were also able to transport larger supplies of dried provisions to the winter camp. Horses were able to pull/carry more than dogs so the Native Americans were able to accumulate more possessions than simply those needed for every day existence and bring those possessions on the move with them. With horses, the Native Americans were able to travel farther and faster, even with the increased burden on the horses. As horses were able to help transport more, more materials were available for the construction of dwelling places, and therefore, larger homes. Women no longer had to carry back breaking burdens and were able to conserve their energies for other tasks. The aged and physically handicapped could be carried on travois and so were not in danger of being abandoned on the plains by their able-bodied fellows.

Having horses changed the methods of raiding and warfare, and also some of the reasons for it. Both horses and the gun encouraged the abandonment of fighting in closely grouped, static lines in favor of mobile, spread formations, and the abandonment of heavy rawhide body armor which impeded physical movement without providing adequate protection from gunfire. Horses became something of a status symbol. If your horses got stolen and you needed horses, you would go on a raid to get horses. If another tribe needed horses and you had horses, then you might be raided. Horses also became used in trade. The supply of horses never equaled the demand and so they could make great bargaining chips.

Having horses affected the life of adults and children. Horse racing probably replaced foot racing as the most popular sport of the Blackfoot adults. Not only was it great entertainment, it was also a good way to test the horses against one another. Also, the employment of valuable horses as stakes in gambling must have encouraged interest in other games of chance even though the games themselves may have been known to the Blackfoot of earlier times. Some of the games children played tended to imitate the serious activities of their elders. Boys made and played with stone, wood, or mud toy horses or pretended to ride boldly on hobbyhorses, girls would play "move camp" much like today’s young people play house.

With the introduction of horses permitting the accumulation of property, social status began to depend more on the number and quality of possessions and less on a man’s physical and mental qualities. A class system developed in which there were rich, middle class, and poor families, all distinguished by the relative wealth or poverty of horses, this also taking into account the quality of the animal. Wealthier were expected to help the poorer, and the poorer became dependent followers of the leader who offered the most economic security. The system was kept fluid because enemy horse raiders, winter storms, and disease could quickly and without warning wipe out a rich man’s herd and change his status. Not only that, but through aggressive action a poor but ambitions young man might acquire the horses necessary to raise both his economic and social status. The time and energy saved by the women (because of the horse) with emancipation from the toil of carrying heavy burdens in moving camp and from active participation in prolonged hunts afoot, allowed the women to spend more time devoted to the perfection of arts and crafts, for now they were able to transport many changes of clothes and could seek handsome gear to show off their horses. Also, the decadence on slave raiding decreased the women’s fears of being taken captive by alien peoples.

The Blackfoot looked upon the horse as a godsend. In their mythology it was represented as a powerful sky or water spirit. Horses were thought to possess supernatural powers. The ability of certain horses to perform feats of unusual strength or endurance was proof to the Native Americans that these animals possessed the powers on a very high degree. There was once a secret horse medicine cult, members carefully guarded their knowledge of the origins of their medicines and restricted their use by outsiders in such a way that their secrets would not be revealed. Members were feared and respected by fellow tribesmen. Upon deaths of prominent Blackfoot Native Americans, horses were killed as grave escorts.

Of course it was not only Native American culture that horses affected, horses also affected the lives and culture of the white settlers. At first, horses were mostly just a means of transportation, and something to trade for or with. Horses were very important to explorers and traders, they were much needed transportation. Many famous explorations such as those of Lewis and Clark would have been impossible to complete without horses. It would have been nearly impossible to complete the long journey along the Oregon Trail without horses. But then people developed other ways to use the horses.

Horse drawn fire engines helped put out fires, preventing the destruction of cities or towns. Horses were also used to pull carts to market, take bottles of milk to the houses, and various other things. Horses were used to turn machines that pumped water out of the pits and to hoist buckets of ore to surface. Later, small ponies were used in mines to pull out the carts of coal, or gold or what have you. To keep factory machines spinning, horses had to walk on treadmills or pace around in a circle to turn enormous cranks. These ponies were termed pit ponies.

The first form of public transportation was a horse drawn carriage, then the stagecoach, then later the horse drawn bus and the horsecar, a type of trolley pulled by horses. The first mail system took a long time to get mail from place to place. Then a guy named John Palmer suggested that all mail should be carried via public stagecoach. Mr. Palmer’s idea worked. Nothing was faster than the English mail coach. Breeding coach horses became big business. The mail coach system was a good system for places with paved roads, but where towns were separated by miles of wilderness and the road was nothing more than a muddy buffalo track it was a very slow system. Accidents, unfriendly Native Americans, and lack of organization slowed things down. People wanted faster service and that is what lead to the Pony Express - a system where mail was carried by relay from one place to another by riders on horseback, much of the time through hostile territory. However, when the telegraph came into use horses became obsolete in this area.

A well known use of horses was in ranch work. Some horses were used to work the cattle. Others were kept on the range to reproduce and every once in a while they were brought back to the ranch where some were cut out of the herds to be broken, some were kept for ranch work, others were sold. One legacy of these early ranching days are today’s herds of wild horses, descendents of those that had escaped their masters. These days those herds are dwindling and soon there might be no wild horses left. Large heavy horses were used in work on farms. They pulled plows and then later other heavy machinery such as headers (which cut off just the ripened head leaving the grain stalk), binders (which cut the entire grain stalk off, bind it into sheaves or bundles to be put into shocks where the grain would ripen), threshing machines (which separate grain from the chaff and straw), and combines (machines that combined the threshing and cutting operations, they were so large that each one needed as many as forty-two horses until the "baby" combine was developed which could be hauled by eighteen horses).

Work and serious stuff aside, horses were also used for entertainment such as racing under saddle and racing in harness, polo, rodeos consisting of bronc riding, steer and calf roping, and cutting, Wild West shows, circuses, and gambling on which horse will triumph.

It is truely amazing that the horse, this creature brought here so long ago by the Spanish, had such an impact on human culture. Even today they have a tremendous effect on life. It is also amazing that after all they contributed to the devolopement of America, most people still have no idea how important horses were to history and how important they still are today.

Bibliography

Ewers, John C. (1969). The Horse in Blackfoot Indian Culture. Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Haines, Francis. (1971). Horses in America. New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Company.

Jurmain, Susan. (1981). Once Upon A Horse. New York: Lothrop, Lee, & Shepard Books.

Apologies to any Blackfoot Indians if they find any of my info to be wrong (Email me better details, time permitting, I'll try to incorporate them. Anything to do with your use of horses.), and any other tribes that would have liked to be represented instead. Or in addition to. With enough information I might make a sort of part two to this paper. I worked with the information I could find at the time I had written this.