NO 38
PAGE 10
H O R S E S
The first morning the steps along the pebbly path in the yard were rewarded with neighing from the sta-
ble. Before my arrival, the path had endured the creaky steps of my mother, my father and the stable
boy, but from the stable no sounds were to be heard.
It was my stepping, recognizable to the ear that expected it, that induced the welcome whinnying for
me.
And, God forbid, I’d stop on my way in conversation with some newcomer, the whinnying would turn
into neighing until Sokol ssw me at the stable door jamb. And so it was so every morning.
As his greeting spread over the stable and the yard, in my chest would spread warmth, some kind of
delight of belonging to this four legged wonderful being, with a silky, gray, thick mane and coat, noble
eyes,
his nape and withers sturdy, his deep chest and strong croup.
Most of his relatives are bay (brown) and black horses, and they originated by the breeding and selec-
tion of horses for use in the lowland area along the Sava River, as dray horses and working horses.
Posavina, the area of his origin, both the left and the right banks of river Sava, was originally the habi-
tat of the native Posavina horse (Croatian Posavac), but under the influence of other breeds, among
which are mentioned Noniusi, half-breed horses, Arabic, Old Spanish, Lipizzaner, Oldenburg and Bel-
gian horses, was created an almost new horse breed, adjusted to Posavina land and the demands
thereof.
To enquire about the breeding of this horse, we may ascertain with pleasure that it has been well
planned and effective.
My Sokol is from the class Mammals (
Mammalia), subclass Placentalia (P
lacentalia), order of ungu-
lates (
Ungulata), suborder (
Perissodactyla), family horses (
Equidae), genus
Equus and species
Equus
caballus, the Croatian posavac, a gray stud with orbicular spots. Even without searching his pedigree
is written on a verified piece of paper, I feel his nobleness in each breath and each touch of his precious
head with my shoulder and my face.
We touch each other with our heads and I whisper into his ear, embracing his strong neck and he trem-
bles like a frightened lamb, like when people had put on him the first harness, cautiously looking
around so as not to step onto my foot with his big strong hoof or harm me in some other way.
He waits for grooming, patient and calm, without looking for a reward, only the utterance of love and
attention may give him pleasure. I babble to him softly, and he repays me with the sound of sighing
through a narrowed glottis as a sign of approval. To brush him and silently speak to him is the biggest
prize for him throughout the day.
It is important that he hears my voice, calm and soothing and feels the caress of the brush. Sokol was
filled with my lectures about one and all (odds and ends) and never he disaproved at all, although
sometimes he showed some disagreeableness, but in a fine way.
NO 38
PAGE 11
“Do you know,” I told him, “what role your ancestors played in the life of humankind? We had been
acquaintances about thirty thousand years before the years were counted at all.” Grooming time is a
time to relax while pleasantly meditating in silence, audibly fulfilled only with the sound of the brush
down the horse’s coat. The fact, that in front of me stands such a beautiful animal opens up a series of
questions, starting with the way how and when horses were domesticated and trained to hunt and for
war, all the way to questions on the phenomena of the horse as a sacrificial animal.
According to claims by scientists, horse and man were familiar with each other thirty thousand years
ago. Archeology and history have kept track of the horse ever since the discoveries of the first fossil
ancestors in North America, where they were domesticated first. Traces of them were lost in the allu-
vial era and investigators assume that the reason for their disappearance was most likely some kind of
pestilence. In America, further development of horses may be traced upon the arrival of conquering
seafarers and their Spanish horse breeds.
In Plionece, the horse had expanded over today’s Bering Sea Strait to North Asia and further, where
there have been found the remains of a genuine breed of wild horses, among which survived only one
of them -
Equus ferus. This horse inhabited the territory of Asia, particularly in Mongolia.
Nowadays it resides in the area of West Dzungaria in China, where it was discovered by Przewalskii
and later named after him Eyuus Przewalskii – starting the origin for many breeds of horses, such as
the Mongolian horse and the domestic horses of North and Central Europe. In the scientific sphere
there exists two differing thoughts and theories about the genesis of the heavy horses and their breed,
such as
Equus caballus Auet,
Ewart,
Equus caballus germanicus Nehringi,
Equus Woldrich i
Equus
abeli Ant.
Other independent genuine forms of domestic horses were
Equus Gmelini Antonius or
Equus tarpan
(Kodinec, 1951.). The latter became extinct quite late. It had inhabited the area of Southeast Europe
and the neighbouring regions of Asia, especially in Iran, where it became established even 3,000 years
B.C., but it was observed as a starting group of light horses which reached Babylon and Egypt 2,000
years B.C. It later arrived in Galicia, Latvia and Bosnia, where they were then domesticated. Its de-
scendants are the Galician and Bosnian horse.
In the genetics of the horses wandering over the mountain slopes around the town of Livno in Bosnia,
although due to the war and therefore freed from the households we can say they have gone wild, there
is the blood of that very Tarpan. I wonder, is it in some way a piece of luck they are there in their natu-
ral conditions?
There they have access to enough food, free, gone wild, wandering over the meadows and forests of
their ancestors, the very last wild specimen noted back in 1866 in South Russia. Looking at them as
free as they are, for that’s the way they have been shown in a movie on the Internet, exteriorly it is pos-
sible to claim that we know their genetics, but according to the descriptions and pictures/photos of the
Bosnian horse, the autochthonous with a large influence of the Arabian horse, it may be concluded they
are very much like the Livno’s horses.
It must be born in mind that Šola systemized the Bosnian horses into two groups, the mountain horse
and those of the hilly areas; Grković systemizes them into two types, taking into account the influence
of the natural factors of their nascency and formation. Both types show a strong infiltration of Arabian
blood. Reading and following the distinction of the Arabian horse, I can notice similarities
in the trans-
ferred attributes.