#mongolian horse

[horsefigureoftheday]

Horse figure of the day: CollectA Mongolian Stallion #88919

[hippography]

FIG. I   

A Mongolian Pony Mare, probably a half-bred Tarpan, used as a foster-mother to the Tarpan Colts brought to England for the Duke of Bedford. 

Richard Lydekker, 1912, The Horse and Its Relatives 

[vintagewildlife]

A young boy tending to a horse By: C. Suydam Cutting From: Natural History Magazine 1936

[ra-horakhty-art]

Artwork for studying.

[dharmaart]

Three Mongolian horses painted in gouache.

[horsefriends]

Resting Stallion by Tengis Galamez

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: Horse of Another... Size

“Hollywood lied! The horses are tiny!”

Yes, that’s another sticky-note; or journal note, rather, after Jason is coherent enough to start writing one in that fantastic world. Despite what you see in c-dramas and k-dramas, the horses in Joseon-era Korea would actually be relatively tiny. The size of a Mongolian horse, in fact. Because that’s where most of their ancestry came from.

(Not always strictly Mongolia, but the steppe horses are what came with various waves of people trading and conquering across East Asia. And as of the Yuan Dynasty we’ve got records of Mongolian horses imported specifically for better cavalry. So.)

A Mongolian horse runs about 500 to 600 pounds, and ranges in size from 12 to 14 hands (48 to 56 inches) at the shoulder. A Thoroughbred, in comparison, is about 15.2 to 17.0 hands (62 to 68 inches), while an American Percheron runs 15 to 19 hands (60 to 76 inches) and weighs in the ton range - they average about 1900 pounds.

As in one Percheron outweighs four Joseon-era Korean horses. We can know this for sure because the Jeju horse still exists, and they tend to run no more than 12.25 hands - just over 50 inches at the shoulder. Tiny. Very tiny. Tiny to the point a rider makes sure most of his weight is over the horse’s shoulders, not its back. (As we can see in late 1800s pictures of Mongolian archers; I found a few via Wikipedia and other places. Wow.)

And yet these horses are large enough to be ridden; with armor, if you feed them well. Part of Genghis Khan’s ability to conquer various places came from his tactics of maintaining a good grain supply for his special cavalry units. Mongolian horses can live on just grass, but they have more endurance with grain.

There was a time when horses weren’t even that big. People who’ve dug the bones and checked historical sources estimate that horses weren’t bred big enough for cavalry until after the Late Bronze Age collapse (about 1177 BC). Prior to that chariot warfare was the big way to use horses, because putting a couple tiny horses into harness with a wicker basket over wheels could carry a human weight.

Note that horse size is partly due to breeding, and partly due to having your agriculture good enough to have extra grain just for feeding horses. A steppe horse can survive on grass alone. Bigger horses will starve. This was apparently a problem for horses in Elizabethan England as well; until people got the word to add grain to their diets, larger horses were critically malnourished.

Take this into account if you’re writing a realistic fantasy, or SF with horses imported off-planet. You can’t just turn a bunch of large-breed horses loose on a grassland and expect them to survive. Not unless the grassland is very different from what we know on Earth, and provides grain-levels of calories!

In case you’re wondering, Thoroughbreds didn’t make it to Korea until the 1800s, at the earliest. And yet horses that size and shape are what you generally see in modern dramas. So it goes....

[yabancreations]

Dinghai Love Week 2023 Day 1: Chile Chuan Under the Yin Mountains.

Horses are a blessing and a curse for Dinghai Fusheng Lu readers and I didn't want to leave them out of the event. Here's Huleishan, pride of the Akele tribe, hanging out in Chile Chuan.

[ponyinmypocket12]

PONY PROFILE #20914

Series 2 Newborns (2008-2010)

Name : Arabella

Breed : Mongolian

Find Arabella's Profile Here

Number in my collection : 3

[whywishesarehorses]

Mongolian horse archer; pulled from Instagram from a repost account that did not include the og source

[snototter]

A Przewalski's horse stallion (Equus przewalskii) in Mongolia

by Soyolbold S

[stutteritinyliving]

THIS IS HE 

The second Mongolian horse I bought for hacks in the forests around the stables. His name is George, and my girlfriend has already taken a liking to him. Because of course. Why not? George is the sweetest soul, even though he is kinda easily spooked. But I will let her do some groundwork with him, so he will be easier to break in

[hippography]

FIG. 2. A Mongolian Polo Pony.

Richard Lydekker, 1912, The Horse and Its Relatives 

[horsefigureoftheday]

Horse figure of the day: Mr.Z Hailar Horse 060-1

[ra-horakhty-art]

Batu and Subutai in Europe. According Genghis khan wish, Batu and Subutai went to Europe "to the last sea". They got Litva, Poland and Hungaria. But it was to hard for mongols to go on their conquest because of castles and little space for feeding the horses. Also it was unnecessary, besides, Batu had enough lands for his ulus and when he had the reason to turn back, he did it immediately. He said to his warriors, that kaan Ogodai died, and they won. After it, he returned to Volga region, because there was dangerous political situation in Karakorum. (Batu's enemy got the power) Although Batu and Subutai said about necessity their being at Kurultai, they didn't go there.

Some fragments of course.

Uragsha!

[blujaynoodles]

big lady, big kisses 😌💕