Indian Horses

The North American Indians did not start with the horse, in fact they lived without the horse for many years. The first time they saw the horse was when the Spanish Conquistadores first landed in the Americas, bringing their horses with them.

The history of the American Indian Horses, is a long and colorful one. It is generally agreed by historians that the Spanish brought their horses to the new world in the 1500s.

These horses were a mixture of the Barb, Arabian and Andalusian blood and were considered the best horses in the world at that time. The horse was indispensable to the conquest of Mexico by Cortez.

Indians of that era had never seen horses and to them the horse and rider were a godlike being to them, when the Indian first saw the Spanish men riding these beasts, they thought the horse and rider was a different beast that they had never seen before. If you could imagine an Indian hiding in the bushes and to see this great creature of man mixed with such a great beast.

No wonder the Indian saw this merge of man and horse as a mythical beast. You could see how the centaur could have been created within ones mind...

To try and keep this belief with the Indians, it was illegal for some years for an Indian to ride a horse much less own one.

However, in time, with the spread of the horse and the Spanish ranchos, the Indian did acquire this "Big Dog" or "God Dog" for their own.

The acquisition of the horse completely changed the Plains Indians' way of life, transforming them from roaming peoples to nomadic hunters and warriors. Thanks to the Indian horses.

Hunting for the Indian took on a different form also. Before the horse the primary way of hunting was to run a herd of game over a cliff. After the arrival of the horse the Indians could hunt from horseback, choosing only the most desirable of targets for their prey.



Horse stealing between the tribes became the number one sport on the plains and was considered an honorable way for a young warrior to gain experience and fame.

Horses meant wealth to the Plains tribes and were used extensively for barter and gifts.

Indian Horses have contributed to the making of a number of American breeds. The Morgan, Quarter Horse, American Saddlebred, and the Tennessee Walker are only a few, and most of the color breeds trace their ancestry back to the Indian Horse -- the Paint, Palomino, Appaloosa and Buckskin to name some.



The North American Plains Indians acquired their first horses, and the knowledge of how to handle them, through trade with the Indians of the Southwest. American Indians had to learn to ride and handle horses just like everybody else.

They adopted different ways to handle and break these horses, Indian horses were first ridden into the lakes to be mounted for the first time. This way the warrior did not get hurt by falling into the water, and the horses bucking and rearing was dulled by the deep water, so that the horse got used to the warrior on its back.

Apart from the normal bridle and saddle that the Indian got hold of, most doubtedly by stealing horses with their tack on them at the time, the Indian used a rope that looped through the horses mouth and an Indian blanket on the horses back.

The Pueblo Rebellion of 1680 forced the Spanish out of New Mexico and many horses were left behind. The Pueblo Indians and other tribes in the area took full advantage of these horses.

It took decades for a tribe to accumulate enough Indian horses for their needs. Of the true nomadic tribes only the Comanche, Kiowa, and Crow had enough horses throughout most of the horse period (Haines). Haines states that it took eight to ten horses to satisfy the needs of each family.

The individual, not the tribe, owned the Indian horses. This produced a class system based on ownership of horses… those with and those without.



Horses elevated the Indian owner's prestige and power, and often increased the number of wives a warrior could afford.

The owners of large numbers of Indian horses loaned them to other members of the village during camp moves, or for the buffalo hunt. In the Indian culture, generosity was the mark of a true leader.

The horse herds within a tribe could be increased through: war parties, breeding, and trade. The only one of these open to a young man was the war party. The vast majority of war parties were to steal horse, not fight an enemy. The methods warriors had previously used for stealing women or slaves were applied to the taking of horses.



The prized possession among warrior was the buffalo horse. A buffalo horse was trained to run beside the buffalo during a hunt. Without these specially trained horses, it was hard for warriors to provide enough meat for an entire village. The highly valued buffalo horses were kept inside the lodge at night or picketed nearby to the warriors tipee. For many tribes the highest war honor was to take a picketed buffalo horse from another enemy village.

Blackfoot efforts in breeding horses were directed toward producing one or more of three qualities in the offspring. These qualities were a particular color, size, and speed (Ewers).

The owner of a herd of mares selected a stallion with the characteristics that he was interested in acquiring…nothing was done to improve the quality of the mares. Ewers also stated that most men were too poor or too careless to devote much thought or time to stallion selection.

The Variety of Colors

From that origin the color pattern has spread to other regions and breeds, but all evidence points to it being a Spanish pattern originally. Different breeders select for various of these colors and patterns, but all can be shown to have been present in the Spanish horses at the time of the conquest.

Indian war horse was highly regarded by its American Indian owner, who often honored and protected his war horse by painting tribal symbols upon the Indian horses body.

While the symbols used and their meanings varied from tribe to tribe, there were some common symbols that were widely used on the Indian war horse.

Each power symbol has its own specific meaning and the purpose for which it was used was determined by the nature of the dangerous job which the war horse would be asked to do.
 

The Indian would decorate his horse with carefully chosen war symbols or power symbols which might be intended to give him protection, to indicate the troubles which lay ahead, or which spoke of the courageous heart of the war horse. Some symbols told of the horse's affection for the warrior. In this article, you will find explanations of some symbols which Indians used to decorate their war horses.

A circle around the horse's eye and nostrils for alert vision and a keen sense of smell.

Arrow points in a line which brought victory.

Thunder stripes in the horse's front legs to please the Indian's god of war.

Arrowheads on all four hooves made the horse swift and nimble-footed.

Fire Arrows would cause trouble for the enemy, which in turn would add strength to the warrior.

Right/left hand prints were outlined upon the horse's chest, which showed that he'd knocked down an enemy.

Hail Stones were a prayer for hail to fall on the warrior's enemy.

Two crossing bars meant that the horse and his rider had escaped ambush.

Hoofprints were drawn on the horses and stood for the number of horses captured in raids.

The horse's Battle Scars (always painted red) and the Pat Hand Print (left hand drawn on the horse's right hip) were the highest honors. The Pat Hand Print was always reserved exclusively for the horse who had brought his master back home from a dangerous mission unharmed.

While preparing himself for battle, the Indian warrior would apply his personal honors on his war horse. The symbols he painted depicted enemies killed and ponies stolen.

The Indian would weave a Medicine Bag into the bridle and Coup Feathers were braided into the war horse's forelock and tail.

For the men who would be going on a do-or-die mission, the Upside-down Handprint would be used. It was the most prized symbol a warrior could place on his horse.

From the Apache and Commanche tribes, legends about this handprint tell of a furious battle in which a warrior was fatally wounded. Before the brave warrior's death, he patted his horse on the right shoulder, thus leaving a bloody handprint on his horse for all his people to see his "message of death" when the horse returned to camp.

When the Indian groomed his horse for battle, he would knot up the horse's tail to prevent the enemy from taking hold of it and using it to dismount him from his horse.

He would gather the mane into clusters, tying it to prevent entanglement in his bow and arrow during the combat.