Appaloosas in Mongolia today
In his American Appaloosa Anthology, Palmer J. Wagner describes the eastern Hunnic peoples of the vast central Asian steppe. Referred to as Hsiung-Nu by their Oriental neighbors, little is known about their horses. Yet, one breed was recorded to have an erect mane.
About that time, during the Han dynasty in China, a most magnificent horse was acquired from The Valley of Ferghana to the west. This class of swift horse was better suited to warfare than the typical China workhorse and could defend Emperor Wu Di against his long-time enemies, the Hsiung-Nu. The Great Wall, in Wu Di's time had frequent gaps and it would take the speed and toughness of these superior horses to repel raiders from the north. Wu Di sent many caravans to trade silks for these highly-prized Ferghana horses. Chinese art later immortalized the war horses, referring to them as Celestial Horses.
These remarkable animals, also referred to as the Heavenly Horses and Blood-Sweating Horses by scholars and art historians, were known for their speed, agility, and stamina. Many bore an unmistakable spotted-coat pattern.
In the hundreds of years to follow, border raids by the Hsiung-Nu resulted in an immeasurable number of these Ferghana horses being captured and infused into local herds. Thus, the spotted coat of the great warhorse found the erect mane of the nomadic workhorse -- the foundation of the early Appaloosa.
The Mongols were direct descendants of these Hsiung-Nu. Numbering about 700,000, most were herdsman living fragmented in small bands north of the Gobi Desert. Each band was headed by a chief or Khan. Adept at moving great distances, the Mongols hunted in winter and traded livestock and timber from Siberian forests in summer.
Read more at True Appaloosas
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