Native Surviving Horse Hypothesis

A controversial body of thought exists that the horse may never have completely disappeared from North America during the late Pleistocene, after all. This hypothesis (a defiance of long-accepted theory) is often referred to, variably, as the "native surviving horse," "post-Pleistocene/pre-Columbian horse," or the "lingering herds" hypothesis. It is founded upon a small base of paleontological data (yet to be published), historical records, and Native American oral histories. The belief is that small herds of native horses survived in North America into recent historical time, interbreeding with horses, introduced into the New World by the Spanish during the sixteenth century. Only hard data, in the form of confirmed horse bone dates that fall within the late Ice Age and pre-Spanish-contact time frame, will lend support to this hypothesis. Another hypothesis, receiving some attention, presently, is that an earlier culture, such as the Vikings or Albans Scots, brought horses into North America before the Spanish.

In any event, the wild horse in America has been both a tangible reality and a romantic myth. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the first Euro-American explorers, trappers, and mountain men to arrive on the Great Plains found Native Americans on horseback, and vast herds of wild horses grazing alongside buffalo, antelope, and deer.