
Imagine you are living in Mongolia. Mongolia (in the north of China) is a huge place, and when you need to move around, you are very thankful for the horses which you own. They can go across any type of environment - even where there is no road. They are such wonderful animals, strong and reliable, and also loyal and friendly.

When I showed the children this Mongolian leather picture of horses, they wondered what all the fuss was about. “They’re just horses – we have horses in Australia too”. They were amazed to discover that not only were Mongolian horses different to the horses they knew about and recognised, but that they were actually native to Mongolia and one of the oldest unchanged horse breeds in the world. Most of the children had not even heard of Mongolia, but enjoyed looking it up on a map. “I always wondered where horses came from” one child told me.
The Mongol Horse is a horse native to Mongolia and has featured highly in their culture and history. Mongolian horses are very important to Mongolian life, and Mongolia is sometimes even known as land of the horse. Mongolian people are also often thought of as the best horsemen in the world. The Mongol breed of horse is very old, and many believe it is almost the same as that used by Genghis Kahn to conquer his massive Mongol empire. This would mean that the horses have continued to develop and breed naturally, with little input from humans to change their evolution. The horses are small and stocky, but they are strong and reliable with excellent stamina, able to gallop for 10 kilometres without break. They are also very hardy, living outdoors in temperatures ranging from 30 degrees centigrade all the way down to -40 degrees!

These horses are very important to the Mongolian people, providing not just horses to be ridden, but also hair for use in making ropes, milk (from the mares) to make the national drink which is called airag, meat and even leather. They are particularly important to Mongolian nomads, and people who live outside the city of Ulaanbaatar as they are a major mode of transport and make life easier. Children learn to ride as young as three years old, and they are part of the popular sport of horse racing, being the jockeys for the horses. Wild horses, known as Takhi (which means spirit in Mongolian) are particularly prized, being a strong symbol of Mongolian National Heritage. For domesticated horses to mate with these wild populations was particularly lucky, as the babies (foals) of such a breeding were believed to be strong and fast. For many years, the wild horses, (usually known as Przewalski, with populations existing in several zoos, including Western Plains), were extinct, but a reintroduction project has been successful and today there are wild horses back in Mongolia, though they remain endangered.
