Roman horses

[bachmat66]

In fact, not even my beloved TB (= Thoroughbred) may have come forth from what we nowadays call Arabian horses, but from Balkan horses like the Byerley Turk called 'Arabian' horses because they came from the Ottoman Empire which was called 'Arabian' for convenience. Arabian horses seem to have originated in Egypt not Arabia. You can read about this in the book called 'The Byerley Turk' on Ottoman warhorses. As you may well know The Byerley Turk was one of the three foundation sires of the TB.

Nevertheless I am still in the dark about Libyan horses. Ann Hyland is all too much of an Arabian lover in my opinion (her book 'Equus - the horse in the Roman world' is very 'pro-Arabian') and she claims the Libyan horse to be of Arabian origin or even that the Libyan horse should equal the Arabian horse ('Egyptian' in terms of the above). Unfortunately there is no historical evidence of this being true. Or am I mistaken about this?

greets,

Annelies

hello,
I am reading the new Hyland book - the Ancient Horse - should have been titled Middle Eastern Ancient Horse from lets say 1700BC to 300BC. Even there she is very pro-Arabians (got my copy of Equus too, I actually like it).
American horsewoman and trainer Dr (she is a former Smithsonian paleontologist) Deb Bennett wrote 'The Conquerors' some 10 years ago where she talks about the origin of hot-blood (for the lack of a better term) horses in Europe, Middle East and Western Asia. She, amongst other things, uses the genetic studies of another American scientist Dr Gus Cochran that tend to prove that there was not Arabian horse prior to Islam conquests of Egypt and Sassanian Iran.
As per Thoroughbred origin - the horses involved must been definitely the so called Turkish horses from Asia Minor and Thrace (Rumelia), Persian horses from Saafid Iran and Central Asia, and Barbs from Maghreb - I do not think they were Arabians in a sense of the 19th century Arabians.
De la Gueriniere writes that both Turks and TBs did not qualify to be used in the high school of equestrian arts of the 18th century, perhaps indicating their common origin (faults with conformation etc)
The Poles got their first Arabs from the spoils of their victory at Vienna (1683) but the real breeding did not start until late 18th century or even later when the Arabian horses were imported directly from Syria and Arabian Peninsula exclusively.
Darius