Are horses native to North America?

Question

Please settle a bet. I say that horses are not native to North America, and that European explorers first brought horses to America. Or maybe they came up from South America?

Anyway, my friend says that horses have always been on North America, long before explorers or the first European settlors first arrived.

Who's right? Sources are appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

We talked about this recently in my archeology and anthropology classes...
The discussion was that there were horses during some point of the Pliocene (3.5 million years ago).. then they were wiped out sometime during the freeze of the Pleistocene.
For a concrete source, check out http://hagermanfossilbeds.areaparks.com/
then click the nature and science tab

Answer 2

As stated many times above, you are correct---horses were first brought to the Americas by the Spanish (although an ancestor of the horse once lived in the Americas).

As an added note, the Amerindians who first encountered the Spanish thought that horses were giant dogs.

Answer 3

You are right, horses were brought here by Europeans. I know because it was a question I missed on a test in College history class and I had a huge discussion about it.

Answer 4

I knew that. The evidence strongly indicates that when "Native Americans" first IMMIGRATED here, they killed and ate them all. You know, they invaded and committed genocide against the native inhabitants, including about 70 other species of large fauna. Europeans figured out that they could ride the things, and the Native Americans had to be shown this idea. By the way, for those who argue that horses and other megafauna were killed by climate change, you face the problem that plants and smaller animals did not undergo a similar extinction. It was the humans--you know, the empathic "natives" who are in touch with nature.

Answer 5

They are from Saudi Arabia I believe.

Seems I could be wrong:

Evolution of The Horse

The very first horses evolved on the North American continent over 55 million years ago. FROM : http://www.letemrun.com/Wild-Horse-Information-Origins-of-The-Horse.htm


Archaeological evidence in the Iberian Peninsula, modern day Spain and Portugal, indicates that the origins of the Lusitano horse date back to at least 25,000 B.C. in the form of its primitive ancestor, the Sorraia breed.
http://www.iberianhorses.com/origin.htm
you decide if the site is credible

Answer 6

You are right. Modern horses came to America with the Spanish.

There were horses ancestors in America 20 thousand years ago but they became extinct before man arrived here.

Answer 7

No. They are not native. Horses came from the Steppes of Asia.

De Las Casa even mentions when he first brought his horses to the new world, the new world peoples were so scared that if Cortez's horse died, he would return.

Answer 8

I think they were brought over by europeans

Answer 9

No they were introduced by the Spanish