Page 37 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW - ISSUE 13

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W 3 7

In spring they built temporary dwellings, hunted and did winter procurement. The

economy was mainly based on horse breeding, but also hunting and fishing. This “horse
breeding” will have to be understood according to the husbandry of the reindeer, which
mated with wild or semi-wild individuals. Or the lack of proximity to other horses in a
herd meant natural reproduction. These horses have no genetic link to the horse breeds
that are now called domesticated.

Kazakh horseman with eagle, public domain

We go one step further in our consideration of domestication with the wild horses in the
Merfelder Bruch, a landscape near the town of Dülmen in North Rhine-Westphalia in
Germany [24]. A herd of wild horses has lived here since earliest times, and they are
mentioned in documents as early as 1316.

The preservation of the biotope (habitat) is an important part of the conservation of the
Dülmen wild horse. In the long term, a change in the habitat would also shape a different
type of horse due to natural selection.

Why conservation of horses and not breeding? Breeding horses means selecting horses
for specific goals, e.g. speed, traction, gait or jumping ability, etc. The breeding of animals

promoted by humans has two things in common and is indispensable: on the one hand,
humans can only breed according to criteria that they can see and measure; on the other
hand, breeding towards certain goals means a narrowing of the genetic make-up (gene
pool). Health, natural instinctive behaviour (innate behaviour) and other natural
behaviours can be lost in the process. Above all, valuable, original genetic material of

creation is irretrievably lost.