The American Bashkir Curly dates to 1898 when
Peter Damele and his father were riding horseback in the Peter
Hanson mountain range in the remote high country of central Nevada,
near Austin. There they discovered three horses with tight, curly
ringlets covering their entire bodies. Since then, curly horses have
been found on the Damele range and many Curlies in the United States
can be traced to that herd. The Bashkir
Curly gets it name from the ancient Russian breed, the Bashkir, from
which the modern Curly was believed to have descended.
Various theories have been proposed to explain the presence of the
Curly horse in North America. Some have suggested that they came
across the Bering Strait land bridge during the last ice age, but no
fossil evidence has been found to support that. Others suggest that
curly coated horses were imported while the Russians occupied parts
of the West Coast of North America. However, Thomas' research shows
there was no mention of the importation of horses into North America
by Russian settlers in their ship logs. Horses were used on a
limited basis during the Russian experimentation with farming during
the late 1700s and early 1800s in present day Alaska. Another theory is that a man by the name of
Tom Dixon imported curly horses from northern India to Nevada around
1880. Although this theory cannot be fully proved or disproved the
Curly horse was already present in America by that time. Evidence
shows that Sioux Indians had Curly horses as early as 1801-02 and in
his 1848 autobiography circus master, P. T. Barnum, writes of
obtaining and exhibiting a curly horse.
As early as the late 1700s, sightings of curly
horses were reported in South America. It seems possible, but cannot
be concluded, that the Spanish conquistadors may have brought curly
horses, or the curly gene, to South America, as there are several
European breeds with curly hair. Another suggestion is that Norse or
Celtic explorers brought curly horses to North America prior to 1492
but this theory has yet to be fully investigated. With all of these
possibilities as to the origin of this unique breed no definitive
answers have yet to be agreed upon.
The American Bashkir Curly has excelled
in many events, including barrel racing, pole bending, Western
riding, gymkhana, hunter, jumper, roping, cutting, English
equitation, English pleasure, Western equitation, Western pleasure,
gaited pleasure and competitive and endurance trail riding. |
