Moyle Horse

[horseowner]

This is the first time I have heard about this horse before and I too have been around many breeds. Just read the article and it was very interesting. I assume the gait of the Moyle horse is a trot? I hope they continue to preserve this horse and its history.

 

[moyle]

His gait is walk trot canter and gallop! It is my understanding that they are great endurance horses! I believe there is still a breeder out west.

 

[Equusrider]

Its a little late I know but I ran across your question regarding the MOYLE horse. The horses were brought to Utah in the mid 1800s, by Porter Rockwell at the request of Brigham Young. They were brought to be used by the Mormon settlers as a working farm horse and to be used by the Pony Express. Where Porter Rockwell got the horses is not known, only that they were brought overseas by ship. But they proved their worth with incredible endurance and stamina. Porter Rockwell fell in love with this breed and bred these horses for use in the stage lines and buggy horses. After his death the horses he had bred so carefully were sold off and and crossed with other breeds. There is a record of a Pony Express company paying $250 per head of the "Mormon horses" when $25 would have bought the best horses available.

A rancher named Chris Hansen had the fortune of living near the Pony Express route and was able to trade for one of the "Mormon horses". That mare had a filly and the filly was given to his daughter. That little filly had 16 foals which became the foundation herd for Chris Hansen's sturdy ranch horses. Chris Hansen's "Mormon horses" became famous in the area for having unlimited endurance and a working ranch horse that could last one rider, all day; when most ranches had to have a working string of 5-7 horses per cowboy, per day.

When a horse breeder named Rex Moyle, Chris Hansen's grandson, was a young man he went into the Cedar Valley where the Mormons had grazed their livestock he carefully looked through hundreds of captured mustangs and he found breeding stock that had the characteristics of the ranch horses his grandfather Hansen had bred and loved so much and he began breeding MOYLE Horses. To avoid inbreeding, some outcrosses were made to Cleveland Bay horses.

These horses owe their unusual endurance and stamina to an unusual freedom of movement in the shoulders. The forelegs are place extremely forward of the ribcage which allows for greater stride and movement. The liver and spleen of these horses are larger, giving them the greater advantage of red blood cell replacement for long distance endurance. In 1961 the Moyle family began entering in endurance races placing consistently in the top 6 and winning awards for having the overall best conditioned horses at the end of the races. Their horses were often the only ones still in good enough shape to ride into town to collect the prize money.
Not all of the Moyle horses sport the frontal bony bumps but they all have the endurance of the original "Mormon Horses".

Blood samples show trace lineage to the Carthusian Andalusian and from there to some asian breeds who show some of the horses with bony bumps on their foreheads.

For a more complete history, this information was taken from an article on the internet called the "History of the Moyle Horse". There is a ranch in Idaho where the Moyle horses are still being bred, as far as I know.

 

[KiwiShires]

Hi Guys,
I found this site through a Google search about "Horned Horses"

Very interesting reading,

We have a Shire Stallion who has these Frontal Bosses too. Hei s a 4yr old & was born with them.
I dont know if you know anything about Shires? They are draft horses and far from a little endurance horse LOL

Anyway,
Just wanted to re-vive this topic and say.. HEY We have one of these rare horned horses too & its not restricted to the "Moyle" Line of horses either )

Cheers, From New Zealand

 

[vodkarok91]

Hi, Googling the topic and came across this site and thread.

I have started researching the topic of "horses with horns" from an archaeological viewpoint.

The most famous "horned horse" was in fact Alexander the Great's Bucephalus ("ox head"): various explanations have been offered to explain why the horse was so named, including that he may have had an unusual white face marking; that he was branded with an ox-head; or that he had large ox-like eyes.

Often no-one looks at the simplest explanation - that the horse may have, in fact, had "horns", or something that looked like it.

If, I thought, there had ever been horses with horns, there ought to be some still to be found. So off I went internet searching, and lo and behold, I found some horses with "horns".

Not cow-like horns, but small bumps on the forehead above the eyes, similar to the little hair-covered nubs that calves have - as shown in the photographs previously posted. They vary in size, sometimes occur singly but more commonly in pairs, and they occur at the rate of maybe 2 or 3 individuals per thousand in Thoroughbreds for example (suggests the research so far).

It appears that some "breeds" or "lines" have a higher rate of producing horses with the bony frontal skull bosses - among these the Moyle, the Carthusian Andalusian, and the Datong horse of China (Encyc of Horse Breeds).

There are references in historic literature to "horned" horses with admirable qualities of endurance and courage - possibly Persian and Nisaean horses, and perhaps the "Heavenly Horses" that China sought to acquire from Central Asia in antiquity.

As well as literary references, I went looking for explanations as to how the unusual feature formed and whether it was heritable; it appears that variations of growth of the jawbone and pressure points created during foetal development can give rise to the growth of the bony protuberances, and the higher rate of occurrence in certain lines suggests that it may be an inheritable characteristic, though data needs to be collected - it does also appear to occur randomly also (anecdotally, both my farrier and horse dentist had seen TBs with frontal skull bosses).

I have acquired some photos of a horse skull with the protuberances and they are bony and clearly visible on the skull.

Information gathered suggests that the Moyle/Mormon horses possess some particular physiological characteristics peculiar to the breed, as well as notable endurance qualities - I imagine if horses in ancient times possessed great stamina and quality and also had visible frontal skull bosses, these things would have been noteworthy, as a courageous mount was a thing of great value and esteem, and an unusual physical appearance would be a marvel.

My theory is that the source of the early "horned horses" may have been Central Asia or somewhat further East - not the Arabian, as I have not come across any examples of skull bosses in that breed as yet. (On another tack, it is likely that some of the progenitors of the TB were actually Turkoman horses, with names like Byerley Turk, Yellow Turk etc). It is possible that the Moyle lines came from Eurasia but that is merely speculation - research may produce more information.

The other thing I want to look into is whether any of the horse skulls that have been found in burials of Scythians, Pazykrys, Macedonians, Persians etc (where burial practices have allowed preservation) exhibit these frontal skull bosses.

Bucephalus was buried somewhere in northern India - one day, if the burial site is found and the famous horse exhumed, and if his remains have been preserved in that difficult climate - wouldn't it be amazing to see two frontal bosses on his skull?

 

[moyle]

Hi, It has been quite awhile since I posted. I now own the horse with the horns in the picture... turns out he is a Thoroughbred - registered with the Jockey Club.

I emailed the Moyle family website and was told that they have seen the "horns" in Thoroughbreds and when they have them they are generally very fast. True to that statement, I found the racing record through the Jockey club and he won his one and only race... I think an injury of some sort sidelined him. He has a large scar on his back foot.

He temperament is very sweet and curious, he does have a lot of energy when he is turned out... rearing, kicking playing, swimming! But under saddle he is more whoa than go.

The horns are so rare that 2 vets, 2 farriers and three trainers had never seen them!


Just thought I would give an update.

I hope everyone is off to a wonderful 2013!

 

[Amalthea]

Wow, very interesting thread. Never have I heard of these horses. Vodkarok91, I appreciated your post very much. Thanks

 

[daisylind]

Just found out about the Moyle horse, and saw there was little to nothing up on Wikipedia's page! I gathered what seemed to be the best info from a thorough search, but the one thing missing is a picture.

@moyle, would you mind uploading and adding your Moyle photos to wikipedia? Just seems a shame not to have any great pics up there illustrating the bony growths on the head...

Since i'm a new user, I cant post the wikipedia link, but just look for Moyle Horse on wikipedia and it's the article that comes up. There are also guidelines on how to upload pics to Wikipedia if you google that as well.

Cheers!
*daisy

 

[Equusrider]

@Daisylind, If you go to the Moyle family website they have some good pictures of the moyle horse. As far as I know, they are still breeding them?? Type in "The history of the moyle horse" to your search engine and it should bring it up.