Editing Horse (section)

===Wild species surviving into modern times===
{{Main|Wild horse}}
[[File:France Lozère Causse Méjean Chevaux de Przewalski 20.jpg|thumb|A small herd of Przewalski's horses|alt=Three tan-colored horses with upright manes. Two horses nip and paw at each other, while the third moves towards the camera. They stand in an open, rocky grassland, with forests in the distance.]]
A truly [[wild horse]] is a species or subspecies with no ancestors that were ever successfully domesticated. Therefore, most "wild" horses today are actually [[feral horse]]s, animals that escaped or were turned loose from domestic herds and the descendants of those animals.<ref name=Olsen46>{{cite book|author= Olsen, Sandra L.|chapter= Horse Hunters of the Ice Age |title= Horses Through Time |edition= First |publisher= Roberts Rinehart Publishers |location= Boulder, CO |year= 1996 |isbn= 1-57098-060-8 |oclc=36179575 |page= [https://archive.org/details/horsesthroughtim00olse/page/46 46] |chapter-url= https://archive.org/details/horsesthroughtim00olse/page/46}}</ref> Only two wild subspecies, the [[tarpan]] and the [[Przewalski's horse]], survived into recorded history and only the latter survives today.

The [[Przewalski's horse]] (''Equus ferus przewalskii''), named after the Russian explorer [[Nikolai Przhevalsky]], is a rare Asian animal. It is also known as the Mongolian wild horse; [[Mongolia]]n people know it as the ''taki'', and the [[Kyrgyz people]] call it a ''kirtag''. The subspecies was presumed extinct in the wild between 1969 and 1992, while a small breeding population survived in zoos around the world. In 1992, it was reestablished in the wild by the conservation efforts of numerous zoos.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.zsl.org/about-us/media/press-releases/null,1790,PR.html |title= An extraordinary return from the brink of extinction for world's last wild horse |date= 2005-12-19 |access-date= 2012-06-06 |website= ZSL Press Releases |publisher= Zoological Society of London |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130516230420/http://www.zsl.org/about-us/media/press-releases/null,1790,PR.html |archive-date= 2013-05-16}}</ref> Today, a small wild breeding population exists in Mongolia.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.treemail.nl/takh/ |title= Home |access-date= 2008-04-03 |publisher= The Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski Horse |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171010200000/http://www.treemail.nl/takh/ |archive-date=2017-10-10 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=Dohner298>[[#Dohner|Dohner]], pp. 298–299</ref> There are additional animals still maintained at zoos throughout the world.

Their status as a truly wild horse was called into question when domestic horses of the 5,000-year-old [[Botai culture]] of Central Asia were found to be more closely related to Przewalski's horses than to ''E. f. caballus''. The study raised the possibility that modern Przewalski's horses could be the feral descendants of the domestic Botai horses. The study concluded that the Botai animals appear to have been an independent domestication attempt and apparently unsuccessful in terms of genetic markers carrying through to modern domesticated equines.  However, the question of whether all Przewalski's horses descend from this population is also unresolved, as only one of seven modern Przewalski’s horses in the study shared this ancestry. It may also be that both the Botai horses and the modern Przewalski's horses descend separately from the same ancient wild Przewalski's horse population.<ref name="Pennisi">{{cite web |author=Pennisi, Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Pennisi |title=Ancient DNA upends the horse family tree |website=sciencemag.org |date=22 February 2018 |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-dna-upends-horse-family-tree |access-date=30 June 2022 |archive-date=21 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220921222121/https://www.science.org/content/article/ancient-dna-upends-horse-family-tree |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=Orlando>{{Cite journal |last1=Orlando |first1=Ludovic |last2=Outram |first2=Alan K. |last3=Librado| first3=Pablo |last4=Willerslev |first4=Eske |last5=Zaibert |first5=Viktor |last6=Merz |first6=Ilja |last7=Merz |first7=Victor |last8=Wallner |first8=Barbara |last9=Ludwig |first9=Arne |date=2018-04-06 |df=dmy-all |title=Ancient genomes revisit the ancestry of domestic and Przewalski's horses |journal=Science |language=en |volume=360 |issue=6384 |pages=111–114 |doi=10.1126/science.aao3297 |issn=0036-8075 |pmid=29472442|bibcode=2018Sci...360..111G |doi-access=free|hdl=10871/31710 |hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/ancient-dna-rules-out-archeologists-best-bet-for-horse-domestication/|date=February 25, 2018|title=Ancient DNA rules out archeologists' best bet for horse domestication|publisher=[[ArsTechnica]]|access-date=24 June 2020|archive-date=25 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200625064751/https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/02/ancient-dna-rules-out-archeologists-best-bet-for-horse-domestication/|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[tarpan]] or European wild horse (''Equus ferus ferus'') was found in Europe and much of Asia. It survived into the historical era, but became [[Extinction|extinct]] in 1909, when the last captive died in a Russian zoo.<ref name=Dohner300>[[#Dohner|Dohner]], p. 300</ref> Thus, the genetic line was lost. Attempts have been made to recreate the tarpan,<ref name=Dohner300/><ref name=OSU>{{cite web|url=http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/tarpan/ |title=Tarpan |publisher=Oklahoma State University |website=Breeds of Livestock |access-date=2009-01-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116022102/http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/TARPAN/ |archive-date=2009-01-16}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=894&dat=20020621&id=YiALAAAAIBAJ&pg=6481,3069519 |journal=The Daily Courier |date=June 21, 2002 |access-date=2009-10-21 |title=Ponies from the past?: Oregon couple revives prehistoric Tarpan horses |archive-date=2021-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210417182639/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=894&dat=20020621&id=YiALAAAAIBAJ&pg=6481,3069519 |url-status=live }}</ref> which resulted in horses with outward physical similarities, but nonetheless descended from domesticated ancestors and not true wild horses.

Periodically, populations of horses in isolated areas are speculated to be [[Relict (biology)|relict]] populations of wild horses, but generally have been proven to be feral or domestic. For example, the [[Riwoche horse]] of Tibet was proposed as such,<ref name=Dohner298/> but testing did not reveal genetic differences from domesticated horses.<ref name=Tibet>{{cite book |title=Tibet: The Secret Continent |author=Peissel, Michel |year=2002 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=0-312-30953-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6sFWvuBug8IC&pg=PA36 |page=36 |access-date=2020-09-28 |archive-date=2023-03-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320223812/https://books.google.com/books?id=6sFWvuBug8IC&pg=PA36 |url-status=live }}</ref> Similarly, the [[Sorraia]] of Portugal was proposed as a direct descendant of the [[Tarpan]] on the basis of shared characteristics,<ref name="Royo">{{cite journal|author1=Royo, L.J. |author2=Álvarez, I. |author3=Beja-Pereira, A. |author4=Molina, A. |author5=Fernández, I. |author6=Jordana, J. |author7=Gómez, E. |author8=Gutiérrez, J. P. |author9=Goyache, F. |year=2005 |title=The Origins of Iberian Horses Assessed via Mitochondrial DNA |journal=Journal of Heredity |volume=96 |issue=6 |pages=663–669 |doi=10.1093/jhered/esi116|pmid=16251517|doi-access=free}}<!--|access-date=2008-12-15--></ref><ref name=Edwards>[[#Edwards|Edwards]], pp. 104–105</ref> but genetic studies have shown that the Sorraia is more closely related to other horse breeds, and that the outward similarity is an unreliable measure of relatedness.<ref name=Royo/><ref name=Lira/>