Are There Horses In Africa? (Find Out!)

My son and I were watching a documentary about wildlife in Africa the other day, and we were quite surprised to learn that there are virtually no wild horses on the continent.

This really surprised us, since humans tamed horses so long ago, and Africa is where we came from.

The documentary didn’t expand on the point much, so I decided to look into it myself.

So, are there horses in Africa?

The Namib Desert horse, of unknown but probably colonial European origin, is the only known species of feral horse in Africa. Other than that, the only horses on the continent are domestic, and used for work or farming. There are a few reasons for this.

So, though you can’t say there are none, given the relative size of Africa, one species of feral horse does not seem like very much.

The history of the evolution of the horse is quite interesting and goes a long way to explaining why this would be, so let’s look further into the question.

Why are there no horses in Africa?

The simple answer is that they didn’t evolve there.

Modern day horses evolved on the North American continent, and most likely crossed the land bridge between Alaska and Russia to be first domesticated on the icy tundra of Russia and Kazakhstan.

From there, they spread to the early human world in the Near and Middle East.

Horses that seem ‘indigenous’ to many parts of the world can be explained by being spread there by humans.

In almost all parts of the world now, we see wild horses in some capacity or another.

The same is true of goats, and other domestic cattle.

This is because we used them everywhere, so they very successfully spread out—in Africa, camels were more commonly used as mounts.

There was less of a need for horses-at least in sub-Saharan Africa.

In Northern Africa, horses were probably introduced and used quite early on as they spread from Europe.

It wasn’t until colonial times that Europeans took horses all the way to South Africa.

This is where they would eventually birth the Namib Desert horse—we are not exactly certain where this breed comes from, but it seems likely they are the descendants of domestic, European horse.

So, there are no wild horses in Africa, except one isolated group.

So, are they used in Africa in the same way?

Are horses used in Africa?

Historically speaking, not really—at least in sub-Saharan Africa.

As I said, other solution more suited to the climates, like camels, were more commonly used.

For many millennia, domestic horses were not used by the great African tribes.

Today, of course, they are used just as widely as anywhere in the world.

You will find them doing labor, being farmed for racing, as tourist attractions—anything.

Horses are used in Africa today just as much as anywhere else.

Indeed, many parts of sub-Saharan Africa that are still suffering as a result of colonial era destruction and pillaging are forced to use horses and animals rather than automobiles due to extreme poverty and destitution.

So, yes, horses are very much used in Africa today—it’s just that any horses that are used were brought from somewhere else, somewhere down the line.

Does Africa have indigenous horses?

No, is the simple answer.

However, it may depend on how you view the term indigenous.

As far as a scientific definition, it strictly means something which occurred ‘naturally’ in a certain place.

The indigenous human population of the United States, for example, are the Native American tribes.

So, there are no species of horse which originated in Africa.

As I said, the Namib Desert horse is the only feral species you will find on the continent, and they were most likely brought over from Europe.

However, for some people, the way those horses have developed and adapted makes them, now, in some sense indigenous.

But ultimately, they did evolve elsewhere.

Interestingly, one of the only other species of Equus, the zebra, is native to the African continent.

They were never domesticated or turned into mounts, though, as they are much harder to tame—nonetheless, given how few other species of Equus are, this is quite fascinating.

Do lions eat horses?

Mountain lions?

Perhaps. African lions?

No, largely.

The only time they would realistically have the opportunity is if they were stalking a human settlement which kept horses.

In any case, horses are very large, and present a much bigger challenge in terms of taking it down as prey.

Lions mostly prefer to eat zebra—a very similar animal, though not exactly the same.

If they could get their hands on one, lions would love to eat horse—nice big animal that could feed them for a while.

However, zebras, gazelles and other things are a lot more readily available and a lot easier to bring down.

So, the best answer to the question is no—that is, except for a single, solitary variety which most likely formed feral herds after escaping from European domesticity.

Other than that, there are no instances of wild horses anywhere in Africa.

Many are used there, in the same way they are in many parts of the world, but there is no species of horse that is indigenous to Africa, or at least sub-Saharan Africa.