The Tarpan, also known as the Forest Horse, once roamed the dense woodlands across Europe to the Russian steppes. Five now roam Hope’s Legacy’s Castle Rock Farm.
Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Neptune and Saturn are Restoration Tarpan horses. They are replicas of one of the main ancestors of the domesticated horse—The Eurasian wild horse. Some of the horses painted in the caves of Southern France resemble these. Early in our history, we hunted them. As our habitats changed and we became agricultural, the Forest Horse annoyed farmers, eating their crops and stealing their mares. Most accounts place the time of Tarpan extinction not long before World War I.
In the 1920s, the Polish scientist Vetulani and two German scientists, Lutz and Heinz Heck, sought (separately) to recreate the original Tarpan. The Heck brothers “back-bred” the mixed descendants of Tarpans and domesticated horses they still found in the forests with other “primitive,” surviving types (such as Swedish Gotlands and Icelandic ponies). When the Germans bombed Warsaw in WWII, the Heck brothers took their Restoration Tarpans to Berlin; when the Allied forces bombed Berlin, they brought them back to Poland. The Polish took them northeast to the Białowieża Forest—one of the world’s few remaining large primeval forests. Websites suggest their descendants live there today on the Belarus side.
Toward the end of the 1950s, the nephew of Heinz Heck, Jr. brought 50 Przywalski horses and Restoration Tarpans to the Catskill Game Farm in New York by ship. These were distributed to zoos around the US. At the dispersal sale when the Game Farm was closed in 2005, Helen Dixon bought five “gray horses.” (The true color of Restoration Tarpans is a distinctive grulla, with a white overcoat in the winter). Learning later how special they were, she scoured the US for others and kept the only breeding herd we know of in Rappahanock County. There was once an American Tarpan Breeding Association and a stud book kept by Ellen Thrall of the Atlanta zoo. Using her book, Helen practiced selective breeding and kept her horses chipped and DNA-tested. Ellen died prematurely in 1997. Helen passed away in 2019.
Why are Restoration Tarpans at Hope’s Legacy? Our five geldings are not rescues per se, and expect to live their lives at Castle Rock. Maya and Melinda though they would help us remember the legacy of the horse in our own history. The horse has done more for us than any other animal. At Hope’s Legacy we seek to honor horses.
What are the Restoration Tarpans like? Lutz Heck described driving one of his studs back to Munich from Galicia following WWII. After covering 1000 miles unshod, his hooves were “perfect.” People who know them in the US, and have written about them, say they are very clever, curious, and affectionate—but independent-minded. They will do anything you want them to do…endurance, pulling carts, equitation, trails…provided it is their idea! Ours have yet to see a farrier and live entirely from pasture, trees, and hay.
What I have reported here is drawn from various sources that I have been reading since I met them in 2017. I was amazed to find that Charles Darwin mentioned them in his 1868 book on variation in domesticated species. Perhaps the single most important source for me is Linda Martin, Helen’s “herd historian” and the Director of the Tarpan Horse Conservation Program, Inc., a 501(c)3 Public Charity (www.thcponline.org). We established TCHP together this year. We are concerned about responsible breeding and conservation of the fewer than 100 Restoration Tarpan Horses in the US and Canada. Given their unique qualities, we hope to train Tarpan horses for service in therapy.
Melinda Smale
Ackerman, Diane. The Zookeeper’s Wife. 2007. W.W. Norton &Company. New York, USA.
Forrest, Susanna. The Age of the Horse: An Equine Journey Through Human History. 2016. Atlantic Monthly Press. New York, USA.
Heck, Heinz. The Breeding-Back of the Tarpan. Oryx, Volume 1, Issue 7, 1952, pp. 338-342.
Heck, Lutz. Animals: My Adventure 1952.
Martin, Linda. Saving the Tarpan Horse in the USA: The Dixie Meadows Herd. Horse Talk Magazine, Sept-Oct-2016.
Mullarky, Alex. Return to the Wild. Horses and People Magazine, March 2016, pp. 23-27.
Thrall, Ellen J. 1975. American Tarpan Studbook. Volume 1. 1954-1973. Caballus Publishers, Fort Collins, CO.
Videos on you tube:
Tarpan: Repainting An Ancient Picture
TARPAN HORSES- DIXIE MEADOWS FARM , VIRGINIA
Tarpan Horses And The Caves Of Lascaux
Summer Time with the Dixie Meadows Farm Heck Horses (Tarpan)