A Stallion peeks from its corral (and mane) at a herder's winter camp.

       The Yakut Horse
       
The exact origins of the Yakut horse remain unclear. There seem to be two main theories. The first is that the animal is related to the Mongolian horse, arguing that when ancestors of today's Yakuts migrated from southern Siberia and settled in the Lena and Yana river basins, they brought horses with them. These then gradually--and successfully--adapted to the extreme environment. The second theory is that the Yakut horse is related to the Pleistocene horse of northeast Asia. This creature existed before the last ice age, and its contemporaries were mammals like the mammoth, reindeer, and woolly rhinoceros. The horse--like the reindeer--took refuge and survived in areas of northeastern Siberia where only the mountains were covered in ice.
       
Yakut horses are well adapted to the region's severe climate. They are smaller than most other breeds and consequently lose less body heat. They also have very thick skins and in winter grow a dense covering of hair. Their hooves are particularly strong, enabling them to scrape away deep snow while foraging. Their ability to survive the winter is helped by their storage of considerable reserves of fat during summer, when food is plentiful. The horse's fat acts as both insulation against the cold and as a vital source of energy that the animal burns during winter.
       
Yakut horses found in the northern part of the Yakutia region are generally larger than those in the south. Scientists believe that this is due to the quality of available food. Although vegetation in the north may not appear lush, it is extremely nutritious. Yakut horses have a strong constitution and eat a wide variety of plants and grasses during the course of a year. At their winter pastures they eat sedges, cotton grass, horsetail ferns, and harebell or hare's-tail herbs.
       
Herders consider the northern sedge to be the best winter food for their horses. A large part of the plant remains green even when covered by snow. During the summer months, the horses thrive on a diet consisting of a variety of meadow grass as well as angelica and Siberian broom. They also favor wetland vegetation like northern sedges, horsetail, and sweet grass. In summer, animals can often be seen grazing in lakes, happily up to their stomachs in water.
       
       ----B.A.