Curley Horses

[clw]

I asked about this subject as promised. These horses were highly prized, especially as war ponies as they were thought to provide great protection in battle -- very strong medicine! Ponies signified wealth as we know, and those who owned Curleys were considered very rich. The gene was in the wild herds and is still in the Spanish Mustang line. There is great excitment even today among contemporary Lakota breeders when one in born -- a great blessing. I could hear the reverance in my friend's voice as we talked about it. They have a filly named Curley because she was born with a curley coat, but when she shed her baby coat it came in smooth. I've been calling her Curley for years -- she's a sweet little buckskin -- and never knew that story until I asked!

She's going to look over the website you posted Elizabeth, the one with the ledger art, and see if she can provide some more information. I sent her the link today.

[elisabeth]

That's great!

So the medicine persists even if the curliness doesn't last beyond the baby coat? Fascinating.

There must have been some gene for this among the incoming Spanish line. Unless it's a sport that occurs naturally across all breeds, which I suppose is possible -- something like palomino colouring, which you can attempt to breed for, but without any certainty? (A cousin of mine had a Welsh Mountain palomino mare -- lovely animal, rightly named "Charm" -- which she bred to a palomino stallion, with the result of a chestnut/sorrel foal. A nice foal, but not what she was hoping for. Maybe it's as uncertain with Curleys.)

Was the perceived strength in war simply symbolic, derived from the "buffalo" appearance, or were they genuinely tougher?

[clw]

elisabeth said:

So the medicine persists even if the curliness doesn't last beyond the baby coat? Fascinating.

I didn't mean to imply that. Just saying how excited they were when they thought they had a Curly.

BTW, my brain insists on putting an 'e' in Curly when there isn't one and now I've got you doing it! I'm suprised DC hasn't nailed me.

My guess is their value was in their appearance rather than in any physical advantages. I'm waiting for more information.

Equine genetics is not a subject I know well. But I think that if there were several chestnuts in those palomino's lines it could account for that foal's color. The chestnut gene is dominate. I had a book once, The Color of Horses, that gave genetic equations needed to produce certain colors. Those equations were the width of a page and made my eyes glaze. Breeding for anything specific, as I'm sure you know, is an art form. I'd rather deal the end product!

[Montana Bab]

Clw,

Thanks for posting the information learned from your Native
American friend. The Indian connection with Curlies was a pleasant surprise to me (and their connection to LBH). It was a fact I never ran across in my breed research. Just proves how little we ever know, and how much more we can learn.

I always found it interesting that Curlies transmit the curly characteristics to offspring approximately half of the time, even when mated to horses without the curly coat.

The color issue of horse breeds is probably the most fascinating aspect of equines (to me). As you hinted, the volumes of material on the subject of color is something to behold. I once took the advice of an old horseman and bred a chestnut stallion to a black mare. The old "pard" guaranteed that I would end up with a palomino. Needless to say, the color I got was not palomino, but buckskin! Not too far off the mark, I guess.

Will love hearing from your friend and others on the Native view of Curlies. Always looking for new information on horse breeds!!

Regards,
Bab

[clw]

Found out some more. The Hunkapi (Making of Relatives) adoption ceremony, one of the Seven Sacred Rites of the Lakota often included the gift of Curly as a symbol of the event. The adopted person would then consider the horse as a member of the family, never trading him.

Regarding the winter count that shows a Crow gifting one to a Lakota, I was reminded that often hostilities were suspended in order to trade. And that it wasn't a stretch at all that a Crow could honor a Lakota warrior with such a gift. Perhaps they had met in battle many times before and would again, but during a trading event one great warrior might recognize another and honor him in such a way for his courage and skill. I'll bet instances of one warrior honoring another occured during our Civil War too, just in a different way.

And yes, no common physical characteristics. It was the buffalolike coat that made them sacred.