Dwarf Horses of the Southwest

Abstract

Several years ago, just before the entry of the United States into World War II, Dr. Chester Stock, professor of paleontology at the California Institute of Technology, and the writer decided to collaborate in the preparing of a scientific work on the natural history of the horse family, living and extinct. While the war has largely interrupted the carrying on of this study, still it has been possible to do a certain amount of research, and to correspond with the secretaries of the various horse-breeders' associations, who have been most helpful in supplying information on present-day breeds of domestic horses. During the course of investigation of American horses, it duly became necessary to look into the widely-circulated story that there is, or was, a race of wild, dwarf horses in a certain part of the Grand Canyon of Arizona. The story, or rumor, of these alleged dwarf horses persisted for several years, and was given much publicity in the newspapers because of its sensational nature. Today, the subject has just about died out, except for the still occasional appearance of an alleged "midget horse from Lost Mesa" in some traveling carnival or sideshow.

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