Afghanistan circa 1271
Marco Polo (Henry Yule and Henri Cordier 3d Edition), The Travels of Marco Polo, 1920, Chapter XXIX: Of the Province of Badashan. Material in curly brackets are in version collected by Giovanni Battista Ramusio.
It produces numbers of excellent horses, remarkable for their speed. They are not shod at all, although constantly used in mountainous country, and on very bad roads. {They go at a great pace even down steep descents, where other horses neither would nor could do the like.}
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United States [Montana, Wyoming] 1832.
[Horses were native to North America, became extinct, and then were reintroduced in the 15th century. Interesting Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_the_United_States.]
George Catlin, Illustrations of the Manners, Customs, & Condition of the North American Indians. With Letters and Notes, Written During Eight Years of Travel and Adventure Among the Wildest and Most Remarkable Tribes now Existing, Volume I, Chatto & Windus, London, 1876.
Letter No. 4, Mouth of Yellow Stone, Upper Missouri [Montana, Wyoming]. The several tribes of Indians inhabiting the regions of the Upper Missouri … are undoubtedly the finest looking, best equipped, and most beautifully costumed of any on the Continent. They live in a country well-stocked with buffaloes and wild horses, which furnish them an excellent and easy living.
Letter No. 5, Mouth of Yellow Stone, Upper Missouri [Montana, Wyoming]. These plains afford them an abundance of wild and fleet horses, which are easily procured ….
