Travel Tip: Pop Culture and Cinema in United States
The Horse

The horse-human relationship started as a prey-predator dynamic. Humans domesticated horses some 6,000 years ago, and over time, we have created more than 200 breeds, from the powerful Clydesdale to the graceful Arabian. As we have shaped horses to suit our needs on battlefields, farms and elsewhere, these animals have shaped human history.

This show features artifacts that highlight the horse’s role in cultures worldwide, including a bronze figurine depicting China’s legendary celestial horse from the Han dynasty, which is dated as early as 2nd-century BCE to 2nd-century AD.

Other exhibits document how the bond between horses and humans continues today in therapy and sport, and what one can do to protect the lives of the last remaining wild horses.


The horse-human relationship started as a prey-predator dynamic. Humans domesticated horses some 6,000 years ago, and over time, we have created more than 200 breeds, from the powerful Clydesdale to the graceful Arabian. As we have shaped horses to suit our needs on battlefields, farms and elsewhere, these animals have shaped human history.

This show features artifacts that highlight the horse’s role in cultures worldwide, including a bronze figurine depicting China’s legendary celestial horse from the Han dynasty, which is dated as early as 2nd-century BCE to 2nd-century AD.

Other exhibits document how the bond between horses and humans continues today in therapy and sport, and what one can do to protect the lives of the last remaining wild horses.

Still other highlights examine the beginnings of the horse family 55 million years ago and explore the evolution of the horse. Visitors can touch skulls, teeth, and toe bones, as well as come face-to-face with a variety of now-extinct horse species that populated North America’s Great Plains 10 million years ago, including Dinohippus and two three-toed species, Nannippus and Hypohippus. Also, see Dinohippus and Hypohippus skulls and jawbones showing the evolution of the shape of horse teeth over time.