Namib Desert
Southern Africa has no native horse populations, so the origins of the Namib Desert horse trace to imported herds of horses. There are several theories on the ancestors of the Namib Desert horse, and the true story may never be known. One theory says that a cargo ship carrying Thoroughbreds to Australia wrecked near the Orange River, and the strongest horses swam ashore and traveled to the Garub Plains, the home of the Namib Desert horse, near Aus, Namibia. Another theory states that they descend from Cape horse/Basuto pony crosses ridden by Khoikhoi raiders traveling from southern Africa to north of the Orange River. The most likely theory has the Namib Desert horse descending from a combination of escaped South African military horses and Namibian-bred German horses. During World War I, horses were used in campaigns in Namibia between the German Schutztruppe and South African troops, and some escaped or were released into the desert. Prior to this time, a German Baron von Wolf built Duwisib Castle on the edge of the Namib Desert, where he held a herd of approximately 300 horses. Von Wolf was killed in action in Europe during World War I, and his farm was abandoned, leaving his horses on unfenced land relatively close to the area where the Namib Desert horses now roam. The Namib Desert horse phenotypically more closely resembles the horses bred by von Wolf and ridden by the World War I-era troops than the horses ridden by Khoikhoi tribesmen, making the former story the more likely. The genetic evidence of the 2001 study gave less credence to the descent from von Wolf's horses. He used Thoroughbreds, Hackneys and Trakehners in his breeding program, rather than the Arabian horse to which the Namib Desert horses are the most genetically similar.