The origin of horses is a fascinating story with many twists and turns. Fossil evidence tells us that the ancestors of the modern horse first evolved in North America.  From North America, horses spread into the Eurasian continent via the Bering land bridge. They spread across the continent(s) and slowly evolved to be perfectly adapted to the wide range of environments they encountered.   Horses roamed the American continent until around 10,000 years ago when they became extinct. Theories suggest that diseases, climate change, or human influence could have caused this.  Horses were famously reintroduced to the American continent by explorers Christopher Columbus in 1493 and Hernan Cortes in 1519. Previous to this reintroduction, there were no horses on the American continent.