During the Bronze Age, the narrow hoofed horse imports from the steppes changed as climactic conditions changed from dry and warm to cool and humid. Although wild fauna changed to animals which could tolerate the cold and wet, like pigs, domestic animals were forced to adjust and the narrow-hoofed steppe horse evolved into a stockier one with spread hooves. Horses with spread hooves also appeared in central to southern Russia to west Kazakhstan, "where such horses, looking virtually like the heavy 'cold-blooded' animals were discovered in the Andronova culture." (ibid, pg. 242)

Iron Age horses in Europe "of the Helvetian-Gallic horses of Switzerland belonged to the eastern group of breeds and resembled, apart from their size, Arab horses." (ibid, pg. 249) Although most were of the small eastern type of horses, at the Celtic oppidum at Maching, some were large animals whose withers-height was over 150cm. (ibid., pg 250)

Thracian Iron Age horses from south-east Europe were described as slender with slim legs and belonging to the eastern breed. In general they were larger and more powerful than the Celtic animals and numerous links connected these horses with the Iron Age horses of Central Asia. "On the basis of the considerable difference in size in favour of eastern horses they could be deemed better animals from the point of view of horse breeding, for, owing to the greater mass of their bodies, they were able to carry heavier loads, to move more rapidly with a rider of equal weight and to carry more easily riders wearing armour and to cover longer distances. All these qualities provided reasons why people who lived in the distribution area of the western group of horses were anxious to acquire the eastern horses, which were better than their own … These horses, by the way, found their way not only to Europe but also to Africa." (ibid., pp 253-255)

(Bökönyi, S. in Meklenberg Collection, Part 1, Data on Iron Age Horses of Central and Eastern Europe, American School of Prehistoric Research, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, 1968). "The originally small-bodied Greek horses were subsequently improved by the great masses of horses imported from the Eastern group, like the twenty thousand Scythian mares imported by Philip of Macedon, of the fifty thousand eastern horses in the Persian spoil of Alexander the Great. As a result of cross breeding with these horses the large bodied horses of the Roman cavalry were produced." (pg. 39).

"The foundations of the eastern group are formed by Scythian horses, which moved from northern Iran and southern Russia by Scythian expansion and trade as far as Central Europe, North Africa and, in Asia, as far as the Altai Mountains and the Arctic Ocean. (ibid., pg. 41). "Anyhow, it seems that, side by side with the undoubtedly excellent Scythian horses, there existed in Central Asia small groups of horses, the members of which groups were larger of body and perhaps also possessed other eminent qualities lacking in the former. They must have been highly valued by the Scythians themselves, and so it was only the leaders who came by them … The horses in question were chiefly Ferghana Horses (Ferghana is a loosely used geographical term which can include Turkmenistan) whose fame was well known in China too. The horses were slender and big as against Chinese ones… In the excellent horses of Pazyryk, Vitt seems to have found this group. Evidently these horses had played a part in developing Persian horses which, according to several sources, were so very excellent." (ibid., pg 43).

Bökönyi, Domestic Mammals of Eastern Europe pg. 270: "Eastern horses which were larger and better from the breeders' point of view than western ones exerted a stronger effect just by their very mass than roman horses which had been introduced in small numbers and thus were able to shape the whole population of horses of central and eastern Europe to their own likeness and render it homogeneous."

"The Hunnish horses have large heads, curved like hooks, protruding eyes, narrow nostrils, broad jaws, strong and rigid necks (Nisaean?); their manes hang down to their knees; their ribs and big, their back-bones curved, and their tails shaggy; they have very strong shinbones and small feet, their hooves being full and broad, the soft parts hollow. Their whole body is angular with no fat at all on the rump, nor are there any protruberances on the muscles; the stature is rather long than tall; the trunk is vaulted, and the bones are strong. The leanness of the horses is striking." (ibid., pg 267).

The remains of a tall (150 cm) horse of Central Asiatic origin (Clinton-Brock, "The Buhen Horse," Journal of Archaeological Science, 1974, 1, pp. 89-100) were discovered in 1959 by Prof. W. B. Emery while excavating the fortress of Buhen near the second cataract of the Nile in northern Sudan. It had been built in the early part of the Middle Kingdon (1052-1768 BC) and stormed and burnt in about 1675 BC. The horse was found in the rubble. This date falls within the middle of the Bronze Age of Europe, when horses were already being imported into Eastern Europe from Central Asia and nothern Persia.

"The Buhen horse … falls clearly into [Bökönyi's] eastern group, and curiously enough its dimensions correspond exactly with measurements of bones from horses of the most eastern regions, those of the Scythian kurgans of the Altain area (pg. 98). "The same horse appears in the second millenium BC simultaneously in India, southern Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt and Greece."

"It may be concluded that ancient Egyptian horses of which the Buhen skeleton is the earliest known representative, together with Hittite horses, and probably also the later Mesopotamian horses, all belong to the same group. Contemporary pictures show that these horses bore a close resemblance to the modern 'Arab' breed. Measurement of the bones establishes that at least some of these horses were larger than had been previously supposed. Their origins should be looked for in Central Asia." (pg. 99)

Hunnish horses (pg. 267-268) are also mentioned: "We know very little of the Huns' horses. It is interesting that not a single usable horse bone has been found in the territory of the whole empire of the Huns. This is all the more deplorable as contemporary sources mention these horses with high appreciation. According to Vegetius Renatus for example … For purposes of war the Huns' horses are by far the most suitable, on account of their endurance, working capacity and the resistance to cold and hunger. (see notes on Hunnish Horses above.)