The excavation of this centuries old horse skeleton led to a new study from CU Boulder researchers. (Photo courtesy of Bridger Hill)
In 2018, a Utah couple’s landscaping day was interrupted when they unearthed the nearly complete skeleton of a horse. The discovery led to a new study from CU researchers, published in American Antiquity, that furthers understanding into the early relationships between horses and Native American populations.
At first, scientists believed the horse had lived during the last Ice Age. But when William Taylor, lead author of this new research and curator of archaeology at the CU Museum of Natural History, saw spinal fractures on the horse’s skeleton that result from the stress of a human rider, he thought the horse might not have been so old.
Further research revealed that the horse had been a domesticated 12-year-old female, likely belonging to a Ute or Shoshone community in the early 17th century. This incredible discovery has the potential to provide new insight into the importance of horses to Indigenous populations in the Great Plains and West.
Read more about the Lehi Horse.
