Back in 2019, I mentioned this type of horse (see post). I have found more information while updating my book for its 2nd edition, and decided to improve my original post.
One unusual trait found in American horses is curly hair. This is extremely odd, and it has only been reported in some isolated regions of Asia and the Americas, but not in Europe. This suggests that it wasn’t introduced into America by the Spanish horses.
Perhaps it originated here among the indigenous American horses?
Felix Manuel de Azara, in his The Natural History of the Quadrupeds of Paraguay and the River La Plata, described a curly-haired horse found in Paraguay, South America:
"I have seen many crisp-haired horses, called in Paraguay Pichaí; their hair is curly, like that of the Negros of Guinea and their hoof as narrow as that of Spanish mules, in which they differ from the common run of horses. I have seen them in various colors, but not piebald or white.
He used the native Guaraní word Pichaí, which means “curly.” Curly-haired horses are not very common, and Azara added that “as they are very ugly, attempts have been made to exterminate them by castration, and even by killing the mares,” so it isn’t surprising that there were not many reports of curly-haired horses in historic records.
Charles Darwin, who was interested in natural oddities, wrote in 1860, that they were only found in three places: Paraguay, mentioning Azara’s text, Russia (“A Russian breed of horses is said to have curled hair”), and the US (“Dr. Canfield informs me that a breed with curly hair was formed by selection at Los Angeles in North America.”).
The curly-haired horse from Russia (actually, from Tajikistan) is known as Lokai. The International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds, by Bonnie L. Hendricks, mentions that: “This breed was developed by the Uzbek Lokai tribe in the sixteenth century.”
Regarding the Los Angeles variety, there is a printed reference to a “curly horse” in California in 1849. It was captured by Col. Fremont. The article states it had the “general appearance of the horse, with the shaggy hide of the buffalo, and a tail without hair.” The author discussed it with an experienced Mexican rancher from Zacatecas who confirmed that it was a very rare horse, “occasionally seen among the numerous herds of Mexico,”51 where they were known as “Caballos chinos, or curly-haired horses.”
Interestingly, the Mexican word “chino” doesn’t mean “Chinese” as in regular Spanish: it has a pre-Hispanic origin. It comes from a Native American Tewa word Tsini (in Spanish it is pronounced “chini”), these people lived in New Mexico. So, here is a Native American word used to refer to curly animals applied to a curly horse. A positive proof of its ancient indigenous roots.
The current American curly horse breed originated in Eureka, Nevada, when a rancher named John Damele captured a wild colt with curly hair in the early 1900s.
But these curly horses go back even further, to the days before the Europeans arrived in America. A statement by Claire Henderson published in 1991, tells that the Dakota/Lakota native people firmly believe that the aboriginal North American horse did not become extinct after the last Ice Age, and that it was part of their pre-contact culture:
"According to Elders, the aboriginal pony had the following characteristics: It was small, about 13 hands, it had a 'strait' back necessitating a different saddle from that used on European horses, wider nostrils, larger lungs so that its endurance was proverbial. One breed had a long mane, and shaggy (curly) hair, while another had a 'singed mane'."
Argentine Curly-haired Horses
The curly horse was rare but not unknown in the Pampas region of Argentina: It is mentioned by Ricardo Hogg in 1941, who wrote that “the curly haired horse, variety almost extinct nowadays.”
An interesting article published in May 2025 in National Geographic reports that an Argentine veterinarian, Gerardo Rodriguez noticed a stranged horse in the Somuncurá plateau, in Rio Negro province, Patagonia. It had curly hair. A gaucho (name for the Argentine cowboy) told him that these animals were far more "common before the droughts, volcanic eruptions and other factors wiped them out." He bought the horse and, with his wife Andrea Sede worked with this animal and over twenty years later they have built their herd of curly-haired horses, the only one in South America.
They took samples and had their DNA analyzed at the A&M University in Texas, US, which found that they were different from all other curly-haired horses. They have a unique mutation, that is not found anywhere else in the world.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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