Horses and Cryptozoology

Horses and cryptozoology? Who would ever think there might be any kind of overlap between those two? An exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History could have informed folks of one of the linkages, but did it?

When I spoke at the American Museum of Natural History last year, giving a talk on the “Introduction of Cryptozoology,” during the “Mythic Beasts” exhibition, I was approached by a volunteer who was assisting with the then-forthcoming “Horses” program. I was asked if I’d be able to help with gathering more data on Ivan T. Sanderson’s statements about the survival of horses in the Americas. Of course, I said “Yes,” but the AMNH never followed through on their contact and research.

What the AMNH museum individual was pinpointing was the theory that Sanderson had considered regarding the possibility that horses never became extinct in the “New World.”

Ivan T. Sanderson, once wrote: “There is a body of evidence both from the mainland of Central America and even from rock drawings in Haiti itself tending to show that the horse may have been known to man in the Americas before the coming of the Spaniards.” Science, 93, 507 (May 30, 194; p. 91).

As far as I have been able to determine, the AMNH’s exhibition “Horses” does not consider this notion in its exhibition. Maybe I’m wrong, as I have only been able to view the program online. Have you seen the exhibition and read if the Sanderson material is in the mix?

(Needless to say, I’ve also discussed Przewalski’s horses here and here, which is an oft-forgotten “horses and cryptozoology” topic too.)

The AMNH exhibition looks like a good program, now in New York City, from May 17, 2008, through January 4, 2009, so if you visit it and find anything cryptozoological in it, let us know.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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