Horses 2024 Forever Stamps — Nature Series Pane of Five, First-Class Postage

Dogs hold the title, but horses (Equus caballus) have a strong claim on it. Loyal, hard-working and steady, they were essential to the early American economy and are now kept mostly for companionship, sport and recreation. Five stamps mark them.

The five photographs

Three horses appear in their own surroundings against green foliage: a dappled white mare with a gray mane; a russet-coated horse with a copper mane and white facial markings; and a golden chestnut with a chalk-white mane. A fourth, brown and spotted with a light mane, stands in snowy woods. The fifth, a chestnut with a white blaze, is shot against plain black. On the selvage, a chestnut with a black muzzle and mane looks out through a Dutch barn window.

How horses returned to America

The modern horse's direct ancestors died out in North America more than 6,000 years ago, alongside the woolly mammoth and the American camel. The species survived only because some had already crossed the Bering land bridge into Asia — which is what eventually made a return to the Western Hemisphere possible.

Spanish conquistadors brought domesticated horses back in the 16th century, and those horses were central to the subjugation of indigenous populations. Many Native American nations recognized their value immediately and built them into their cultures. Over the next two centuries horses spread through the forests and plains, and breeds were developed for specific work: the Quarter Horse, the Morgan, the American Paint, the American Saddlebred.

Decline and recovery

Horses carried transportation, farming, manufacturing and mining as the country industrialized. Mass-produced automobiles changed that, and mechanization and electrification finished the job — by the early 1960s the U.S. horse population had fallen to roughly three million. It has more than doubled since.

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