Flora & Fauna: How'd you get these horses?

 Dear Reader,

Horses are a familiar animal and a commonly used beast of transportation and burden in fantasy stories. What isn't answered is how these people got their horses. Now, in medieval history, the horse was an animal that was reserved for nobility and the wealthy. They cost a good deal to feed, care for, and generally keep up with. In the terms of the Umbrel Chronicles of Evandar, not everyone has horses and they're not as common as seen in other fantasy books.

Horses originated out in the grassland regions and the desert regions of the world. In the mountainous regions, like the northern part of Evandar and most of Ranyth, there are native ponies that resemble the Shetland ponies of our world. These animals are the beasts of burden and such of the lower classes because horses are the property of the wealthy. Sumptuary laws prohibit certain classes of people from even owning ponies because of their resemblance to horses.

With the migratory periods before and after the first Great War of the Gods, horses were brought into places like Evandar and Ranyth. They are still most frequently found on the grasslands and in the desert regions. Wild horses are present in those locations and cultures were built around capturing and domesticating them. (I hope to introduce them as I get more into the stories of Ranyth which borders a place where such a culture is present.)

Horses are associated with the god Kaileth and the wind in Evandar and Ranyth. They are considered in folklore to be one of the oldest non-magical animals in the world after deer. The horses of the Umbrel Chronicles are mostly like the horses of our world. Occasionally, there may be one that is a bit strange and touched by the divine. But this is the exception, not the rule.