Abstract
Wild Horses in the Sinop Region
Central Asian Turks have left indelible prints behind, in the history of politics, state and civilization by taming the horse which takes part in the calendar of twelve animals. They gave their horses’ names before giving names totheir children in their epics and legends, they saw them as their faithful friends and carried the equine culture from Central Asia to Anatolia.
Today, wild horse herds are still living in different regions and cities around Anatolia such as Karaman, Afyonkarahisar, ManisaSpil Mount, Kayseri Erciyes, Samsun and in the Sarıkum region on SinopAyancık way.
Like the different regions of Turkey, in Sinop too, the wild horses, born and roam freely in the steppe as in the Central Asia , were left to the nature as the vehicles with engines took their place in the transportation and load carriage. These horses, left to the nature after the beginning of the 1980s, are known as ‘Yahya’s horses’ by the people in the region. These horses have started to run wild while living in the nature and their number has become 200 in a short time. As the road between Sinop and Ayancık is passing through this Sarıkum region where these horses exist, they sometimes cause traffic accidents while crossing the road. Because of the worries of people in the region, it is said that they were taken to an unknown place by lorries and trucks. Today their number is around 30- 40.
In this paper, attention was drawn to the presence and touristic and economic potential of the wild horses living in SinopSarıkum region, besides, the importance of the horse and equine culture terminology was emphasized.
Sinop’s wild horses, equine culture, wild mares ,Sarıkum, wild horses in Turkey
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Keywords
Sinop’s wild horses, equine culture, wild mares ,Sarıkum, wild horses in Turkey