Tarpan

The tarpan (Equus ferus ferus) was a free-ranging horse population of the western Eurasian steppe which was first documented in the 18th century and went extinct in the early 20th century.

What qualifies as a tarpan is subject to debate. It is unclear whether tarpans were a category of wild horses; domestic horses which became feral; or hybrids of domestic and wild horses. DNA sequencing suggests at least some tarpans were genetically distinct from modern domestic horses.

The last individual believed to be a tarpan died in captivity in Russia in 1918, decades after the last free-ranging tarpans were captured or killed in Ukraine in the late 19th century.

Beginning in the 1930s, several attempts were made to breed horses resembling the tarpans described in historical sources, through a process of selective breeding called "breeding back" by advocates. The breeds that resulted included the Heck horse, and a derivation of the Konik breed, all of which have a primitive appearance, particularly in having a grullo coat colour. Some of these horses are now commercially promoted as "tarpans", although such animals are only domesticated breeds and not the wild animal themselves.