Sinop Bölgesi Yılkıları
Wild Horses in the Sinop Region

Summary/Abstract: Central Asian Turks have left indelible prints behind for the history of politics, state and civilization by taming the horse, which takes part also in the twelve animal calendars. According to their epics and legends, they gave names to their horses before giving names to their children. They regarded 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 in Anatolia such as Karaman, Afyonkarahisar, Manisa Spil Mount, Kayseri Erciyes, Samsun andin the Sarıkum region on the Sinop-Ayancık way. In the latter place,too, wild horses are born and roam freely in the countryside, as in Central Asia. They were left to the nature as modern vehicles replaced them in transportation. Those horses, freed at the beginning of the1980s, are known as ‘Yahya’s horses’ among the local people. They started to run wild while living in the nature, and their number has reached 200 within a short time. As the road between Sinop and Ayancık passes through Sarıkum, where the wild horses live, 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 those horses. Besides, importance of horse and equine culture terminology is emphasized.

• Details
• Contents