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Before the Spanish, There Were Stallions in the Philippines. Where are the horses they say? Right here! Where are Ryukyu's ancient horses we answer. Oops! None! More evidence Pinto was in the Philippines and not Ryukyu.

"History isn't what happened — it's what someone decided to write down." — The Smoking Quill

"THE SULU PONY IS THE OLDEST TYPE
Long before the Spanish conquest, the Muslim tribes of the southern Philippine Islands had horses, which apparently came from Sumatra. The stock is still fairly distinct from that of the northern islands This photograph shows a good specimen of the breed, with Sulu rider. The bridle is the last word in simplicity, (rig. 11.)"

– David B. Mackie, The Journal of Heredity, 1916

🪶 THE SMOKING QUILL | August 7, 2025

🐎 The Forgotten Horses of the Philippines

Most people assume the horse arrived in the Philippines riding alongside the Spanish conquistadors. After all, kabayo — the Tagalog word for horse — sounds a lot like caballo, the Spanish term. Maybe. Such banter and wordplay is not academic forgetting prior history and other local names of horses.

But what if that assumption is dead wrong?

What if horses had been in the Philippines long before Legazpi’s ships ever touched shore and before Pinto's famous shipwreck on the Isles of Lequios, Philippines?

That’s exactly what David B. Mackie, an American agricultural officer in the early 1900s, uncovered — and the evidence he compiled isn’t just interesting... it’s paradigm-shifting. This century-old reference is ignored by many from the Jesuit paradigm such as Dr. Austin Craig who clearly came to manipulate the history of the Philippines. It is time to recognize this Colonial bias for what it is... racism.

🧭 A Four-Part Horse History

In a forgotten gem published in The Journal of Heredity in 1916, Mackie outlines four major eras in the history of horses in the Philippines:

Pre-horse era — Horses were unknown.
Malay Muslim introduction — Horses came via Sumatra and Malaysia, especially to the Sulu archipelago.
Spanish period — Horses arrived not from Spain, but from China and Japan.
American breeding era — Western breeds introduced for improvement.

But the most important — and suppressed — is the second era: the Muslim-led arrival of horses long before Spain.

🕌 The Malay Muslims Brought Horses First

According to Mackie’s research, horses were already present in Mindanao and Sulu before Magellan’s arrival. The Sulu and Maguindanao peoples didn’t just have horses — they had their own indigenous words for them:

Kuda (Sulu)
Kura (Maguindanao)

These are not borrowed from the Spanish caballo. In contrast, upland tribes unfamiliar with horses before colonization use kabayo — a clear Spanish loanword.

That linguistic distinction alone is a red flag to any real researcher: horses didn’t come from Spain — they came earlier.

Ancient Horses of the Philippines Sulu Pony Oldest

🐘 Royal Gifts, Trade Routes, and a Pre-Spanish Powerhouse

Mackie traces horse arrival to the Malayan Islamic expansion of the 14th century. The arrival of figures like Makdum, Rajah Baginda, and Abu Bakr — princes and scholars from Sumatra — brought with them not only religion and law, but animals for war, trade, and prestige.

These weren't isolated events. The Sulu Sultanate was in contact with:

Sumatra
Brunei
Java
China
Japan

And they weren’t just trading spices and silk.

They were trading horses.

Spanish records confirm this:
In 1578, Don Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa warned Governor Sande that:

“These Moros are most dangerous people, being familiar with all manner of firearms and with horses.”
(Mackie, 1916, p. 375)

So yes — before Spanish colonization, the south had horses. Likely for centuries. Records suggest they came through Sumatra and let us not forget at the time of Magellan, the King of Zebu was originally from Sumatra. Ignoring the Muslim record only citing the newer account is not academic.

🐉 China and Japan: Not Spain

When horses finally appeared in northern Luzon, it wasn’t Spanish stallions that disembarked.

It was Chinese and Japanese horses.

Mackie records that:

In 1583, King Philip II ordered large shipments of horses from China.
In 1587, thirty Chinese ships arrived in Manila — with horses.
The Nambu horse from Japan was introduced into Cagayan and Ilocos Norte.

Even the Spanish historian Antonio de Morga wrote in 1604:

“There were no horses, mares or asses in the islands until the Spaniards had them brought from China and Japan.”
(Mackie, p. 378)

Morga was wrong on this. Perhaps he did not spend any time in North Luzon, which is Lequios, where he should have been seeking horses according to Pinto. Anyone quoting Morga as fact on this, is not offering an honest record.

That alone shatters the colonial myth.

🐎 The Native Breeds: More Than Just Ponies

Through fieldwork across every province, Mackie identified five distinct native horse types, including:

The Sulu pony — stocky and ancient, descended from Sumatra.
The Chinese horse — thickset, powerful, short-legged.
The Nambu type — long-bodied, large-hooved, found in northern Luzon.
A breed with Arab-like features — refined and muscular, likely through Indian or Persian trade.
A widespread rural “scrub” type — undersized due to poor breeding and neglect.

These were real, viable animals — not myth. Some areas like Catanduanes had over 3,000 horses in the early 1900s alone, with over 55% showing dun or buckskin coloring, a trait tied to ancient Eurasian breeds.

In researching this fully, one will find a narrative where horses were claimed in a Chinese shipwreck which turned out to be donkeys. That is then formed in propaganda that it means there were no horses in the Philippines. This kind of insane propaganda persists in academia and it is time to smash through the Colonial ceiling and correct this once and for all. It may well be valid they were donkeys but that account is not the position of ancient horses in the Philippines.

This is the same for the word which derives from Spain which is not the only word for horse used locally, yet, that singular point is posited by many to claim they were not here. The statement is meaningless and born in ignorance. Grow up Colonial propagandists.

Ancient Horses of the Philippines Igorrot Pony

🧨 What This All Means

This isn’t just about horses. It’s about the false narratives baked into colonial history:

That Filipinos were backward and on foot.
That real culture, trade, or mobility only began with Spain.
That even simple animals like horses had to be “gifted” by European hands.
That Pinto must have been in Ryukyu when he described horses when Ryukyu does not even have such history even.

This is the quiet removal of identity by omission. A blatant racist assault by the Jesuit establishment hurled at the Philippines yet again.

And it’s time to reverse it.

📌 The Conclusion Mackie Reached in 1916:

“I have endeavored to prove that the Philippine horse is not... a descendant of horses brought... from Mexico and Spain...
But that the bulk... were Chinese.
I have also shown that horses existed in parts of the archipelago prior to the Spanish conquest, and I have endeavored to trace the ancestry... to Malaya.”
(Mackie, p. 382)

That’s well-supported research from the Philippine Bureau of Agriculture — not speculation, not conspiracy — and backed by documentation from Sulu, Spain, and local records. Imagine one of the worst bloggers in history ridiculing the Philippines for not having horses when he first failed to check Ryukyu very stupidly and then, proved illiterate of Philippine history. That is no representative of the truth on any level. It is time we all mature passed such Jesuit traps built on profoundly retarded lies. Enough childish agitation concealed as debate when there is no foundation for them to open their mouths.

📚 Source:

David B. Mackie
Philippine Horses: First Brought to the Islands from Malaysia—Later by the Spaniards from China and Japan
The Journal of Heredity, Vol. 7, No. 8 (1916), pp. 373–382
academic.oup.com/jhered/article/7/8/373/935272

🚨 What Now?

This is just one of many pieces of suppressed history that contradict colonial narratives. If they could erase horses, what else have they rewritten?

The Smoking Quill will keep asking those questions.

🕊️ Yah Bless to everyone.