The Queen's Stallion

Desoto came to steal treasure as he had done in Peru, where he found the gold and jewels of the Inca. But he was not happy at home, so he returned with an army from Spain to find new treasures.

He had hundreds of soldiers as well as war dogs trained to kill the enemy and pigs to feed his men. But the most important thing he brought was a large herd of Spanish horses. Most of these horses were stolen or escaped into the forest of South Carolina. There they prospered and spread around among the surviving Indians. During the French and Indian War and the Revolution, Francis Marion used them to defeat the British. These horse survive today as the Marsh Tackeys, named by the South Carolina Legislature as the state horse.