VIDEO: These Are the Rarest and Most Beautiful Horse Breeds

Horses are wonderful creatures that can do a lot of things and have helped us on countless occasions.

Whether we needed them to help us go to war or work the fields or just go to point A to point B, they were always there to help us.

According to mnn.com, horses have been domesticated for thousands of years, and in that time we’ve had a chance to influence some extraordinary breeds.

The Akhal-Teke is best known for its incredible coat which has a metallic sheen, something unique to the breed.

This, combined with its lanky, delicate features, has earned it the nickname of the “supermodel” of the horse world.

Though the sheen can be present in any coat color, the colors that show it off the best are buckskin (shown above), palomino, cremello (shown below) and perlino.

Another unique coat is sported by the Bashkir Curly, which is known for its poodle-like coat, the curl of which is especially noticeable in winter when the coat is extra long.

These horses come in a wide range of sizes from miniature to draft, and in every color, but all have the gene that gives them their uniquely curly coat.

Just as with their size and coloring, the amount of curl varies greatly. Curly horses can have everything from just a little curl in the mane and fetlocks to tight curls all over their body right down to curly eyelashes.

The wonderfully thick mane and tail mane of the Black Forest breed is a perfect match to its bulky draft-horse physique.

The breed is known for its deep chestnut color with a light flaxen mane and tail.

Considered one of the oldest breeds in the world, the “wild” Camargue horses carry a bit of romanticism with them as they live semi-feral on the marshes and wetlands of the Camargue area of southern France.

Images of the gray, nearly white horses galloping through the water are famous, and there are even photo tours that take photographers out to capture images of the popular horses.

Known for their stamina and hardiness, they’re used mostly as cowhorses.

Another rare breed that lives in semi-feral conditions is the Exmoor pony.

These hardy, small horses are native to the British Isles and are named after the area where they’re primarily found, the moorlands of Exmoor in southwest England.

They are stocky horses with unique features that help them deflect water and snow in their wet environment, including a “toad eye” (which is extra-fleshy eyelids that help deflect water) and a thick coat with oily hairs that help keep water away from the insulating undercoat.

Miniature horses are unique, but perhaps most unusual among them is the Falabella, one of the smallest of horses.

These tiny horses (not ponies, but miniature horses) rarely stand taller than 32 inches at the withers.

The breed originated in Argentina in the mid-1800s with Patrick Newtall and son-in-law Juan Falabella, and were first imported to the U.S. in 1962.