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Evolution of the Horse Sixty million years ago, in the Eocene epoch, the doglike eohippus flourished in swampy forests where it browsed on leaves. The Eohippus had little or no lateral vision and had a coat similar to a deer in texture and in color right down to fawn like spots to help to camouflage them. It had molars with small grinding surfaces to chew the succulent leaves of its forest habitat. Eohippus was about the size of a fox, had four toes on its forefeet and three on its hind feet which were padded like those of a dog and allowed easy movement over wet ground. These toes and pads are now the ergots and splint bones found on the legs of the modern horse. Eohippus was a browsing animal that lived on soft leaves growing on low shrubs. By the Oligocene period, about 38 milli