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:''This article refers to the geographical area. See also Horse latitudes (disambiguation)''

'Horse latitudes' or 'Subtropical High' are subtropical latitudes between 30 and 35 degrees both north and south. This region, under a ridge of high pressure called the Subtropical ridge, is an area of variable winds mixed with calm, and it owes its name to the fact that the confused sea, muggy heat, and rolling and pitching of waves (variably stilled and aerated by winds) often slowed colonial ships for days to weeks due to lack of propulsion. In order to reduce the weight of the ship, the crew would dump horses and cattle into the water, subsequently increasing the speed of the ship in the low winds.^[1]
The ancient Persian navigator and general Sataspes whose name was derived from his command of a Persian horse cavalry unit (''sat'' was the unit size and ''asp(es)'' was the Persian word for horse) has been credited by some historians as the progenitor of the term. Sataspes was the leading explorer and navigator of this day, circumnavigating Africa as well as mapping out the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Verde. Mariners navigating ancient waters probably referred to the mid-latitudes as those mapped by Sataspes, whose name was translated as "horse". The term also has probably survived from ships traveling to the New World that were often stranded in this region and forced to slaughter or jettison onboard horses in order to lighten the load, preserve precious water supplies, or for their meat and blood, but this may be .
The warm, dry conditions of the horse latitudes also relate to the existence of temperate deserts, such as the Sahara Desert in Africa, the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, and parts of the Middle East in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Chilean-Argentinian-Peruvian desert, the Kalahari Desert, and the Australian Desert in the Southern Hemisphere.

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References

1. Middleton, Arthur Pierce. Tobacco Coast. Johns Hopkins UP: Baltimore, 1984. p8.


★ About.com, Trade Winds, Horse Latitudes, and the Doldrums, accessed 5 Jan 2007.

See also

★ Doldrums

★ Intertropical convergence zone

★ Circle of latitude

★ Subtropical ridge