[Gwaihir the Windlord]

To me, these two points clearly put the link between the Mearas and the Elves far back in time and my guess is that like the Ents were brought to life by Elves, the Mearas or horses in general in Middle Earth were kept at an early age and extensively used by the Elves.

[img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] As sure of yourself as you may be, I might take you up on this.

Firstly, a minor point, the Ents were not brought to life by Elves -- only 'enlightened', taught language and greater awareness etc. The creation of horses (by the Ainur) was unlike that of Ents (made as fully sentient beings through Illuvatar).

On Rohan:

You guys seem to forget two important links between horses and elves in the book.
Firstly, Glorfindel at the ford tells his horse to carry Frodo to Rivendell in Elfic and secondly Legolas not only is accustomed to riding but the meara (whose name I can't remember) he rides is able to having elves ride bare-back on him.

It looks like you've got things confused slightly. The mearas are a line of clearly very special horses, descended from Frelarof the horse of Eorl (a wild horse, whose ancestry is unknown). Shadowfax was the last of this line. These horses were exceptional; not every horse of Rohan was a Meara (there were in fact only one or two at a time), and your average Rohirric horse -- while Rohan was known for the very high standards of its equine breeding, and produced a lot of very worthy horses -- was simply that, a normal horse. Not a meara.

Legolas did not ride a meara through the Paths of the Dead, but a standard horse of Rohan. That he was able to calm it down, and ride it bareback was not neccessarily because of an ancient horse-Elf connection (???), but because Elves tended to have this way with things.

The origin of Glorfindel's horse, Asfaloth (the name probably means something like 'warm white flower', or so it's thought to be) is unknown, although it does not appear to be a true meara:

'Ride forward! Ride!' cried Glorfindel to Frodo.
He did not obey at once, for a strange reluctance siezed him. Checking his horse to a walk, he turned and looked back...

Asfaloth is rather fast, and apparently able to understand Glorfindel's Sindarin. Clearly he is special, but I would not say meara-special. He is in many other respects a normal horse.

I don't deny that some sort of Elvish influence on the mearas is a possibility, although I would say that an Ainurin (perhaps even divine) source is more likely. I would personally conclude that Elves just tend to have a way with things -- animals, not least those of the horse persuasion -- remember that horses are pretty intelligent creatures to start with -- included.