Kundudo horses, with their unattractive morphology and suffering from consanguinity, were occasionally captured and put to ploughing work by a local farmer, who also sold the foals.

However, due to the decline in numbers between their discovery and an expedition in 2013, these critically endangered horses almost faces extinction.

[3][6] Oral tradition, gathered from the oldest local inhabitants, has it that these horses have been known for over 200 years, and that the future emperor Haile Selassie I captured one of them with the help of his uncle, at the age of 10.

[11] On 3 January 2008, the researchers first found a single mare, around 11 years old, with a hooves that had never been groomed and showing no signs of domestication.

[2] These horses are undergoing a process of re-domestication,[2][10][15][16] as some of them are captured annually by a local farmer, to be put to work.

[6] Their morphology is described as faulty, with irregular shapes, short backs with plunging toplines, and paunchy bellies.

[28] These horses are essentially local, confined to the Mount Kundudo region of eastern Ethiopia,[2][15][17] where they are reputed to be rare.

[7] They are highly threatened with extinction, due to their rarity, consanguinity, poor breeding practices and the demand for their foals.

[6] The Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute has put in place conservation procedures, including the freezing of stallion semen.