The great science artist Charles Knight of the American Museum of Natural History reconstructed Hyracotherium like this. He gave it a striped coat because it was a browsing horse. Browsing animals we know today often have striped coats to camouflage them in the play of light and dark on the forest floor.

Some scientists believe that species of Hyracotherium are not only ancestral to the horse, but also to the horse's other perissodactyl (hoofed mammals with an odd number of toes) relatives like the rhinos, tapirs, and some interesting extinct animals. These extinct animals include the strange clawed chalicotheres, enormous horned titanotheres, and the "Beast of Baluchistan," the largest land mammal that ever lived.