The idea of history as being independent from nature determined the development of thinking in the modern Ottoman historiography. Researchers have mimicked the Braudelian perspective of nature as repetitive and cyclic and, assuming the static relationship between natural environment and human society, ignored the biological diversity as an important facet of the history of the Ottoman regions. Moreover, human agencies were not observed as factors that may have contributed to the creation of a number of varieties of plants and breeds of livestock. Through a case study of the Bosnian mountain horse my paper will examine the development of a new horse breed in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the Ottoman military and economic policies in the region. By using a variety of Ottoman archival documentation (provincial records from the Bosnian Inspectorate, correspondence from the Prime Minister's office) my paper will show the changing political and economic contexts that prompted the creation and development of this horse breed, praised even in the twentieth century for its adjustability to the region's geography. My paper will also describe the scientific aspects of the creation of this breed. By surveying the Ottoman scientific literature related to horse breeding, with an emphasis on the regional archival collections in Bosnia and Hercegovina, I will demonstrate the changing Ottoman procedures in the creation of horse breeds. I will conclude the paper by dealing with the resources that both the Ottoman and regional governments had at their disposal for the creation of this breed during the Ottoman period. In the end I will point out that historical studies related to the creation and development of varieties of plants and breeds of livestock cannot be aligned with the prevalent periodization and spatial organization of Ottoman studies.