A romancização oficial do filme refere-se a eles como "Tsemus" e afirma especificamente que eles É um animal alienígena que os locais chamam de cavalos, apesar deles não serem realmente cavalos.

It was a fire, and the dark hulks were tsemus, beasts of burden the human settlers on Nimbus indiscriminately referred to as horses. Less than a kilometer away from the dune was a small oasis, a pathetic spring where a group of six armed soldiers had gathered to warm themselves by a campfire and let their tsemus drink. If they had seen or heard signs of the Galileo's arrival, they seemed unconcerned by it.

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Spock was first to make it through the gunfire and stampeding tsemus to the saloon. He dismounted with silent thanks to the creature for its assistance. The direct physical contact with it had allowed for a small degree of mental contact as well. The tsemus were benevolent beings, of limited intelligence but nonetheless highly adaptable, as their survival despite Nimbus's severe climactic changes proved. Spock had found the mental experience most pleasant; and, in time, the physical experience had grown less painful, for the more he concentrated on his mount's thoughts (or, more accurately, its sensations) the easier it became to attune his body to the animal's movements.

Não há indicação se eles são um cruzamento entre os cavalos Terra / Alienígena ou qualquer outra coisa, mas a clara implicação é que eles são totalmente estranhos .

Curiosamente, tanto no roteiro quanto na romancização em quadrinhos do filme, eles são referido como " cavalos ", o que implica strongmente que toda a coisa 'tsemu' é uma invenção do autor da novelização, JM Dillard.

Não

Os animais são chamados cavalos, mesmo que claramente não sejam:

A rider emerged from the storm. He rode astride a native creature that Federation settlers jokingly referred to as a “horse.” For some reason the term had caught on, though the beast resembled no Earth animal J’Onn had ever seen. Granted, it was a quadruped, but larger and shaggier, with a twisted horn jutting from its snout.

—Star Trek: The Final Frontier (novelization)

Pelo contrário, eles são conhecidos como tsemus:

It was a fire, and the dark hulks were tsemus, beasts of burden the human settlers on Nimbus indiscriminately referred to as horses.

—Star Trek: The Final Frontier (novelization)

Dito isto, as criaturas aparentemente não são cavalos da Terra, mesmo no filme. Embora eles possam não ter "chifres de rinoceronte retorcido", há claramente um chifre saindo da cabeça da imagem do cavalo na pergunta.

Outras fontes também mostram claramente o chifre. Por exemplo, a adaptação cômica:

Não.

Na novelização, esses animais são chamados de tsemus , uma raça alienígena, e são apenas "indiscriminadamente" rotulados como cavalos por colonos terráqueos:

It was a fire, and the dark hulks were tsemus, beasts of burden the human settlers on Nimbus indiscriminately referred to as horses.

_{-- Star Trek V: The Final Frontier novelisation}

Veja também Tsemu na Memória Beta e Cavalos Nimbus na Memória Alfa.