Horse History

Horse History and the Domestication of the Horse

The modern domesticated horse (Equus caballus) is today spread throughout the world and among the most diverse creatures on the planet. In North America, the horse was part of the megafaunal extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene, but not, for some reason, in Europe. Two wild subspecies survived until recently, the Tarpan (Equus ferus ferus, died out ca 1919) and Przewalski's Horse (Equus ferus przewalskii, of which there are a few left).
Horse history, especially the timing of the domestication of the horse, is still being debated, partly because the evidence for domestication itself is debatable. But interestingly, genetics seems to suggest a single event of domestication. Unlike other animals, criteria such as changes in body morphology (horses are extremely diverse) or the location of a particular horse outside of its "normal range" (horses are very widespread) are not useful in helping resolve the question.

Horse History and the Evidence for Horse Domestication

The earliest possible hints for domestication would be the presence of what appear to be a set of postmolds with lots of animal dung within the area defined by the posts, representing a horse pen. That evidence has been found at Krasni Yar in Kazakhstan, beginning about 5000 BC. The horses may have been kept for food and milk, rather than riding or load-bearing.

Accepted archaeological evidence of horseback riding includes bit wear on horse teeth-that has been found in the steppes east of the Ural mountains at Botai and Kozhai 1 in modern Kazakhstan, around 3500-3000 BC. The bit wear was only found on a few of the teeth in the archaeological assemblages, which might suggest that a few horses were ridden to hunt and collect wild horses for food and milk consumption. Finally, the earliest direct evidence of the use of horses as beasts of burden-in the form of drawings of horse-drawn chariots-is at about 2000 BC, in Mesopotamia.