Horse History

Horse History

Horses have been roaming the open landscapes of the earth, for more than 50 million years. Horses, as a species, have been quietly and successfully evolving longer than man. The slow evolutionary development of the horse is often used on charts and studies as a prime example of how a species is changing over a long period of time, and has been successfully used to prove the theory of natural selection.

The first horses were built to adapt and survive on terrain where other animals could not. The early ancestors of today’s horse had slowly evolved for wide open parie terrain with only sparse grasses and a mixed variety of other vegetation to eat. They were able to successfully survive and prosper where other larger animals could not live.

Early horse ancestors did efficiently progress and thrive for thousands of years, but around 8000 years ago, there is evidence, that horse population numbers around the world, dropped drastically. The overall horse numbers in North America and South America’ quickly decreased until they became totally extinct, while horse numbers in other parts of the world also dropped down to only a small number of horses remaining. The only continent where horse survived was Eurasia. This was around the end of the ice age in history, descendants of man came were now upon the scene.

During mans early contact with wild horses, men were the predators and horses were the prey. Long before we relied on horses as a beast of burden, we used them as a essential food source. Domestication of the first horses possibly began more for a food and milk animal, than a working animal. Evidence for archaeologist of the beginnings of horse domestication would be the visible indication of post holes with layers of animal dung within the pen. This type of evidence and more have been found in Asia with the the possible dating of 3600 B.C.

The next step forward for the domestication of the horse would be the ability for a normal man to actually train and ride their horse consistently over a few months to a few years. Evidence of this type of use would be a horse having excessive wear on some of its teeth due to being ridden or worked with a bit in the horses mouth. Evidence of this type on horse teeth, has been dated 3500-3000 B.C.

As man progressed forward in learning and culture, so did our horses. As early man became more civilized, language and art became a sign post of this painful progression. The first known art work or drawing of a horse rigged up to a horse drawn chariot was unearthed from the Mesopotamia area, about 2000 B.C. Ancient drawn images of horses have also been discovered in deep untouched caves proving that these animals played a huge role in the lives of prehistoric man as well. The horse was to hold that intimate position for centuries to come.

To truly understand the evidence we have that horses and man were on the road to domestication, three strings of evidence were closely examined: shin bone structure of these horses found remains, bit wear on the horses teeth and the consumption of horse meat and horse milk and milk storage. When this unearthed data is examined the domestication of the horse most likely happened in Central Asia around 3500-3000 B.C.

Looking closely at this ancient evidence, horse skeletons were examined and front leg bones differed in a few ways from their wild cousins showing evidence of heavier use. There was another indisputable sign that domestication was happening to the horse in several cultures at once

Since horses were repeatedly used in stone and iron age as meat and milk, evidence of microscopic remains of horse milk stored in jars has clearly showed how important the horse was to early man.

Continued riding of the horse means bit wear will show up on a horse as noticeable wear on the horses teeth. At some sites early horse teeth were found with wear areas on the teeth. Upon a close examination and micro-analysis researchers found tiny fragments of iron embedded in the horses teeth.

By 2000 B.C. Archaeologist agree that there has been evidence that the number of horse bones found in early settlements increased drastically, a good indication of the spread of domestic horse both as food and a beast of burden. Once man discovered and domesticated the horse, both species were linked together. Our unplanned relationship with horses has been going on for somewhere around 5500 years long.