Domestication Of Horses Essay

For a long while, the domestication of horses was questionable. Horses first appeared in Paleolithic art as early as 30,000 BCE, so it is certain that these animals have been around for as long as humans can remember. Their bones feature among the remains of early human meals which means they were hunted; however, the point in time where humans decided to start using them for domestic purposes is not entirely clear. Wild horses of various kinds had already spread out around most of the world by the time human history began. Horses are difficult to track because they naturally roam free. Consequently, it is harder to tell what areas are outside of a horse’s normal range. The most commonly accepted theory is that at the end of the Ice Age, around 10,000 years ago, wild horses died out in the Americas and dwindled in Europe. They thrived on the short shrubs and grasses of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, which grew on vast, dry stretches of land. Most scholars believe it was here
that people domesticated the horse, forming a bond that has endured to the present day.
People who were already familiar with domesticated cattle and sheep may have taken the first step toward taming the horse. Despite being powerful and aggressive, horses had important advantages over other animals that were previously domesticated. One of these advantages is that they could easily to feed in the winter. There is evidence that people took advantage of this and raised horses for winter meat. Another advantage horses offered was mobility. Even though there is no definite answer on who was the first person to mount and ride a horse, somehow humans seemed to figure that out. As soon as people could gallop instead of walk, the worlds of trading, warfare, and human expansion were revolutionized.
While there were originally many different breeds of horses, humans took matters into their own hands to produce the best horses possible.
The entire range of horses known to us, from the mighty carthorse down to the smallest ponies, is the result of human breeding. Speed and agility are two examples of traits humans strongly preferred for horses. Some genes from modern horses are completely absent in ancient horses, which leaves geneticists to believe that many forms of the domesticated horse arose from mutations. There are hundreds of mutations that have been discovered as a result of domestication. A single gene mutation in horses can endow them with a wider repertoire of gaits. For example, the three typical styles of horse gaits include the walk, trot and gallop. However, certain breeds can perform an extra gait called pacing in which the legs on one side of the body move together. The American Standardbred and some Icelandic horses can pace, which is useful in certain types of
racing.
The original purpose of domesticating horses was to acquire a reliable source of meat and milk. Over time, people finally realized that they had a means of transport at their disposal. Today, horses are used for many things such as entertainment, companionship, and even therapy. They are one of the most versatile animals humans have bonded with.