Horses Impact On Society

Prologue:

Throughout history, horses have significantly impacted the human species in more ways than many people can begin to understand. Before horses carried men into war, letters across countries, pulled wagons along the Oregon trail, provided police with easier means to control civil disobedience, or acted as fire-engines, they were already culturally active in the role of human survival during different crucial times throughout the progression of human development. Through the course of history, horses have been a major source of food for early human ancestors such as the Cro-magnons, who drove horses off of cliffs, then slaughtered the horses that survived the plunge, and taking what they needed to survive back to their camps (Kahn,
In the last hundred years since the creation of the automobile, humans used horses less as a necessity of life and more in the sense of sports, entertainment, recreation, hobbies for the rich, and mainly life-styles of the poor. Along with economic impacts on culture, horses have also created a technological, chronemic, interpersonal, and psychological impact on human culture (Helmer 1991:175). Technology inspired by the horse helped to create the automobile, and today the carriage is used as a sporting event in harness racing (Helmer 1991:187). Horse people dedicate their lives and live everyday as if it were on repeat. Owning a horse sets horse people culturally at a different level than most others who don’t have to feed a horse twice a day or muck its stall (Helmer 1991:189). In equine sports and recreation, the popularity of the horse or trainer and affiliation with, contributes to the social aspect of culture within a “horse community” (Helmer 1991:190). Horses also contribute to the way a community’s psychological culture is affected. In a town with a dense population of horse people, one could find it particularity common that the town is for the most part full of down to earth, understanding, and kind individuals because of the ways in which they relate to their horses (Helmer
Not only have horses imprinted human culture by service, but they have also left footprints in Native surroundings, creating large cultural worth other than that of a culture’s use of the horse as a means to survive. Like the cow in the Hindu religion, the Arabian horse is considered to be by the Bedouins and other native Arab cultures, sacred and god’s gift to mankind. An ancient Bedouin legend that Ishamael, took a handful of the southerly wind and created the Arabian horse, and that it holds its virtue in its forelock. The Arabian horse was their gift from Allah. The Bedouin’s prized their horses and even slept with them inside of their tents in order to protect their beautiful steeds from sandstorms. The Arabian horse loved their owners as much as their owners cherished them. They used their horses to find water, and when let go to run loose in the desert, the loyal horses returned. They also used their horses to cross the deserts and migrate to new lands (Arabian horses