How were horses domesticated?

No one really knows any actually proven theories, but there are a few good and likely ones that are common sense. It is believed that by 2,000 BC horses were domesticated – however there is evidence that predates this by two thousand years and perhaps even further. Today there are no Wild Horses left except the never-domesticated Przewalski’s Horse, which is not an ancestor to today’s modern horse. The wild horse is long gone, and the only horses you will find in the wild today are descendants of domesticated horses, and they are called Feral Horses. never confuse a Wild Horse with a Feral Horse – the rule of thumb is that the Wild Horse went extinct about the end of the last ice age – however the Tarpan went extinct in 1917 with the death of the last one in a zoo. It was the last true wild horse, while another subspecies still survives today.

The method of early domestication was likely through the finding of foals and raising them by human hands, which is easy to do considering foals need nurturing emotional attachments and will bond with humans and other domestic animals quickly at a very young age. Early horses were probably slaughtered for food, with their foals being raised, bred, and slaughtered after becoming accustomed to humans. When they began to be used for travel, and were bred in captivity successfully would be around 2-4,000 BC. When we began domestication was probably much earlier as the genetic variance of the codes are much more significant. Wild Horses have 66 Chromosomes, Domesticated Horses have 64 (and donkeys have 62).

Share and Enjoy:

Posted in Horses | | 0 Comments

Recent Articles

How were horses domesticated?

Leave a reply

Categories

Animal Friends