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horsetuna t1_jcsa4ew wrote

Current theories is that they were domesticated first as food animals, and then people found out how good they are at other things.

The first horses domesticated were very similar to przewalskis horse... Small, mowhawk mane etc.

(Genetics indicate that the przewalskis horse is not a true wild horse alas)

I thought the Royal Tyrell museum of paleontology had a good lecture on horse evolution but I can only find theirs on evolution of horses in the Americas. I'll link if I can find it. (maybe it's the same one and it mentioned the Przewalskis horse too)

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plinythebitchy t1_jcsnqsq wrote

Could you link the one on evolution in the Americas, too?

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[deleted] t1_jct3kcq wrote

[removed]

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GeriatricHydralisk t1_jct5ayu wrote

False, horses evolved in the Americas first, and precursor species as well as modern horses repeatedly migrated across the land bridge to Eurasia.

Then, about 12,000 years ago, they all died out in America, a long with all the other native Megafauna, right around the time a certain species with tools, fire, and a reputation to eating things into extinction showed up.

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aldinski t1_jcv4zn2 wrote

The Botai culture was believed to be pasturing horses but initially without proof of horse riding, therefore the idea that before riding was developed, the horses were bred for meat. As far as I understood this is kind of debunked now, as there were finds of horse skulls from that time with marks on their teeth originating from snaffle bits. To me the idea of herding an animal good in running like horses as a walking human seems ridiculous.

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Necessary-Lack-4600 t1_jcvasqd wrote

>To me the idea of herding an animal good in running like horses as a walking human seems ridiculous.

Why? Herding is not running behind fleeing animals. Herding is making them accustomed to you with lots of patience, not scaring them by trying run after them. Quite a lot domesticated animals run faster than humans. No-one can outrun a cow. Even sheep are way faster than most humans. But we did domesticate and herd them.

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aldinski t1_jcvh06a wrote

Yeah, maybe. But catching animals is always part of the herding, usually not daily business, but in many situations, least not of all catching for the kill. Horses are constant grazers and not as feed efficient as cows (or goats and sheep) this also means that they cover a lot of ground a day and they are skittish flight animals. So you can not compare them to cow/sheet/goat. Also horses haven been domesticated quite late in history, compared to the other animals. Botai horses clearly were ridden, so riding horses was part of the horse herding business and was developed in parallel.

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ZZ9ZA t1_jd171ft wrote

Is the Prezewalskis Horse as closely related to a zebra as it looks, minus the stripes.

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BeanC0unt3r t1_jctz0ss wrote

The horses that were first domesticated by humans around 5,500 years ago were smaller and had a different body shape compared to modern horses. They were also less suited to carrying heavy loads or being ridden. Over time, humans selectively bred horses for certain traits, resulting in larger, stronger, and more docile horses that are better suited for work, racing, and riding.

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sea_of_joy__ t1_jcwh0ik wrote

Also, one group of early proto-Indo-Europeans whom we call the Yamnaya were attributed to either their domestication or utilizing their full potential for animal husbandry, transportation, and warfare.

However, we know that this isn't the case. The Yamnya's horses were too small still to support the weight of a person, and also, the Yamnaya had disc-shaped wheels which had too much inertia to be able to go fast as a chariot or wagon.

So about 1,000 years after the Yamnaya started their journey, one of their offshoots became the Sintashta of East of the Urals just north of Kazakhstan. These Sintashta spoke a language that descended from the Yamnaya's language, but it skewed more like Proto-Indo-Iranian.

Anyways, these Sintashta people selectively bred horses until they were big, and also, they innovated the spoked wheel, which made them unstoppable in war. The Sintashta lived from 2100 BC - 1800 BC.

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