Tracing The History of the Modern Horse

The contribution of the horse through human history is well documented. Whether as sources of food, transportation, or farm labour, the horse and humankind are forever linked. But did you ever wonder what made it possible for us to actually ride these animals? A new study might have the answer.

Published this month in the journal Nature, scientists found that approximately 4,200 years ago, one lineage of horse became dominant, which might be the proof needed to definitively state when humans began to share and sell domesticated horses around the world.

The article, called Widespread horse-based mobility arose around 2,200 BCE in Eurasia, suggests that this particular line of horses shared a genetic mutation that altered its back, a factor that could explain how and when people found it easier to ride.

Scroll to continue with content

“In the past, you had many different lineages of horses,” Pablo Librado, an evolutionary biologist at the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelona and co-author of the new study told the Associated Press (AP).

According to the AP article, robust genetic diversity was found in ancient DNA samples dating back to 50,000 years ago found across Eurasia. But the researchers discovered in their analysis of 475 ancient horse genomes that this mutation that changed back shape appeared in samples approximately 4,200 years ago.

Apparently, this mutation was first was noticed in an area that in modern times is in Eastern Europe and southern Russia. The study learned that horses with this genetic mutation “Quickly replaced other lineages. Within three hundred years, the horses in Spain were similar to those in Russia,” states the AP.

“We saw this genetic type spreading almost everywhere in Eurasia — clearly this horse type that was local became global very fast,” said co-author Ludovic Orlando, a molecular archaeologist at the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse in France, who is quoted in the article.

The scientists think this was due to a Bronze Age people known as the Sintashta, who had domesticated their local horse and then used these equines to grow their territory.

“Domesticating wild horses on the plains of Eurasia was a process, not a single event,” the scientists explained to the AP.