Horse Lovers

My Horse, My Love

by Horse Poet

I can only imagine
What is in your heart,
What do you feel
When we are apart?

My horse, my love,
I have given you my all
Do you dream of me,
Do you think of me at all?

My horse, my love,
I gaze into your eyes
Your presence fills the air
Ever the same, ever a surprise

My horse, my love,
Do you care for me?
I dream of you at night
When you are all I see

I can only imagine,
What is in your heart,
What do you feel
When we are apart? 

I need to preface what I'm about to say with this:  I love horses. I enjoy riding horses, I think they are majestic, I think interacting with them is a very beautiful thing.

Okay, here is the rest.

 So I brought up to a few horse lovers that I thought maybe zebras could be domesticated too and that horses also tend to bite, that did not sit well with them. They became very defensive and insisted horses are kind gentle creatures and that zebras are inherently vicious and unconquerable. I hope my post about horses being less than gentle at least gives evidence that horses can be violent. My question is, why are people so defensive about horses? Why does the very idea that zebras are capable of being as "gentle" as horses are offend some horse lovers? Maybe it was more my statement that horses are capable of being vicious that made them upset...

Horse poem: http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/my-horse-my-love/

Horses in Archaeological Record

Pictures of horses in the archaeological record.... in no particular order.... for your viewing please. Enjoy!

  

Persian Period, 586-330 BC

http://www.archaeological-center.com/en/auctions/38-182

 Mohenjo-daro, 2600 BCE

http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/horse-debate.html

Al-Magar site, 9 kya

http://www.scta.gov.sa/en/Antiquities-Museums/ArcheologicalDiscovery/Pages/GI-AlmagarSite.aspx

 

Sunghir Paleolithic Site, 25 kya

http://www.vladmuseum.ru/eng/unique_exhibits/index.php?sid=1119

 

England, 1920s

http://www.etsy.com/listing/96040891/antique-lead-horse-archaeological-find

Croatia, 14.4-17.3 kya

http://forwhattheywereweare.blogspot.com/2012/07/paleolithic-ceramic-animal-figurines-of.html

Horse Pendant, Sungir 20-25 kya

http://donsmaps.com/sungaea.html

Agora Excavations, 2nd Century B.C.

http://www.agathe.gr/id/agora/report/excavations%202008

Iran, 3500 years ago

http://www.okmmetaldetectors.com/metal-detector-finds/prehistoric-figurines-iran.php?lang=en

Vogelherd Cave in the Swabian Jura, 33,000 BCE

http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/prehistoric/oldest-art.htm

Hohle Fehls, 30 kya

http://archaeology.about.com/od/upperpaleolithic/ss/hohle_fels.htm

Niaux cave 13-14 kya

http://designfaith.blogspot.com/2011_09_01_archive.html

 

 Lascaux Cave Paintings around 17.3 kya

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/c/cave/cave_painting_horse.jpg.html

http://www.bradshawfoundation.com/lascaux/lascaux_the_future.php

http://theeducatedwrestler.com/beginnings.html

Spanish Prehistoric Cave Art

http://www.gifthorsegallery.com/breedandalusian.asp

Chauvet Cave, 30 - 32 kya

http://neveryetmelted.com/2008/07/13/paleolithic-cave-art-of-southern-france/

Cave Horses, no dating, no location, but great pictures

http://www.woodsonginstitute.com/gallery/Contemporary/contemporary.html

http://marjoriecowley.com/

 

Domestication

“My working hypothesis,” says Greger Larson, an expert on genetics and domestication at Durham University in the United Kingdom, “is that with most of the early animals—dogs first, then pigs, sheep, and goats—there was probably a long period of time of unintentional management by humans.” The word domestication “implies something top down, something that humans did intentionally,” he says. “But the complex story is so much more interesting.”

In The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication, Darwin wrote that domesticated animals share certain traits in common: floppy ears, smaller, curly tails, and often spotted coats. Those traits make the animals seem younger and are present in domesticated pigs, dogs, cows, chickens, and even some fish.

Domesticating the Fox

A wild fox.

Dmitry Belyaev took up 150 foxes to domesticate and with each generation, he selected the most approachable to breed. After only 9 generations of selecting strictly for friendly interaction with humans, the foxes were already showing signs of domestication  – actively bonding with humans, smaller, floppy-eared, curly-tailed, and spotted coats. They were also whining and wagging their tails in human presence.

Cuddly Foxes!!

These foxes also have the ability to follow human pointing and eye movements (an ability that domesticated dogs possess) suggesting that selecting for a nicer fox yields a smarter fox as well.

A cuddly house-fox!

Belyaev’s hypothesis: There exists a collection of genes that lead to tameness, this is a genotype that foxes share with any species capable of being domesticated.

The fox farm not only has cuddly friendly foxes, but also foxes bred for a mean disposition. They are all decidedly vicious. Then the researchers did a surprising test, had a vicious fox brought up by a tame mother; the result: a vicious fox. The conclusion: nature won over nurture.

The search for the tameness gene is proving difficult. First the genes responsible for friendly and aggressive behavior must be identified then analyzed for control over spots in fur, curly tails, and floppy ears. One theory is that these behavior altering genes alter chemicals in the brain and have downstream effects on physical appearance.

Domesticating the Rat

Belyaev also performed this experiment on rats.


Above, is result of 73 generations of breeding for hostility toward humans.

Belyaev’s Critics

Leif Andersson of Uppsala University argues that there may not be a causal relationship between the behavior traits and the physical traits of domestication. He argues that perhaps tameness to humans was selected for a some point, perhaps naturally because animals could benefit from living closer to humans by living off of their trash, or artificially by humans breeding friendly animals. Only after that initial selection for friendliness, humans begin selecting for cuter animals and the two traits are not linked.


all from national geographic article including all photos (except wild fox photo): http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/03/taming-wild-animals/ratliff-text/2
wild fox photo: http://www.alansaunders-wildlifephotography.co.uk/awardsacceptances-into-national-international-photographic

Equus Ferus

Today's Wild Horses

 

Actually, those guys fighting are mustangs, aka feral horses, aka horses that were once domesticated but escaped into the wild. ¹ They can be easily re-domesticated/"broken". ⁵ They are the domestic horse, Equus ferus caballus. ¹

Above are pictures of the extinct Eurasian Wild Horse (Equus ferus ferus) that once lived in Eurasia and is considered to be the pre-domestic ancestor of the modern horse, although this is debated.¹

Przewalski's horse (Equus ferus przewalskii)native to Central Asia and the Gobi desert, is the only living wild horse (debatable since it bred a lot with domesticated horses). It went extinct in the wild due to loss of genetic diversity (inbreeding and breeding with domestic stock), hunting, loss of habitat, and loss of water sources. Later it was reintroduced into the wild, and is now a wild horse again.³

The Przewalski has two more chromosomes than our horses, stands 13 hands tall to the shoulder, head and body length of less than 7 ft, and an adult can weigh between 550 and 750 lbs.²

Note the Przewalski's  stylish mohawk mane and can't be tamed attitude.

Domestication

Either the Tarpan or Przewalski's horse could be the ancestor of our domesticated horses.
The earliest evidence for domestication in the archaeological record (dates to 5000 BC) is of post molds at Krasni Yar in Kazakstan which contain a lot of animal dung within its enclosed area; it is interpreted to have been a horse pen, although these horses may have been kept for food and milk rather than riding or load-bearing.⁶

Bit wear on horse teeth, which indicate horseback riding, appear in the archaeological record around 3500-3000 BC in the steppes east of the Ural Mts at Botai and Kozhai. Only few of the horses had bit wear perhaps because most of the horses were kept for food while only few were ridden for hunting. Finally dating at 2000 BC, definitive evidence of  horse domination, drawings of horse-drawn chariots in Mesopotamia (see amazing pictures below).⁶

Finally, the earliest direct evidence of the use of horses as beasts of burden--in the form of drawings of horse-drawn chariots--is from Mesopotamia, about 2000 BC.⁶

Genetic analysis has traced all living domesticated horses to one founder stallion (have the same Y-haplotype); whereas analysis of mitochondrial DNA from female horses reveal 77 possible founding mothers for the current horse populations - which probably means more, actually.
A 2012 study by Warmuth and colleagues, integrated data about horse domestication to conclude that the domestication occurred once in the western Eurasian steppe. The diverse mtDNA was probably due to repeated breeding events with wild mares.⁶

In a 2009 study of Botai sites dating 3500-3000 BC by Outram and colleagues, evidence was found for gracile horse shin bones, horse milk consumption, and bitwear on teeth. Gracile metacarpas indicate domesticity because domesitic horses have thinner shins. The Botai horses had shinbones closer in size and shape to fully domesticated horses of the Bronze Age. Also, fatty lipids of horse milk were found inside of pots; and, as mentioned earlier, the horse teeth showed signs of bit wear (image below shows parallel-sided vertical band of bit wear).⁴

 

Works Cited
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_horse
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarpan
3. http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/asiatrail/fact-phorse.cfm
4.  http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2009/0306sp_horse.shtml
5. http://www.training-horses-naturally.com/wild-horses.html
6. http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/horses.htm


 Pictures
Mustang picture: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/02/wild-horses/fuller-text
Tarpan pictures  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarpan
Running Przewalski's horses: http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/asiatrail/fact-phorse.cfm
Can't be tamed picture and person with horse: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/przewalskis-horse/
Botai tooth http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2009/0306sp_horse.shtml\
Horse drawn chariot left picture: https://ucworldstudies.wikispaces.com/Weapons
Horse drawn chariot right picture: http://www.britishmuseum.org/about_us/news_and_press/press_releases/2012/the_horse.aspx

Attack of the Domesticated Horse

Now that I have worked really hard finding examples of zebra attacks (although I didn't find too many which makes me a little upset) I will find examples of horse attacks.

Horse Bully

A man bullies a horse until the horse attacks him.

Biting a Cyclist

This guy gets bit by a horse that is grazing.

Finger Bite

When a man turns his head away as he is petting a horse, the horse bites his finger.

Arm Bite

This may or may not be a horse trained to bite, but this video shows a horse biting a man as he narrates the bite and get a little scared or flustered at the end. tindaisy1 commented that a his or her friend had her arm broken by a horse biting it.

Unwieldy Horse

This video shows a horse being led by a woman. The horse starts getting fussy and the woman punches the horse in the face. I want to share this video to give you a taste of what it takes to keep a domesticated and well-trained horse in line. I was president of the Equestrian club at my school and I regularly saw horses getting handled very roughly. In fact, my trainer used to break horses and said that, in order to so do, she would almost always have to get a big heavy stick and hit them with it.

The point of this post was to show that domesticated horses, supposedly non-vicious, can get pretty terrible themselves and require a lot of skill and force to keep them from biting or not minding in general. Think of a puppy or dog, obviously domesticated, but you still need to train it not to bite. Horses are also trained not to bite but have developed a compromise known as the nip. The nip is a biting gesture that doesn't involve actually hurting a person. Dogs trained not to bite may do this as well, they do pretend bites that don't hurt, but get the point across. What makes zebra viciousness so special and different? I can't tell yet.

Zebras are just too fit

The question: Can zebras be domesticated?

That's a tame zebra.

An English zoological collector, Lord Rothschild, used to ride around in a zebra drawn carriage. And there are several other instances of people using zebras to draw carriages.

Horace Hayes found that the Burchell's zebra is relatively easy to break and would be ideal for domestication. Another candidate, the guagga, is also well-suited to domestication and is more docile than others.

So i found this article (click here for link) online about Guns, Germs, and Steel. I was super impressed because it seemed to be explaining that animals in Africa were harder to domesticate because of "survival of the fittest" - African herbivores are selected to be aggressive because of all of the nasty predators there. But then I saw this:

A pattern emerged. African herbivores were simply too aggressive for human control. Elsewhere in the world, mammals evolved in isolation from human interference — after all, man only lived outside of Africa for a fraction of his existence on earth-- around 50,000 years. When man arrived in Eurasia and in the Americas, native herbivores were by nature less cautious and more receptive to human control.

And the problem is that in Eurasia and America there were a lot of terrible predators too... until humans came in and magically the predators started disappearing. From climate change? Competition with humans? Loss of prey? Food for humans? I'm not really sure. I'll need to do more research.

Zebras may be too, too fit... but see how well this zebra tutu fits?

baby picture: http://pumpkinpatching.blogspot.com/2010/09/hot-pink-and-zebra-print.html

first zebra picture: http://www.madamzebra.com/Domestication-of-Zebras.html

picture of Rothchild with zebras: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WalterRothschildWithZebras.jpg