The First Horse Riders | Horse Domestication on the Eurasian Steppe 

I would not say it's a niche topic. Horse domestication is one of the fundamental events of human history. You did a great job explaining the two main theories.

I can think of two reasons for riding a horse either on the hip or at the withers. If you look at an equine skeleton you will see that the vertebrae over the centre back have bony protrusions sticking upwards (called spinous processes) where ligaments and muscles attach. These upward-pointing spikes make riding without a saddle very uncomfortable. However, they get smaller at the base of the neck and over the hips. Another reason could be that earlier horses which had not been selectively bred were quite weak in the middle. Cave paintings depict horses with very straight backs which would not have had the elasticity conferred by the more curved back of the modern horse. Of course, it could also mean that the spinous processes were larger and even more uncomfortable than they are today.

The way I was taught in university was that the early Indo Europeans used chariots as horses at the time were too small to be ridden on and only once horses reached larger sizes due to selective breeding. The first large scale of horse back riding was in Assyria in the iron age. At least that's what they taught us 20+ years back.

Certainly was a game changer, along with making fire, space flight, atom bomb, and gene sequencing. (Horse domestication)

Hi Dan - I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your great content, I really appreciate it! The bronze age is the epoch when our modern world started to form, in its best and worst aspects. Sometimes I think that I'm suffering what one could call "epoch dysphoria" - the wish to have lived in another time when the world was "more magical" and everything was meaningful, when a voyage of one hundred kilometers was a (potentially life-threatening) adventure but there were also no borders and you could be in the wilderness for weeks without finding any hint of other humans. But I'm also not naive and aware that it is easy to romanticise these times from our modern perspective, times when families died of starvation because the winter was a little longer than expected, a man of 40 years was considered old and women were considered legitimate loot in warfare. People were more free and less free as we are today at the same time. Strange.

A friend of mine used to work in a jousting show and had ridden since childhood, he tells me good riders direct more with their knees than their bridles.

@@SigurdVolsunga Exactly

@De Alvarado Which Spanish chronicles? I doubt those indigenous dwarves could even mount a horse during most of the Spanish imperial period.

@@thebrocialist8300 Man what a disagreeable racist individual you have to be. Sometimes I think people are generally kind and good, and then people like you come along….

At the same time, though, the modern horse has been bred to be a riding animal. So it is not clear that analogies from modern horses capture all the difficulties of riding early domesticated horses.

Hi Suzanne, I too ride with legs and balance, and no need at all for bridles and saddles on a well trained horse. :)

I primarily ride/event/show/etc my horses bareback and bridleless due to my Ehlers Danlos Syndrome causing the slight tension from saddles and reins to dislocate my joints. It's not overwhelmingly difficult/impossible to communicate with your horse without aids; as long as you spend time with it, working on bodily control, and approach it with a "I'm with you as a partner, not here to micromanage you" attitude. It's definitely not out of the realm of possibility that they did the same back then in order to ride horses.

@@KickAssCowgirl27 You go, girl!

The first human to ride a horse must have been a badass. It probably took a long time for this to be a normal practice and even longer to be widespread but it happened everywhere horses are which is most of Eurasia.

@@KickAssCowgirl27 the American Plains Indians had no experience of horses till the Spanish brought them back in the 14th century- yet the Apache were renowned as the greatest light cavalry. They weren't much for saddles either. Fr

that said, these early horses were still at the advent of their development, genes that gave them stronger backs, longer legs, better heart endurance, easier trainability is still just developing which makes it all the more impressive

The Comanche were weak and beat on tribes , until the Horse 🐎 then became one of the strongest people in North America

I'm also living in Parkston South Dakota where are you in the state?

Thank you. And I appreciate your insights - you're right, much of what our ancestors did will not show up in the archeology.

You are 100 percent correct, just like archaeologists claimed that Ancient Man selected the wolves with little fear for humans that followed the camp, no they didn't they took puppies and the puppies had no fear of humans because they are pack animals same thing with horses oh, they killed and ate the adult and raised the foal which had no fear of human

You are my kind of man! I read this thinking, I might as well have written it - including the opinion on archaeologists. 👍🏻 however what I meant to comment myself is, I wonder if there aren't any ancient legends on taming the horse. As with the archaeologists (these poor people's careers can be ruined if they dared speculate as we can!), we also underestimate the ancient legends. I started believing in them when I read about the discovery of Celtic burial in the Bull's Rock cave in Moravia. There had been legends (by the word of mouth) about men in white robes and fire and yelling and moaning... when they excavated the cave, the burial was 3.5 thousand years old! So if a legend can survive that long, why not ten thousand? Ok, and the reason why I wonder is that a domestication of horse was done by "the people", but taming of first horse was done (possibly) by one person, and then the whole tribe learned the skill. And such person gets a special place in legends, and possibly even supernatural powers. So I'd be researching the tales of the folks in the likely areas where the horses were tamed. That could give us surprising clues. Just looking at the Epona story is interesting: why is a woman associated with horse godess? Isn't it showing the special relationship we see today (most of the members of any youth horse club are girls)? What if the first horse tamer was girl? Also, how old is the Epona worship? Can we assume that before becoming a deity some three thousand years ago, there could be centuries of more detailed legend that are now lost? Why should we assume that Epona cult started suddenly, without prior history before becoming a cult? Can we not guess the age of the story by researching the variations of Epona and horse names in various indoeuropean languages? We know "equus" (q changed to P in some Celtic languages), we have "pony", in my native Czech we have "kůň", which is obviously from the same origin, the possibilities are many.

@@zenolachance1181 and they no doubt put their kids up on the backs of the horses as a game...

@@peterkratoska3681 I've seen the video on feral dog but that is not wolves 60000 years ago when wolves would have been a serious threat to humans although I have been looking into toxoplasmosis in animals making them less aggressive toxoplasmosis may have led to domestication of many animals. I don't know if anyone is studying this but it is an interesting topic

That is exactly my thought on it, great comments! 🐎🙋Lisa Rae Rousseau🐎

I’ve known children whose family had really big dogs like 115 pounds And the kids ride the dogs till they were about 10

Find a copy of 'Real Horses Don't Say Oink' by Patrick McManus.

@@Snoriffej Yeah bud did you read all about that in a video you watched in the suburbs. Any other first hand experience you care to pass along?

As well, I am sure the ancients would have seen birds or small animals climb on the backs of a horse laying down. It just isn't a far stretch to think that a person then would approach a subservient mare laying down and try to get on it's back. I am also in agreement with the idea of children connecting with foals and establishing a bond leading to riding the horse.

Big Role ! You can even see it in humans Body structures , Mongolian, and others , short legs long upper body - my ancestors 600 years on horse back 🐎

not only horses... camels too... they both evolved in the Americas and when the landbridge brought the Siberians open, the animals spread to Asia and beyond... but the Siberians in the Americas ate the horses in the continent, and considering that the escaping to Asia horses were the size of a dog... then yes!... the Spaniards brought back an all-new species...

@user-McGiver Yeah, they weren't anything like what we have now. They were pretty small...I think even smaller than miniature horses. Would have made for a tasty snack for someone or something!

@@Shifang Yeah!... try ''everyone and everything'' better, and explain that to the horse too... that by finding a use for it and ''evolving'' it we saved it... the thing is that those invading from Siberia ''Mongols'' [ same religion and customs ] ate the entire mega-fauna of the Americas... outa ''love and respect for life and Nature'' [crap]

Horses of th present variety were present in North America 18000 years ago and the ancestors of our Indigenous cousins slaughtered over 1000 Genera of species including the horse (the Pleistocene Extinction). I grew up around Plains Indians and they say "the horse made us" but none of them realize it was actually the Spanish who made them by re-introducing horses to North America ... but this time they were smart enough to ride them rather than slaughter them. The notion of the ecological in tune Indian is worse that a myth - it is a lie.

that's not the opposite of what had been established - the fact that horses originate in America, from where they migrated into Asia, is well known for quite some time. Other thing is that American wild horses later died out and were only reintroduced by Europeans in early modern times... now, there is some evidence that some American horses potentially survived into later pre-Columbian times, but the clear pattern of horse-riding spreading and completely altering lifestyle of plain tribes in early modern times shows that these potential survivors weren't domesticates and didn't have any real impact on pre-Colombian society...

What I think too. I rode our farm cows before my dad finally got me a horse.

Perhaps by accident. A father picking up his tired son on a long journey,and sitting him atop a horse carrying supplies maybe.

@@xScooterAZxPerhaps so. But why is it hard to imagine tough, bold kids playing with fierce horses ? People today have no clue what free kids are like. My father drove the farm truck (Model A Ford) to town on errands as soon as he could reach the pedals, and hunted with a 4 10 shotgun when he was 9. In many parts of the world it was the role of boys to guard the pasturing herds from large predators.

@@mondopinion3777 Did I say it was hard? No,I didnt. I simply was thinking of how a child might be tired and his Father picking him up and sitting him on a horse. Why does that bother you? Tough,bold,kids with fierce horses? I know the horses my Dad would buy me at auction were always fierce. Half broken so they were bought in bulk cheaply,..and I didnt have any tack,just a rope around their bottom jaw to ride with. He got me 5 in an auction one time. I had to work those horses every day after school. Oh,and I am old enough to remember living in Hungry Horse Montana and going out on my pony cart to get our Milk cannister,which was about 2 1/2 feet high. and taking it home. I'm quite old,and remember doing manual labour type chores. Chopping wood,and stacking it in the barn,etc. So what's your point about your father riding a bike and hunting. Most people I know from my generation know how to do those things. I had my first rifle when I was 5 years old. My Dad had a Model A,..I have photos of him it it too :}

@@xScooterAZx We are much alike then. You should understand what my point is. (but I said my dad was driving a truck, not a bike, to town.) These academic theorists make me irritated with their testosterone-driven stress on war in the domestication of horses, and so do the lame comments by sheltered folk who overprotect their kids and cannot conceive what free kids are like. I thought you were one of them. Sorry.

Interesting, I never thought of it that way before!

The Aztec at first thought that Cortez's horsemen were animals with two heads. So, it's easy to see the concept of the centaur being a folkloric survival of the encounter with horse riding nomadic peoples.

Well, it was likely made by tales of people that stambled upon Kimmerians or scytchians before big greak colonization.

Yes whole papers have been written on it.

@@jozefkozon4520 Yes, I also heard somewhere that the myth of the centaur could have been derived from tales of the Scythians.

Tarim is in Central Asia.

Wow! Thank you for sharing!!!

Yep. The Tocharians, evidence of that in Ukraine 6k yrs ago, as well.

I've owned horses for 60 years. I can't remember more than a few mares that didn't have them. They are often removed because of the bit hitting them causing pain /infection

I can see early man killing a mare…..and the scared foal hung around. Plus, it smelled its mom on them. While old enough to eat grass, it was still attached to mom. So it follows the hunters home because the rest of the herd is long gone. Initially confused, the hunters laugh this off as a snack following it home. Making for a easy kill later on. Well, the foal hangs around, at out of loneness decides to hang around a younger non aggressive human for companionship. This human child may be the kid of a high ranking clan member, so the parent tells the other hunters to leave the foal be for now, since it makes his kid happy. Well, you know kids. They love climbing on things. Ever see them with a dog? After a few months, the kid and foal get really attached. The foal grows, and the kid likes the crawl on it. The now older horse is kind of a quiet omega animal, so it decides it’s better to put up with these scary humans, then being alone. Plus, one human feeds it treats sometimes and keeps nasty predators away. Well, one day, the kid fully sits on the young horses back. Horse crow hops a few times, turns its head, sniffs, and decides to just keep grazing. Kid is initially just thrilled with that. But seeing the horse move around, and even run he starts to get an idea. He teaches the horse how to respond to a rope(pressure) on the ground (so it won’t wonder off either). He fashions a crude halter, gets on its back, and applies pressure with the halter and legs for the young horse to move. Horse, initially startled, decides to do what the “alpha” is telling it do do. After some trial and error, he is able to ride around, maybe even putting a leather thong around the neck, or a crude blanket on the horses back for grip. This definitely got the tribes attention, and the young ladies swooning at the sight. This of course gets the other guys attention. They want to impress the ladies too. Perhaps they catch other young horses after a hunt and try to copy the first guy. A few succeed and other uses for horses for hunting , travel, warfare, scouting, and packing goods is quickly discovered. I am convinced a young man or kid was the first to get on a horses back, and impressed the adults.

The New Forest ponies aren't wild but they roam around and it's lovely seeing them walking about free beneath the trees.

How about the ghostly sights of a giant moose in the fog..on the south island in N.Z...i think south island..I read about Theodore Roosevelt bringing them there..but very rarely seen if at all..but I only read such news and know not from truth or false..

@@tashaarellano7680 I've not seen a moose in New Zealand, and done plenty of hunting in my time with rifle and bow there. I would surmise that it was a fiordland wapiti which grow huge in size with massive antlers that was mistaken for a moose if one the person who 'spotted it' was unfamiliar with moose or maybe the wapitis antlers were covered in undergrowth giving a moose like appearance, I've seen plenty of moose in Scandinavia and I could understand the mistake. That been said there are some strange tails of unaccountable creatures sneaking around in the depths of some of those dark forests in the South Island. I've learnt not to write off any accounts from tails of the forests as I have personally witnessed time itself stop and have myself and a friend stand in limbo for what must have been hours, a life changing experience with no explanation.

I used to see them when training in the Waiouru area.Way back in the early 1980's.

@@terryharris1291 at least at night you could hear the horses clip clop when they came up on your hole to give you a sniff, not so with the Maori sergeants , sneaky mofos Hit it Brother ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bto47Lq7sCs.html

Great story Karen lol

You're right about the stirrup, which the Huns brought to Europe in the 5th century. About horses protecting the rider, Mongolian epic poetry and folklore always depicts the hero's horse as his faithful companion, who in the midst of battle fights alongside the hero. The horse also speaks to the hero and is often the one who exhorts the hero when he falters.

@@oduffy1939 thats beautiful

Denisovans might have been the first to domesticate horses tho

@@Yarblocosifilitico Horses got across the the Stepps by the same route the First Nations peoples were supposed to have gotten to North America - from what is now currently Alaska to Russia. That being the case, its likely the Mongolians were the first humans to see horses since they lived in the area.

@@Whistlewalk the Mongolians? really? Not even proto-Mongols, PIEs or Scythians? If we're only talking about 'seeing' horses, well, the Denisovans coexisted with some proto-horses about 24,000 years ago. I don't think the Mongolians can top that ;P siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0877-remains-of-extinct-zebra-like-horse-found-at-denisova-cave-home-of-ancient-man/ I guess Denisovans aren't technically 'humans', but still, plenty of ancient humans before the Mongolians. It's probably impossible to know which hominid saw horses for the first time. Horses might have gotten to the Americas through Siberia to Alaska but that doesn't mean they weren't roaming the rest of Eurasia long before that. Horses and hominids could've met for the first time pretty much anywhere in Eurasia.

I'm reminded of the idea that you couldn't use a lance on horseback as a shock trooper before the invention of stirrups. Then some people tested it and found out that you could even use a lance on horseback without the benefit of any sort of riding gear. Instead the stirrup probably better enabled melee on horseback, making it so a fighter could extend his reach by using his legs to regain his balance and make it that much harder for footmen to dehorse him.

@@derrickbonsell there is a saddle that was used that allowed some degree of stability. I belive it was first used my the acheminid empire and then used by Alexander's cavalry.

But then you have evidence from the ancient world explicitly saying that. Xenophon says they couldn't strike with a spear from horseback without risk of falling off.

Yeah for some time historians believed the Roman saddle was of a soft leather kind until archeologists discovered actual surviving wood and leather roman saddles with the four horn tree design, enabling much more stability. The earliest saddles with hard pieces rather than only blankets and leather found so far are from about 500 BC I think on the eastern steppe.

@@DanDavisHistory They would have learned to strike with a spear on horseback just as they would have on foot. It's all about balance.

Theay got Iron first. In X ce. BC.

Greetings from Canada I think I watched this great little documentary a while ago, but this time thru I’m wondering if the debate about how migratory human populations controlled their horse herds during travel phases. Maybe it was just something that didn’t come up, in the sense that the migratory routes were generations old, and the horses were recognized as being the best navigators of any one of a number of variations and detour necessitating events and obstacles? One thing that is fairly unarguable is how much more confident arrogant presumptuous and fallible human beings are nowadays then they were ten thousand years ago. The narrator almost gets to the point of introducing this type of theory by about minute 24 I think….

To a young boy there is nothing more natural (or fun) than getting on the back of a relatively tame horse. There are plenty of men (and women) walking around Texas who first sat on a horse when they were months old.

This is pretty much what happens in the book series I read about our early ancestors, Earths Children. The main girl has to survive on her own and stock up for winter. She makes a pit trap and traps a mare, kills it, ect, only to see it had a foal. She feels bad and takes it with her to care for, and by the time the foal grows up, it trusts her enough for her to get on its back, and was strong enough for the girl, who was small anyways in weight, to not hurt it. Its an outdated story, admittedly, but it gives an interesting take on a couple domestication processes, the horse being a big one.

@Mel Hawk lol yea she did. Literally!

@Mel Hawk by the time I got to the last book, though, I had a strong Pandoras box vibe with her.

@Mel Hawk oh! I won't spoil it then. Just that yea...def got a Pandoras box vibe. Made me wonder if its actually where the myths began, from real people in our past who managed "extroadinary" things, for their time, and their stories being embellished through the centuries.

I've never used more than a halter or rope around the horses neck

@@maggiethedruid9010 I'll bet you don't wear spurs, either. I haven't used them since I was about 12. Really, with a trained horse spurs aren't necessary, and I wouldn't use them today at any point in a horse's training.

Yeah there's now no good evidence the Przewalski's ancestors were ridden but some researchers believe there was some domestication - herding or managing and milking. Although other evidence suggests they weren't even doing that. I dunno what Alan Outram reckons as of 2021. But loose management systems are extremely difficult to detect. And for sure - a band of large men coming over the horizon riding horses slowly toward your village would have been absolutely baffling and horrifying. And it's quite possible that only a select few early people were "the riders" in their society. Experts at travelling distances rapidly. Hard to imagine that cultures where raiding was so central to their culture would not have taken advantage of it.

@@DanDavisHistory Amino acids preserved in Botai pottery confirm horse milk was used. This is proof of horse domestication for cattle-like purposes (milk and meat). Frozen Scythian remains preserve at least three versions of horse harnessing.

If you look at the Norwegian fjord horse, there is a lot of likenesses to the Przewalski horses. So much so, that there must have been breeding and domestication. By the way, how do you milk a horse without domesticating it?

@@PotPoet An interesting fact is that humans cannot consume horse milk, due to its high lactose content. However, horse milk's high sugar content means that it will ferment within 24 hours, to create airag or khumis. So, one wonders what was kind of horse milk was in the pottery? Alcohol wouldn't leave a residue, I suppose? Horse milk can be made into yogurt balls - qurt or kurut, a staple of all horse riding nomads. www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-qurt

@@oduffy1939 Stupid question. If horse milk is to high lactose to drink, then how does consuming it in other ways also not have high lactose? People I know who are lactose intolerant usually stay away from things like ice cream or other dairy products Wouldn't the lactose remain to high, of it's to high to drink?

Adult humans at that time were much smaller too. The full ability to ride needed the invention of stirrups-which I believe the Mongols achieved.

They were not too small to carry adult humans. Look how stocky they are. A Shetland pony can carry a man!

So the first to tame horses were the mespotamians and egyptians

@@indramuhammad1942 No, horses were introduced into those regions long after the first civilisations formed. Horses were endemic on the plains and steppes much further North and East, and were an important food source for nomadic hunters. The first people to domesticate horses were of the Botai culture, in the area around Kazakhstan. The domestication of horses began by using captured animals as draft-horses and for milk. The invention of the wheel was the deciding factor in the spread of horses. Mesopotamians first used oxen or asses to haul 'battle-carts', but by 2,500 BCE they had adopted horses and chariots soon followed.

About hip height? I had to climb in a tree to get on my horse bareback... I was only about four foot ten when I was 13

@@zenolachance1181 The horses referred to in this video and that I am referring to are pony sized or not much bigger than. You're speaking of modern horses, this video is not.

But, in the Orient, did prehistoric people **SIT ON A WOK**?...(ROFL)

@@CLASSICALFAN100 Lmao!

@@CLASSICALFAN100 I can't bring myself to clear this comment, it's just too funny!

Weren't the Yakut primarily a reindeer herding people, who also happened to have horses and other cattle? I understand they also ride reindeer.

@@oduffy1939 Yes, they are also reindeer herders - but so are the mongols. The republic of Sakha (yakutia) is a gigantic territory, the largest subnational region of the world and comparably big as the european union - so it depends where exactly you are. Further north yakutia is characterized by tundra where the reindeer which can live of mosses is the primary lifestock, further south the horse plays are role. The sakha/yakut migrated from regions further south to their lands to escape the mongols in the middle ages and took their horses with them. Their non-turkic neighbors who partly share their territory rely less on horse and cattle and are more specialized on the reindeer.

#51.

Do they really? Well I guess everyone has their own historical myths.

The same with coffee, or CovFeFe as many now call it, to which they also lay claim, but it came from Ethiopia.

@@DanDavisHistory yes lol. Arabian folklore states the first horses were tamed by them. I study Arab culture a lot and have a lot of Arab friends. Trust me even non nationalist Arabs think they tamed the first horses

The only thing they domesticated were camels but even that’s debatable. Camel domestication likely happened in east africa.

​@@ChromeMan04Arabia is actually extension of Africa itself.Not a separate entity.

I was wondering about that. I can buy that maybe the spread of the Proto-Indo-Europeans was due to the mastery of cart/chariot technology rather than horseback riding, but it really surprised me to hear that there was nothing before the first millennium BC (not even in the Vedas?) that suggested a more intimate/"bums on backs" relationship between Indo-Europeans and the horses that seemed to be pretty important to them judging by the texts and legends that have come down to us and our ability to identify so many horse-related words of Proto-Indo-European by tracing existing cognates of later and even modern Indo-European languages back to common roots...

Actually it was the botai culture not the yamnaya and they were speaking uralic language. You can find the article on the pubmed by searching keywords.

@@ghostriderb.9914 no, it's debunked

Thanks, glad you liked it.

Thank you for watching.

This is exactly wrong. Among the plains Indians it was only the Comanches who actually fought from the back of the horse. All the other goups such as Sioux and Apache would ride to battle on the horse and dismount to fight. The Comanches developed shooting from horseback to a high skill including what is now a rodeo trick of shielding the rider behind the horse's neck while shooting under it. The Comanches shot while riding using bows and arrows, but also with revolvers. The Texas Rangers picked up firing from horseback with pistols from the Comanches which became the Rangers' distinctive tactic including against the Comanches themselves.

@@haroldbridges515I'll do more research but I was under the impression that what you're suggesting is a common misconception.....Either way it's beside my point lol My main point being that this was how some horse cultures throughout time chose to fight, and it's likely that early horse people's would fight in this way especially given the size of early horses and the lack of specialist riding equipment. Whether it was the Sioux, Comanche, or British dragoons is neither here nor there but if Am spreading misinformation about the specifics of the culture I apologize

@@seanpoore2428 With respect to the historical Comanches, the question is not how they would fight, but how they did fight. It is not a matter of speculation. My information came from "Empire of the Summer Moon" by S. C. Gwynne which is about the Comanches.

@@haroldbridges515 Ok......Comanches aside......Many OTHER groups of people DID fight from the saddle, and Many other groups of people DID fight by riding to their location, dismounting to fight on foot, then using the horses to make a quick getaway (often with loot or slaves). Both tactics Were used historically, even sometimes both being used concurrently within a single army. Dragoons would often dismount to fight like super mobile infantry while other cavalry fought from horseback without dismounting. However the who is MUCH less important in this case bc thats not what im pushing for. Whether it was one tribe or another doesnt change the core of my point bc it Was Done. The only speculation here is whether the ancient horse peoples of the neolithic did this before chariots or not. My assertion is that its a possibility. But again, if the mostly irrelevant Comanche point is misinformation im sorry, but it still applies to other horsemen that we know about.

Comanches didn't just fight from their horses, they lived on their horses. Once they had mastered horsemanship, Comanches didn't walk much unless they had no alternative.

Thank you very much. Let's hope so.

That's wonderful! And absolutely right.

@@DanDavisHistory I find your videos extremely interesting and wish you all the best in your future works ! I am happy your videos are picking up, they certainly deserve the attention. Bronze Age is criminaly underresearched and lacking its presence in attention of people who are interested in history. But I am happy that in recent few years both archeology and people like you are doing great work to bring up this very interesting age into its deserved spotlight.

Thank you, I really appreciate that.

The Anglo-Saxon word "fee" come from the word for cattle. As with most Indo-European pastoral peoples, cattle was the currency. In ancient Ireland, a man could only have a wife if he had the required number of cows, sheep, and horses; and he would pay the bride's family in a set number of cattle.

Wow! Blago means something good in Russian. Blagodarit' - "to thank", where darit' means "to give". So that literally means "to give cattle". I've just learned something new. Thanks 👍 P.s. I can't give you any cattle, though, as I don't own any. 😁😁😁

Make sens, considering that this took place over a wide era, thousands of years, so sure, they was used to horse, hunted them for ages, observed and knowed them well. Maybe they became less with time for some reason, then people protected their food ressources against other people and predators. With the time, some foals was raised, and of course, became still tamer, and one day, why not, one hopped on them after lot other trials. ;) - Fall was hard, but would do it again !

Probably the first to try were teenage boys playing with horses that were being kept for food. You get some boys around any kind of animal big enough to ride, and they'll try it.

more simple, someone placed a child on the back of tamed horse, that started it, or at first they put a basket on the horse while walking to help carry things, and then a basket with a baby and then a kids.. it is simple enough. I have seen 3 year children who have no idea what a horse is get on the back of a big dog.

People raised cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens. "If they were raising them, someone would try riding them" is either wrong or all the attempts were so spectacularly unsuccessful that no-one bothered to try a second time.

@@davidgould9431 People have been riding water buffalos in Indonesia for a long time. My cousin had a cow trained to take a saddled and ride it. People have used oxen for a long time too. I remember it was fun trying to ride the hog.

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

Glad you enjoyed it.

Please try again in English!

Oh yes, one of my favourite poems, although I realize that it's as colonialist as all getout -- everyone kowtowed to the British or Kipling's poems wouldnt sell; it is still mainly a tribute to the horsemanship of the Afghan people. Rudyard Kipling's "The Ballad of East and West". He probably figured out how to celebrate Afghani's fantastic riding while making it look as though the British were really in control.

I have a big red and black Afghan carpet here with me, bought it at an auction.

Pashtuns are genetically belonging to indian origins?

@@vishvendrachauhan7267 No we are not Indian genetically but Indo-European. Our bloodline traces back to the steppes.

Chariot???? You means chart or wagons that already exist +the best horse breed??? Hahaha that why the Persian breeds were Helpless with barb(in roman period) and Arabian horse in early meidival age

No way could a horse pull a plough with its tail, it would just pull the hair out. It takes a large amount of force to pull a plough through the soil.

Fair Blessed Gwenhwyfar, the Irish like to tell the tall tails! The tales are there for amusement!

​@@SigurdVolsunga On the contrary. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Act_against_Plowing_by_the_Tayle,_and_pulling_the_Wooll_off_living_Sheep I read the Estyn Evans essay that it cites many years ago.

@@SigurdVolsunga the Spanish in Mexico used the horses tail to rope cattle before they developed a saddle with a horn . Saddles with roping horns are a recent development , about 300 years old . As well the plow you are thinking of is a moldboard plow which is also very recent development , the earlier plows were just a sharp stick with a beam , which could easily be pulled by a horse tail . Some times they were pulled by the farmers wife

@@jenniferbrien3408 it must have been an ard (a point for breaking the ground) rather than a true plough. A horse simply wouldn't be able to actually plough by pulling it with it's tail. There is just way to much force required to pull an actual plough through the ground. An online search on this mainly found Irish sources calling tales of them tieing inplements to horses tails slander, and descriptions of crude harrows tied to horses tails.

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Thank you, much appreciated.

Wooden carts with wheels were most definitely just flopped on a horse and blam “chariot/wagon”

From what I've read about Sumerian chariots, they were rather slow moving cumbersome four wheeled vehicles drawn by onagers compared to the fast moving two spoke-wheeled Egyptian/Hittite chariots of the late Bronze Age. They were difficult to manuever and could only be made to charge into battle in one direction on flat grounds. The need to turn direction would've being difficult to achieve, while rocky ground would've been dangerous as it could knock the charioteers off their platform, or shatter the chariot's wheels or overturn the vehicle. It would've been intimidating for the mountain tribes that periodically invaded Mesopotamia who'dve been unused to the sight though, and as a result it would've been an effective psychological weapon.

@@bc7138 also you have terrifying option of just putting blades on your chariot and lighting it on fire suicide bombing the front lines of your enemy of course I mean that later on in history when horses could run a tad bit faster

A pulling horse takes 3 x the training of a ridden horse. With a wagon/chariot only the bit gives clues of what to do. A good horseman can ride with no bit, just using legs & body movement's to let the horse know what to do. Ever notice that troops pulling cannon always have at least one troop mounted when pulling. Not expert, but have trained a few horses to both ride & pull.

@@MrBobVick well then that means they must have had some really well trained horses then huh

Thank you. Yes we will have to do that for sure.

That was already accounted for by Anthony. They trained horses using leather and hemp bits; their findings suggest that they too would leave marks on horses' teeth.

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Yes I had quite a few requests for it. There's so much to say on this subject I think it will take a number of videos.

@@DanDavisHistory please do one on cows

cogent

It appears that the Numidian Horsemen were superb. The Roman Cavalry could neither chase them off or close with them to engage. They probably had some sort of gear on their mounts to carry javelins and water/wine bottles at the very least.

@@cliffordjensen8725 artwork from the period shows them carrying a bundle of spare javelins in their off hand. A waterskin could have been slung over their shoulder if they needed it.

Shared at Westeros.org along with video Army of the Dead

Faster travel means more communication and faster advancement.

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No Anthony specifically argues against armed cavalry invasions, he says that is a feature of the Iron Age but he does talk about mounted raiders.

@@DanDavisHistory It is interesting to speculate if improved horsemanship might have played a role in the Bronze Age collapse. More effective mounted forces would have played havoc on the long trade routes that had developed up to that time. And that could be why the Iron age saw the growing use of horses as a military asset.

@@DanDavisHistory I don't think Mr. Shannon was suggesting large scale cavalry operations; but rather small scale raids, perhaps along the lines of the Táin Bó Cúailnge from Irish myth? Cattle raids are a feature of all nomadic/pastoral peoples, with or without horse (or camel) riding. Ten guys riding bareback without horse bits, arrive to the camp of whomever they're raiding. Get off the horses, steal whatever they're stealing, and get back on the horses to escape. Raiding, for pastoral peoples, is what passed for warfare for thousands of years.

The Botai taught them and they merged, cementing the Proto Indo European language and their technology conquered the earth.

@@TigerWoodsLibido It would be a thousand years before anyone was conquering anyone from the back of a horse.

Thank you. I hope you enjoy the other videos too.

@@DanDavisHistory You're welcome. I'm sure I will.

Is it at all possible that horse riding started in the Indus valley . Researchers have indicated that for the spread of the Indo European languages , horses were the means of covering vast amounts of territory. Therefore mobility could only be achieved by the utilization of horses. I am looking forward to the responses.

@@phillipmaasdorp9491 The hierarchy is bones leather as Wappen meat and milke as food than pulling carring for transport and ad the last came horse riding .The ratio soldier/horse never got ander 4/1 like in ww 2 so I know

Thanks Richard, welcome to the channel. I hope you enjoy the other videos too.