Horses almost certainly were first domesticated for use as food animals like cattle or pigs, but it was as instruments as transport that they have made their impact on human history. Until the invention of the steam engine (and for a good many years after), there was no means of transport faster than a rider on horseback. Before the invention of firearms, well-trained cavalries repeatedly overwhelmed pedestrian military forces, recharting the course of ancient history at Issus and Adrianople (figure 1), and on the barren plains of Asia. Horses changed the way people hunted and made war, altered concepts of distance, extended interregional trade, brought previously isolated cultures into contact provided new standards of wealth, opened the world’s grasslands to efficient human exploitation, and redefined the cultural identifies of those societies that became equestrian. Horseback riding and horse-drawn chariots may have also played a role in the initial spread of the Indo-European languages, a language family that ultimately gave birth to English, French, Russian, Hindi, Persian, and many other tongues.

This momentous history began when horses were first exploited for their strength and speed, rather than for their flesh and hides. Wild horses must have been tamed and may have been fully domesticated before they were useful as transport animals. When and where this occurred, whether it occurred many times or just once, and which prehistoric culture was the first beneficiary of the speediest form of animal transport are questions that have generated intense debate.