Humans began using horses long before they were fully domesticated

It is not that the horse was "domesticated" in a single moment. Rather, it was a long process: people in different regions of Eurasia gradually learnt to domesticate horses, to use them for travelling and, probably, for work. Some such attempts proved to be dead ends, while others eventually led to the emergence of true domestic horses.

Researchers estimate that the first organised forms of horse use may have existed as early as the 4th millennium BC - some 5,500 to 5,000 years ago. But the horses that became the ancestors of modern domestic breeds spread later, towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC.

Details

Scientists have studied archaeological finds, ancient horse bones and ancient DNA data. These materials show that several different horse populations once existed in Eurasia. Humans may have interacted with them independently of each other - in the steppes, over large areas from Siberia to central Europe.

This is important because in the past, history was often presented too simply: first there were wild horses, then humans domesticated them, and then the age of horsemen began. The new picture is more complex. Humans could use horses even before they had complete control over their breeding and had a stable home line.

In other words, ancient societies could already ride, transport people and things, trade horses and use them in everyday life. But that doesn't mean that the horses in front of us were domestic horses in the usual sense - like modern horses.

Researchers identify one particularly important line of ancient horses. It was this line that later became the basis of modern domestic breeds. According to the work, this line finally established itself sometime between 2200 and 2100 BC, after which it spread rapidly across Eurasia and into the Middle East.

Such a scenario explains why archaeologists find evidence of early horse use earlier than geneticists record the emergence of the "main" domestic lineage. Domestication, riding and true domestication are not the same thing.

Why it matters

Horses have made a big difference in human history. They gave people speed, the ability to travel long distances, to exchange things and knowledge more quickly, and later to fight wars in a very different way.

If people started actively using horses earlier than thought, this changes the way we think about life in ancient steppe societies. They may have been more mobile and better connected before fully domesticated horses of the modern type appeared.

But the study's main conclusion is not that "the domestic horse appeared a thousand years earlier." It's subtler: the path to the domestic horse took a long time, and the relationship between humans and these animals developed gradually.

Background

The origin of domestic horses has long been a controversial topic. At one time, the Botai culture in present-day Kazakhstan was considered the most important candidate: many horse bones and traces of their active use were found there.

Later, ancient DNA data showed that Botai horses were not the direct ancestors of most modern domestic horses. This led scientists to revise the previous scheme and separate the early use of horses and the emergence of modern domestic breeds.

Researchers are now increasingly talking about a long transitional period. It involved different attempts at domestication, different horse populations, and different ways of using the animals. The modern domestic horse was the result not of a single event, but of a complex history thousands of years long.

Source

The material is based on a press release from the University of Helsinki about David Anthony et al, "Horse genetics, archaeology and the beginning of riding", Science Advances, 2026. The publication examines archaeological evidence, ancient horse bones and ancient DNA studies to help understand when humans began riding horses and how modern domestic breeds gradually emerged.