How Horses Went From Food To Friends

Do our modern horses descend from just one domesticated population, or did it happen many times, in many places? Answering these questions has been tricky, as we’ve needed to bring together evidence from art, archaeology, and ancient DNA…Because, as it turns out, the history of humans and horses has been a pretty wild ride.

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Produced by Complexly for Digital Studios

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References:

[unvergebeneid]

Wow, those cave drawings are amazing. Like, not "for their time" amazing but actually amazing. They could've been drawn today and I'd still be impressed.

[malcontender]

Those cave paintings are gorgeous. Transcends time itself.

[charlotteb]

thank you for being willing to acknowledge statements that have since been disproven from your previous videos, it really increases respect for and trust in this channel :)

[DieNextInLINE]

I haven't finished the video yet but I just wanted to thank the team at PBS Eons for their work captioning the videos they release.
It's very, very helpful for us hard of hearing folks. Don't forget that there's more than just the deaf that benefit greatly from CC.

[robbabcock_]

Fascinating! It's hard to overstate how important horses have been to human civilization.🐎🐎🐎

[RoSoliTaire]

This is science: facts are challenged and changed to fit new evidences, not the other way around. Kudos to PBS Eons for acknowledging their previous video about the horses' origins and how that's being challenged by new evidences found in such a short span of time since its publication. 👏👏👏

[dlmullins]

Whoever made these paintings was a true artist. No art classes. Just pure raw talent and in my opinion right up there with the greats. Just beautiful and thought provoking.

[joelsmith]

5:00 - This is exactly the location and time of the Yamnaya culture which is a good candidate as the homeland of the Proto-Indo-European language. Domesticating horses may have given them an immense agricultural and military advantage that allowed their descendants to spread across Europe and Central Asia.

[Retired]

As both a long-term fan of your channel, and a Jockey where my career is riding and working with these beautiful animals, this video made my absolute day!
They really have been with us for some of the most important milestones in human history, our lives would be so different today if not for the horse!

[melvinshine]

I wonder if little girls thousands of years ago went through that phase where they love horses. Almost every girl I've ever met had a period between age 5 to 10 where they wanted a pony.

[raccoontrashpanda]

I really appreciate that your channel updates us when the science is updated.

[Replicaate]

I'm personally wondering what Stone Age Steve-O told his buddies "hey, watch this" and inadvertently changed human-equine relations forever.

[suzettehenderson]

There is a herd of P-horses in SE Ohio at The Wilds along with Persian Onagers and Grevy's Zebras. The Zebras generally stay towards the center of the pastures, but the P-horses come right up to the bushes and trams. They have learned that the vehicles' air conditioning systems help blow the flies off of them.

[glcol]

My favorite cave paintings of horses are the ones where the artist used ripples on the walls of the cave to represent water with the horses swimming in it. Makes you realize these were people exactly like us, with the same drive to produce art and represent their world. Sends a shiver down my spine...And sadly, many horses are being sent to Europe for meat.

[patrickmccurry]

Interesting theory I've heard is that the mobility gained from horses is what allowed the Proto-Indo-European culture to spread. Thus leading to the giant widespread language family we have today.

[ericgollings]

Love this episode. Just finished reading “The Horse, The Wheel and Language” by David Anthony. Amazing!

[Beryllahawk]

Of course we are still enchanted with horses - they're magical! As a person who's been "horse crazy" her whole life (really: we have a photo of me at 6 months old being held in a saddle!) - this video was FANTASTIC! Incredible that the science has made such leaps in a relatively short period of time - and wonderful that you guys were able to bring us the new information and explain so clearly just why and how these VERY determined scientists managed to discover it!

[shadowthoughts]

One of the big issues we forget to think about with lacking archeological/paleontological evidence is that of civilization/property. You can’t dig up fossils if there’s an urban sprawl in the way…I wonder how much data we miss simply by existing literally above the past.

[Infernoraptor]

First thought after seeing the title:

"Foals are friends, not food."

[OstblockLatina]

You, and apparently David Attenborough as well, happen to be pronouncing Przewalski surprisingly well for a native English speaker. Except I can't really hear the P at its beginning. But otherwise you're doing a very good job. It's funny that the "-rzewal- part sounds very similar to the French "cheval", which means horse.