MustFixWhatIsBroken t1_jbedhfc wrote on March 8, 2023 at 1:21 PM

Reply to comment by Paltenburg in Humans Started Riding Horses 5,000 Years Ago, New Evidence Suggests by Magister_Xehanort

Horses are broken in. Before agricultural practices were adopted, hunters would push animals into corners or ditches. Dogs were domesticated by hunters. I don't see why horses would've taken too much longer. Plants, animals and the elements were the only things they had to occupy their time.

Paltenburg t1_jbee063 wrote on March 8, 2023 at 1:25 PM

>Horses are broken in.

Yes but this might apply only to species that are already domesticated.

As for the rest: That makes sense, but you have to look at evidence as well, like an article that's linked in op: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19265018/

MustFixWhatIsBroken t1_jbefb55 wrote on March 8, 2023 at 1:36 PM

The article was definitely interesting, but they're only going on what limited material has been found. Remember, I'm suggesting horses were domesticated tens of thousands of years prior. I've got harnesses in the stable that have nearly disintegrated, and they're only from my grandparents day. Outside of potentially fossilized horses, I doubt any evidence remains.

Doctor_Impossible_ t1_jbf08tb wrote on March 8, 2023 at 4:05 PM

> Remember, I'm suggesting horses were domesticated tens of thousands of years prior.

With absolutely no evidence.

MustFixWhatIsBroken t1_jbi02hd wrote on March 9, 2023 at 4:23 AM

Not entirely, "the evidence suggests" is still the method. These researchers are making educated guesses based on the evidence they've found. I'm simply doing the same. For example, what's the chance that the researchers in the article found the very first horse to ever be bridled or ridden? The likelihood is that they found early evidence, but certainly not the earliest. The odds of that happening would be near non-existent. We have cave paintings of horses from 25,000 years ago, and we have cave paintings of animals from 80,000 years ago. Humans really haven't evolved much in that time. It's easy to underestimate primitive people, we do it all the time.