Picture a cowboy.
What do you see?
A six-gun, some leather boots, and a ten-gallon hat?
Great.
Now picture a medieval knight - tall, dashing, and wearing shining, plate-mail armor, wielding
a sword or a lance.
Perfect!
These two figures, while very different and hundreds of years apart, have one thing in
common: The horse.
Dogs may be man’s best friend, but the horse is one of humanity’s most enduring and valuable
colleagues.
But today, we’re here to ask one big question: Why?
The horse is far from the only domesticated beast of burden humanity has made use of during
its time on earth, so what makes its use so widespread?
How come we don’t use other animals - like the zebra, which is basically just a cooler-looking
horse, right?
Well, it’s our job to find out.
We’re going to take a look at why the horse has proven to be such a perfect mode of transport
for generations of humans, the different and sometimes incredibly strange animals people
have ridden throughout history, and finally, why you’ve never seen a knight or a cowboy
rolling into town on a zebra.
But first, let’s talk about horses.
Even though their popular use has been supplanted by the car and the motorcycle, the horse still
looms large over modern culture - whether it’s in the Saddle Club or Bojack Horseman.
Horses have been part of the human consciousness since long before we were ever riding them
- horses have been depicted in Paleolithic cave paintings over 30,000 years old, when
they were hunted for their meat across Eurasia and later North America.
In the following millenia, the human race largely shifted from hunting and gathering
to a greater focus on agriculture.
A number of animals - such as pigs, sheep, and cattle - became popular sources of meat,
milk, cheese, wool, and hide.
But we’re not talking about eating animals here.
We’re talking about riding them.
When did humans begin utilizing horses for transport?
Much like Borat, researchers currently believe that our story begins in the Central Asian
nation of Kazakhstan, several thousand years before it became Kazakhstan.
The initial domestication event likely took place sometime between 3,500 B.C. and 3,000
B.C., though of course, we’re talking about a time so long ago that it predates some of
our more specific records.
The most recent studies into the subject believe that horse domestication was first achieved
by the Botai people who established villages in the grasslands of the region.
Archeologists studying the dig sites of former Botai villages discovered a huge number of
horse bones, as well as fragments of pottery believed to have been used for storing horse
milk.
To give you an idea of just how long ago this was, the Botai are believed to be closely
related to Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherers who once inhabited the area.
Naturally, the next logical question is: How did the Botai come up with the bright idea
to domesticate horses?
We can’t know for sure, but our best guess is that the Botai likely discovered the fact
you can domesticate a horse during their own hunting days, before transitioning into a
more pastoral lifestyle, with a particular focus on - you guessed it - horses.
Prior to the horse domestication event, donkeys were already in popular use as beasts of burden,
and horses weren’t all that superficially different.
Once the art of taming the beast was mastered - likely after a lot of trial, error, and
broken bones - they finally had the means to fully reshape their society.
Horses would go on to be used in everything from sport to warfare, and the human race
would never be the same again.
Seems pretty cut and dry, right?
The Botai master the art of horse domestication, and pass their knowledge all the way down
to modern equestrians today.
But sadly, history is rarely so simple and linear.
A Danish molecular biologist by the name of Peter de Barros Damgaard discovered that the
horses domesticated by the Botai aren’t genetically related to the domestic horses
we know today.
There’s also no real evidence that the Botai ever engaged in cultural transfer with other
civilizations at the time.
So how did the practice of domesticating horses for farming and transport catch on?
Much like the formation of human language and communication, recent studies into the
mitochondrial genomes of modern domesticated horses suggest at least eighteen different
points of origin in the last ten thousand years.
This means that a multitude of cultures across Eurasia and even Western Europe domesticated
horses for transport in the same few thousand years, completely independent of one another.
We don’t have an exact answer as to how or why this happened, but it just goes to
show how vital our relationship with the horse has been with the development of human civilization.
Suddenly, distances that would have been impractical to impossible to traverse became manageable.
Settlements could expand, cross-cultural exchange was made possible, and exploration would reach
never before seen heights.
A number of nomadic cultures, such as the legendary Huns, would never even have come
to be without the domestication of the horse.
While it may not feel as relevant as, say, the creation of the wheel today, the domestication
of horses is arguably one of the most impactful innovations in human history.
Some even credit horse domestication with the advancement of humanity into the first
age of metal: The Bronze Age, with horse-based transport facilitating the trade of copper
and zinc.
This led to the creation of the chariot, revolutionizing warfare, and later the carriage, revolutionizing
transport and logistics.
Horses left an indelible mark on culture - with “horsepower” as a measure of engine and
motor power still being popular today.
Horses are fast, strong, large, intelligent, and - after proper training - loyal.
You can see why, prior to the invention of non-living modes of transport, horses were
the steed of choice for millenia.
But of course, you can’t truly identify the best until you’ve tried the rest.
And believe us, humanity has absolutely tried the rest.
While horses have been a perennial favorite, different cultures have adopted and experimented
with riding a number of animals - to varying degrees of success.
Before we move onto our main question here, why we don’t ride zebras like we ride horses,
let’s take a look at some of the other creatures humanity has attempted to stick a saddle on.
As we mentioned before, the domesticated mule and donkey actually predate the horse.
While their use as a riding animal is less widespread than a horse, they do remain useful
to this day - from their usage as beasts of burden in developing countries, to providing
novelty donkey rides for children in the West.
Perhaps the most famous use of the donkey as a riding animal is present in the Bible
story of the birth of Jesus Christ, where they ride into Bethlehem on an ass.
Of course, donkeys are smaller and weaker than horses, so they don’t have quite the
same wide variety of applications.
In countries like Tibet, Nepal, and Mongolia, the domestic Yak has been ridden for thousands
of years.
They’re tough, durable animals that suit the rugged and mountainous landscapes of these
regions far better than the horse, both for riding and as beasts of burden.
In Tibet and Karakorum, yaks are also a pivotal element of a number of popular sports.
Yak racing, for example, involves riders jockeying yaks around a track, much like standard horse
racing in the West.
Yaks are also ridden while playing Yak Polo, which is - as you can probably guess - like
regular polo except with yaks instead of horses.
There’s even the popular tourist activity of yak skiing in India, where yaks pull skiers
along frosty slopes.
Of course, while yaks may be the perfect mount for rugged, mountainous environments, they’re
not quite as suited to arid desert climates.
The camel, on the other hand, is perfect.
These animals followed a very similar trajectory to the horse - they were initially hunted
for their meat before being domesticated several thousand years ago, at which point they became
a staple of transport in the deserts of Central and East Asia, Australia, North Africa, and
the Middle East.
The more common variety is the Dromedary or Arabian Camel, present in the hot, dry climates
of the Middle East and Australia.
It can be identified by its lean appearance and single hump.
Compared to the less common Asian Bactrian Camel, which has a fluffier appearance and
two humps.
Much like horses, camels have an impressive legacy of military service.
Militaries have employed camel cavalries for thousands of years, dating back to at least
1200 BC, and this has continued through to today.
The Indian Border Security Force employed the use of camels all the way up until 2012
before being replaced by ATVs.
But camels and horses are far from the only animal humans have ridden into battle.
The largest living land mammal, the elephant, has also been a fixture of warfare for thousands
of years, and this makes total sense when you think about it.
They’re huge, intelligent, and have the advantage of tusks and a prehensile trunk.
They’re more dangerous than any of the other animals discussed here.
Because of their immense size, war elephants could support fighting platforms which held
multiple archers or javelin throwers.
Before the use of these war elephants was outmoded by the introduction of cannons, they
were employed by everyone from the Ancient Indians to the Ancient Romans.
One particularly famous instance was the group of war elephants led by Carthaginian general
Hannibal Barca over the Alps in order to lay siege to Italy.
The big downside of using elephants in war was their tendency to get spooked, no matter
how trained.
And a spooked war elephant was just as liable to cause devastating damage to your own forces
as it was to the enemy.
Ultimately, it was probably best just to stick to horses.
Before we address our final question - why we can’t ride those awesome, stripy zebras
like we can ride normal horses - let’s take a look at some of the other animals you can
ride, even if riding them was never widely adopted.
Firstly, ostriches - the only bird you can ride.
Some countries provide novelty ostrich rides for tourists, but these feisty creatures are
far too erratic and volatile for any kind of practical use, other than a feathered bucking
bronco.
But there are even wilder steeds than this out there for brave - and let’s be honest,
wealthy - tourists.
If you plan on taking a vacation to scenic Vietnam, you may be able to grease a few palms
and get a ride on a local water buffalo.
If Kenya is your destination of choice and you have some small children with you, you
can visit the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy.
There, your child can have a short ride on the resident Aldabra Giant Tortoise, known
as Speedy.
Just don’t expect to get anywhere fast, for obvious reasons.
And finally, let’s take a look at the question that started this whole thing: If riding horses
basically gave us the human society we have today, how come we can’t ride zebras?
After all, aren’t they just a more cool-looking horse?
Why do people keep laughing at all my zebra-riding dreams?
So, in the past, there have been practical reasons to want to domesticate zebras.
During the British occupation of several African nations during the 19th Century, they realized
their imported horses were susceptible to local diseases, whereas the native zebras
were not.
But these efforts to domesticate zebras ran into a major issue: Unlike the horse, which
in most places has few natural predators, the zebra spends its life paranoid about the
various Savannah Predators like lions, cheetahs, and crocodiles.
As a result, zebras are not trusting or loyal to humans.
They’re highly defensive animals who can be extremely aggressive when cornered - and,
in the right situation, are more than capable of kicking a lion to death.
So, to answer our earlier question: Why don’t we ride zebras like horses?
Because if you try to ride a zebra, it’ll likely interpret you as a threat, and quite
literally kick you to death.
This and everything else we’ve discussed today all reinforces one simple truth: When
it comes to riding animals, nothing beats the horse.
Now check out “Long Horse - Explained” and “You Have Been Eating Horse Meat Without
Knowing It” for more facts about our equine friends.