Draft horses pulling a sleigh, left.
Warmblood looking snazzy in a stable blanket, right.
Much of the
history of Equidae in the Holocene has been influenced by human activity.
The first evidence for the domestication of horses dates back to the mid-Holocene
(approximately 6000 years ago) in the Ukraine (Clutton-Brock 1992). After
their domestication, horses were finally reintroduced to North America
by the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century (Harwood 1996). Only eight
species of the family Equidae, all belonging to the genus Equus,
survived into the Holocene (MacFadden 1994). These can be seen
here.
