Riding Donkeys!

I started reading a new book (published in 2024) a couple of days ago. It's called Hoof Beats - How Horses Shaped Human History by William T. Taylor. It's about the relationship between humans and horses as discovered recently by archaeologists and historians. It's very good. I'm only a little under half way through it, and am looking forward to the rest of the book. But it's already taught me some new and interesting things which I thought I'd share.

Da Book! From bookshop.org, link above

Equines were domesticated later than other animals such as goats, sheep, cattle and, of course, dogs (the first domesticated animal). Before domestication horses were a prey animals, hunted and eaten by the peoples of the areas in which horses lived, the grasslands, savannah and near desert areas in Asia and far eastern Europe. Horses couldn't live in the wild in true desert areas, like Egypt or the Middle East, not enough food and water, but other equines could, like donkeys.

The first domesticated equines were therefore not horses. The first domesticated equines were donkeys and related equines. This domestication happened after humans developed agriculture, because humans had to grow things, at least for some of the time, that the domesticated animals could eat. It was around the beginning of the 2nd Milllenium BC when equines were domesticated, and depictions of humans riding equines first appeared around 1400 BC in Egypt, for instance. Chariots and wagons were pulled by domesticated equines before we developed a way to ride those animals. Wagons were first, as cattle pulled wagons, but having equines pulling these wagons was difficult, because the wagons were so heavy. So, the development of spoked wheels was integral to using equines to pull carts and wagons.

Another interesting thing the book discusses, the first equines that were ridden were not horses. They were donkeys! And that explains a really weird thing which I noticed years and years ago (along with everyone else, probably): ancient depictions of people riding 'horses' showed riders seated on or towards the rear of the animals, not in the usual horse riding position with which I was familiar. I always thought that was just artistic wev from the time, but it's not. It turns out to ride a donkey and some of the other equine breeds, it's best to sit far back on their back, towards their rear. Their body can deal with the extra weight that way. Horses don't need that.

Egyptian Rider, look at the position they are sitting in on the back of the equine: from this article on horse domestication called Horsemen

And those are a couple of tantalizing tidbits about horses and other equines! Here's the open thread - remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!