Tuesday, April 28, 2015

The beginning

So... This is my first post and it was hard for me to choose what to talk about.
Not because I don't have anything to say about horses, but because there is so much information that supports why they are amazing animals that it's hard for me to pick one thing without writing a 100000 page essay.
So... I will start from the beginning... our history together.
But not all of it... that would be too long. This is like horse history for dummies.

So lets just say our relationship with horses started out as a rocky one... to be more specific we slaughtered them more or less. However, I'll give the humans who lived 40,000 years ago some credit because they needed the food and weren't smart enough to realize they could ride the horse in order to catch other animals. Now did humans do it in a nice humane way? No.. definitely not. Archeologist found the bones of horses (a mass grave of horses essentially) under a cliff which suffered major trauma from the fall, this was a recurring find. With the bones were butchering tools and hunting tools, so they concluded 20,000 years ago in Europe men would chase and scare the horses off the cliffs plummeting to their death. Well played humans.

Going to 10, 000 years ago the Ice Age ended and horses disappeared in America and dwindled in Western Europe. This could be due to humans, the Ice Age, or many other variables. (I'd place my money on the humans... shoving mass herds of horses of cliffs and all.)

Now we are up to 5,000 years ago. Researchers found the remains of a tribe in central Asia with named the Botai who seemed to be corralling the horses and using leather as ropes to control the horses. They could have been using them for milking, riding, eating, or all of the above... no one knows for sure.

No one knows exactly when people began raising, harnessing or riding horses, however evidence in our archaeology and ancient art shows it developed around 1500 BC. In 1500 BC evidence of horseback riding was common in Afghanistan and Iran, 2000 BC chariots were used in Russia and Kazakhstan, in 3500 BC horses were raised for meat in Kazakhstan.

We now have been using horses for 3,000 in the art of warfare... 8 million horses died alone in WWI. A little of a 1,000 years ago we used them for work. We built our cities on their backs, plowed our fields, worked in coal mines as pit ponies... never seeing the light of day. They were used in the Arabian dessert with camels to travel hundreds of miles without a drop of water for days and at the end of each day they slept in their owners tent with all the love in their heart. See like dogs... they are pack animals... no even better they are heard animals. They seek love from their family and we are their family... people who own horses are in the eyes of their horses are part of the heard.

To end this... we have an enduring bond with horses. They have given us so much... their lives, muscle, friendship, and love. They no longer carry soldiers or pull plows. But our relationships has grown.

Alexander the Great and his horse Bucephalus: he rode into every battle with Alexander and was rumored that if Alexander got onto another horse for battle Bucephalus would get angry and push Alexander to ride him instead. He died in battle and Alexander made a city in his honor in India. Bucephalus, India.









9 comments:

  1. Hi Alex,
    Very informational post! Is this information that you researched last week during Genius hour?

    Please also make sure that you do an "initial post" including information about what you are accomplishing in this Genius Project-- information that was in the pitch.

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  2. Very informational. I like how you gave us the history of horses for dummies. It was easy to read. I did not know that Alexander the Great named a city after his horse that died. . Good job on your blog post.
    - Jenna Delongchamp

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  3. Very interesting...I never really knew about the start of man's relationship with horses. I think I will learn a lot from your topic!
    p.s: horses are awesome!

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    1. Thanks Eden! ... and yes horses are awesome :)

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  4. Love it! It is very informational and I like the quick history for dummies! The pictures are great too.

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  5. In my "humblest" of opinions I do not think the above states why horses are awesome. It states how we used them practically as cattle. Since "awesome" is a matter of opinion I hope for more. A lot of goodinformation thohug. The game is on Alex I expect a good fight!

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    1. On the contrary, I clearly stated how we treated them makes them awesome. They have given us so much... (their muscle, lives, love, and friendship.) We did not ride cattle into battle. 8 million cows were not sacrificed in WWI. Cattle were not used in the mines as how the ponies were...never seeing the light of day. Cows never gave the native americans a fighting chance against the white man... and further most historians such as Alexander the Great, Theodor Roosevelt, George Washington, and Napoleon didn't boast of their love for cows... but horses. Horses have helped shaped who we are. Through warfare, food, friendship, sport, and building.

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    2. Rather you explained how we utilized them to perform simple tasks. Horses were ridden into battle because they were fast and easy for us to tame; however, if you look at history of battle you will see that post World War 1 we stop using horses in favor of cars and tanks. They were bested by a better technology and replaced because they no longer had a use. Horses had a specific use that was superseded by technological innovation, so the "awesome" is just a subjective of their modern use.

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    3. SO, we used them... that's a fact. But my argument was the fact that we have used them and slaughtered so many of them shows how much they have given us. I think they deserve our respect considered how much we took from them.

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