Continued from page 1The Herd Mentality
Herd-dwelling animals depend on their affiliations within the herd for their biological and social well-being. Biologist Lee Boyd, Ph.D., reports that herd animals also benefit from the collective knowledge of the group. "In herds of big horn sheep that migrate from place to place," says Boyd, "older animals are thought to know the safest routes to travel. They also know where to find food and where the water holes are. I think the same holds true for horses."
Most animal behavior specialists agree that the social hierarchy and interdependence among herd-dwellers is an important reason for their survival. Where the horse is concerned, the influence of this social structure is, perhaps, the chief reason for its inclination to serve as the compliant helpmate of human beings. Authority in the equine herd is generally wielded by one member of the group--the alpha mare. When she decides to stop and graze, the herd stops to graze. When she takes off at a gallop, the herd takes off, too. When the mare wants to rest, the herd beds down for the night.
In addition, says Katherine Houpt, V.M.D., author of Domestic Animal Behavior, this centuries old, follow-the-leader instinct "makes it possible for humans to assume the role of the alpha or dominant animal in a horse's life once the process of domestication occurs."
The willingness to transfer allegiance from a member of its own species to humans is one of the most remarkable equine characteristics. The horse looks to us for leadership, and is willing to exchange its freedom in return for board and lodging. Not many other animals, including other equines, are willing to make this trade. The horse's willingness, says Houpt, can be explained by the nature of the social structure in equine herds. "Donkeys are not harem-living animals," she says. "They're territorial and solitary in nature. The only firm social bond between donkeys is the one between mother and offspring, and that only lasts a couple of years. By contrast, horses live together in groups and enjoy all the elements that cement relationships."
The most important element is mutual grooming. Mares in the herd groom each other, and stallions to some extent groom mares. "By currying horses," says Houpt, "we have curried their favor. But since donkeys do not mutual groom, currying wouldn't have as much of an effect on them as it does on horses. There are probably more domesticated donkeys than there are horses in the world currently, but they don't seem to be as closely affiliated or bonded to people."
Alternative Explanations
Other explanations have been offered for the horse's capacity to cooperate with humans. Sharon Saare, a writer, photographer, and horsewoman of considerable experience, says that capacity "is a gift from God. I can't quote the passage offhand, but according to the Bible the horse was endowed with special characteristics that enable it to participate in man's life."
Saare, who has evaluated "more than 50,000 horses" in her career, is quick to point out that her belief and theories of evolution are not mutually exclusive bedfellows; but when evolution needed a helping hand, she says, "at the point in man's development where he required a stronger partner to share his burdens, the horse was available. Horses have manes and withers. These were very important in the days before the invention of saddles. Why don't cows have manes and withers? Because they don't have any use for them. I think they were put on the horse for a reason."
The physiological supremacy of the horse is not overlooked by persons advancing more secular theories to explain his domestic status. Katherine Houpt believes that "one of the most important differences between horses and ruminants--the other herd-living animals domesticated by humans--is that horses don't have to spend such a big chunk of their time ruminating. We ride horses rather than cattle," Houpt declares, "partly because horses are fleeter, but also because horses don't have to spend all day [chewing their cuds]."
Theories of Domestication
Humans had already domesticated certain flora and fauna--including dogs, goats, sheep, cattle, and pigs--before turning their attention to the horse. If you consult more than one authority, however, you will probably get more than one opinion regarding the time and place when horses were first domesticated. This despite the fact that the horse has been the model of evolution for paleontologists, geneticists, and lay people alike since the 1870s. Most educated guesstimates place the initial domestication of the horse about 5,500 years ago (plus or minus 1,000 years). Possible locations suggested as the setting for this monumental event (and we should not forget that the horse may have been domesticated in more than one place at approximately the same time) have included China, Mesopotamia, Turkestan, north of the Persian mountains, and the Ukraine. A Hungarian researcher reported that the earliest domesticated horse remains (found at the settlement of Dereivka, a Ukrainian village) date back to 3500 B.C. Unfortunately, this writer acknowledges, it is impossible to determine whether the horse was a meat animal or a beast of burden at that time.
; Opinions are equally fractured regarding the way in which domestication was accomplished. Did humans capture very young foals and give them to already domesticated sheep or goats to raise? Did some compassionate hunter chance upon an injured horse and nurse it back to health? Did an opportunist decide to drive a horse (or horses) into confinement, leave it without food or water for days, then conveniently appear as its savior--thereby earning its tolerance? Did we kill the alpha mare in a herd and then take advantage of the resulting leadership void to seize a few members of the herd for our own purposes? Or did our ancestors simply leave feed on the perimeters of their camps to earn the horse's trust the way humans are thought to have done with the dog? And once humans were in possession of a mare old enough to breed, did they tie her out where she could be bred by a stallion so that she would provide foals to make gentle? <
Whatever the strategy or happenstance, domestication transformed the horse from a wild game animal to a convenient source of meat and milk. Later, humans would shape the horse into a reliable beast of burden. For this they would need to capitalize on another artifact of nature, an artifact whose influence--when combined with the horse's ability to transfer its allegiance from the herd leader to a human being--would make the horse even more cooperative in the rites of domestication. This artifact was the influence of selective breeding.
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