THE HORSE OF THE STEPPES

EARLY HUMAN CONTACT

The next probable phase of human's move toward horse domestication is only slightly more satisfactory in terms of the horse's well-being. It is thought that by the early fourth millennium BCE humans on the steppes of central Asia began keeping horses for meat and milk. Excavations of refuse remains show that the horse was becoming progressively more important to these societies as a food source. In addition, the increased horse - human contact inherent in this arrangement would have been a significant factor eventually leading to domestication.