Horse Research over Past Five Millenium

Bayeaux Tapestry

On May 2, 2019, almost 100 researchers across multiple countries published a years long study on the horse genome in the past five millennium using about 1/3 previously unsequenced equine skeletal remains.

The major results are:

"-Two now-extinct horse lineages lived in Iberia and Siberia some 5,000 years ago•
- Iberian and Siberian horses contributed limited ancestry to modern domesticates•
- Oriental horses have had a strong genetic influence within the last millennium•
- Modern breeding practices were accompanied by a significant drop in genetic diversity"

Sarah Sloat in a popular summary in Inverse magazine states:
"Today, domesticated horses reflect the traits that were selected during this time period for body shape. Think of the Icelandic horse:  a small, hairy, and hardy breed. The horses that lived across Europe during the 7th century looked like them, but today, they look like much more the horses Islamic conquerors were breeding for favorable traits."

There are lots of interesting facts buried in this research such as:

• Mules were being bred as early as the Iron Age despite the cost implications of breeding sterile offspring.
• The Paleolithic cave paintings of horses in Europe that look like Przewalski’s horses are more likely ancestors of the Tarpan horse that went extinct.

• https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(19)30384-8
• Here's a link to popularized summary from Inverse magazine.
• https://www.inverse.com/article/55433-horse-genome-analysis-history