Horse Sense

The late paleontologist’s research into horses looked back 60 million years (whereas the earliest dog fossils are only around 33,000 years old). And yet, in some respects it feels like we’re still getting to know what horses are actually capable of – and indeed how long we’ve enjoyed their company.

In spring 2023, archaeologists from the University of Helsinki found new evidence to suggest that humans may have ridden horses since 3,000 BCE – some 1,000 years before the earliest known artistic representation of a human astride a horse. Yamnaya skeletons discovered in eastern Europe displayed marks associated with “horseman syndrome” – the result of the thigh bones, pelvis and lower spine adapting to the biomechanical stress caused by the specific repetition of horseback riding.

Elsewhere, new research published in 2023 by scientists at France’s University of Tours has proved that horses are able to cross-modally recognise women and men. That means they can associate women’s faces with women’s voices and men’s faces with men’s voices, which may suggest that horses generalise their experiences with one person to other people in the same category (ie, women or men).

“We’ve been studying horses for centuries, but it’s only in the past 10-15 years, since the sequencing of the human genome, that we’ve really been able to understand them,” says Professor Emmeline Hill, an Irish equine geneticist credited with discovering a gene for speed in horses. 

Hill’s discovery of the “speed gene” – and the advent of Equinome, her subsequent commercial venture – revolutionised the bloodstock market, allowing horse-owners to determine the optimum racing distance for their Thoroughbreds. But it also paved the way for further genetic research into animal health and welfare. Hill and her team at University College Dublin have since discovered what they describe as the “motivation gene”, and more recently, a gene associated with stress or temperament.

Very often there are many genes that contribute to an individual trait, and in those cases “we develop prediction models known in medical parlance as polygenic risk scores”, explains Hill. “We are particularly interested in health and disease traits and how inbreeding impacts the viability of horses actually racing. It’s sad to say that around 30 per cent of Thoroughbreds never make the start line, and reducing inbreeding can certainly mitigate against that. At a time when horseracing is under the spotlight in terms of welfare, I think that it is incumbent on the industry to use whatever tools are available to protect its assets.”

Thousands of years into humans’ relationship with horses, it’s clear that we’re still only just discovering the skills and traits of our equine companions.