The domestication of horses is believed to have gone as far back as the myth of the Centaur - a half-man, half-horse creature. This creature may have been inspired by the sightings of the first man on horseback. Riding from a distance, they may have appeared as one.
Once horses began to be domesticated, they were used for a wide variety of jobs. This included transportation, war, pleasure, competition, and assisting with the work of people.
Horses first became part of armies sometime between 2000 and 1000 B.C. when a nomad tribe called the Hyksos invented a primitive chariot that could be drawn by a horse. The people of Egypt developed the chariot even further. The Pharoah's chariots drove the Israelites out of Egypt around the 13th century B.C. and instilled in them a dislike of horses. Any Israelite capturing an enemy horse would hamstring him, which meant they cut through both tendons, leaving the horse immobilized, and in great pain, left to die an awful death. This abuse continued for centuries.
Horses were essential parts of war, with the earliest battles most likely carried out from horse drawn chariots.
In 326 B.C. Alexander the Great commemorated the memory of his favorite horse, Bucephalus, by naming the city near his grave after his important charger. Alexander was the only person Bucephalus allowed on his back. The horse was wounded in the neck and side during the battle of Hydaspes, but still managed to ride his master out of the fighting. Even as he was bleeding from his wounds, the horse did not stop moving until Alexander was safe, then the horse died.
During the fifth century A.D., the Huns toppled Roman supremacy. The secret to their success was their invention - the saddle. It kept the weight firmly off the horse's backbone by resting it on its sides. Another important thing were the stirrups, which allowed the rider to have better movement and better use of weapons while riding.
During the Middle Ages, the horses had to carry the weight of a knight's armor, which could weigh up to 420 pounds.
Until the 15th century, horses in Britain were small compared to today's standards. Horses in other locations of the world were larger. Henry VIII made an effort to increase the size of horses in Britain by requiring that stallions on common land must be over 15hh. Landowners were required to have at least two mares over 13hh. This change may have helped Britain in their victory against Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. The French had lightweight horses in comparison to the British.
Aristocracy did a lot with breeding horses, and monasteries also contributed. A Benedictine monastery of Einsiedler, Switzerland worked on breeding horses in the 10th century. They bred a useful horse responsible for a variety of chores including agricultural, draft and riding.
