Necessity of the horse

[Cy]

I hope this is the right forum for this. Either way, I still have a question. Does anyone know for sure, that the horse is a vital link in the food chain? In other words; is there something that primarily lives off a horse? Really what I'm wondering is, is if the horse was non-existent, how would it seriously effect nature in general? Other than we as humans would have nothing to ride (in history that is) to get to the other animals in the world to hunt and capture them.

[the tree]

Horseflies sort of rely on horses and I bet that there's some spider or insect with a particular taste for horseflies.

[JustStuit]

Horse manure seems to be a good fertilizer. And the flies and bugs. And decaying corpses and dead horses. i rhymed. Oh and they ingest a lot of vegartarian foods before dying.

[aguy2]

is there something that primarily lives off a horse?

 

There are none that I know of.

 

 

Other than we as humans would have nothing to ride (in history that is) to get to the other animals in the world to hunt and capture them.

 

The historical record seems to indicate that they were used to pull carts long before men rode them for war, hunting, or transportation. I for one would sure like to know why.

 

aguy2

[Xyph]

The historical record seems to indicate that they were used to pull carts long before men rode them for war, hunting, or transportation. I for one would sure like to know why.

Because it's probably far easier to simply tether them to things and point them in the right direction that it is to actually sit on them?

 

In any case I expect humans did play quite a large part in the survival of the horse, since they were so useful. Before that, maybe big cats would have hunted them... They're the most likely large predator I can think of, anyway.

[the tree]

Simpler than that, a horse need to be taught to have someone sit on it. No training is needed to walk forwards.

[AzurePhoenix]

Well, in modern days the zebras main predator is the lion, whose analogues were widespread during the ice age in which horses flourished. They're taken down occasionally by smaller pack hunters such as hyena, and croc's get um too. But since the decline of megafauna and their predators in the last few thousand years, "horses" other than zebra and asses have been restricted to the rare Steppe Horses of Asia. Presumably wolves could prey on them, cosidering they're capable of hunting bison. Sorry, I'm rambling.

[Tetrahedrite]

You have to remember that horses started out as very small animals, no bigger than your average dog (pygmy horses, if you will) and they where preyed upon by birds (which were huge at the time) and reptiles alike. There are obvious evolutionary advantages for the horse to grow bigger: it reduces the number of other animals that will prey upon it.

[aguy2]

No training is needed to walk forwards.

 

Guess again. Check out the training manual written by Kikkuli the Mitannian, Horsemaster of Suppiliuma the Hittite 3,350 years ago. http://www.imh.org/imh/exh1.html Go to '56 million bce to 450 ce', then to 'The Wheel', then 'The cart before the horse horse'.

 

aguy2

[[Tycho?]]

I hope this is the right forum for this. Either way, I still have a question. Does anyone know for sure, that the horse is a vital link in the food chain? In other words; is there something that primarily lives off a horse? Really what I'm wondering is, is if the horse was non-existent, how would it seriously effect nature in general? Other than we as humans would have nothing to ride (in history that is) to get to the other animals in the world to hunt and capture them.

 

Well if horses hadn't evolved any parasites/predators/whatever would have developed to attack similar animas. A horse is pretty much your standard hooved animal, of which there are many varieties. I'm sure there are some microbes or bacteria that exist only in horses, but I doubt anything major relies on them. Except for humans, since they do make excellent riding animals.

[Airmid]

I hope this is the right forum for this. Either way, I still have a question. Does anyone know for sure, that the horse is a vital link in the food chain? In other words; is there something that primarily lives off a horse? Really what I'm wondering is, is if the horse was non-existent, how would it seriously effect nature in general? Other than we as humans would have nothing to ride (in history that is) to get to the other animals in the world to hunt and capture them.

 

Well, horses have been (and still are) a very important prey animal for ....... humans. There's plenty of archeological sites that date from the ice last age where horse bones have been found. Also there are beautiful cave paintings of horses along with other prey animals. Some people still live off horses, for instance the nomads in Mongolia, though they are tame now and it's mostly horse's milk that they use.

So I guess, if the horse never had evolved, we wouldn't be here to wonder about it *grins*

 

Airmid.

[Royston]

If it weren't for horses we would have never had this...http://horsehater.blogspot.com/

 

Disclaimer : this blog contains very strong language, and offensive material.

[aguy2]

snail, maybe there should be separation between scienticfic inquiry and some senses of 'humor', too.

 

aguy2

[Ophiolite]

Everybody seems to have ignored the other end of the food chain: horses eat grass, and saplings, and thereby promote grasslands over forests.

[aguy2]

Everybody seems to have ignored the other end of the food chain: horses eat grass, and saplings, and thereby promote grasslands over forests.

 

This may be a degression but years ago I developed a little intellectual riff that goes like this: the great struggle to dominate the planet is between the grasslands and the forests. Being evolutionary newcomers and trees being so much bigger, stronger, and older the grasses figured they needed allies in their great war of survival. At first the grasses thought that elephants where going to be the hot number, due to the fact that they play such 'H' word with forests, but then came bipedal apes with their hand axes and fire. As a consequence of our helpfulness in their war with the trees, grasses and their cereals feed us in our billions and in return our middle classes worship them on their hands and knees in their front yards nearly every Saturday and Sunday.

 

aguy2