In 326BC Alexander the Great fought at the Battle of Hydaspes.
In 326BC Alexander the Great fought at the Battle of Hydaspes.
Although he won the battle, his horse Bucephalus later died from injuries sustained in the fighting. Alexander loved his horse that much that he founded a city and named it after the animal.
Horses have been arguably the most important animals in human history. These animals were once likely our prey if you go back to the Ice Age, but we eventually domesticated them and they became one of the first forms of transport, getting humans speedily from one place to another with messages and in emergencies. Horses have helped us in battles and wars and often played a decisive role; they also saved us from exhaustion and death when travelling vast distances across the land and allowed trade, language and culture to spread faster. Imagine if horses never existed and how our history would have been without them. There are very few animals out there that can be tamed and then carry a human on their back over miles at great speed, and even less that will charge and die on the battlefield as well. In World War l horses were used in combat and to bring supplies to the trenches and as a result millions of them died.
We have other transport these days, but there have been many times in the past when we couldn't have done it without horses. The domestication of these animals was hugely important—they are the unsung heroes of our history.
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