Horse culture

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The term "Horse culture" is used to define a tribal group or community whose day to day life revolves around the herding and breeding of horses. Notable examples are the Mongols of Mongolia, and the American Indians of the Great Plains, after horses had been imported from Eurasia during the 16th century.

History is littered with examples of horse cultures, such as the Huns, and other peoples in Europe and Asia. Horse cultures tend to place a great deal of importance on horses and by their very nature are a nomadic people, usually hunter-gatherers.

As the natives had progressed throughout the plains, so did their culture. The native stumbled onto something that would revolutionize their entire world, the horse. As the horse integrated its way into the lives of the natives it also transformed the vision of the plains form them. For the natives, the horse was not just a new trading good but also a very valuable recourse. They used horses for transportation as well was breeding for trading purposes. They saw many advantages in the horses because for one they were “beautifully suited for life on the plains.”(p49) They were “swifter, more powerful, and bred to be congenial with human masters.”(p49) They reinvented hunting for the natives and were successfully and efficiently used for warfare. This advantage mainly focused around the ability of the house to cover a lot of ground in a very short period of time, increased mobility. “The horse offered spiritual transformation, a union of superior being, a dream of the centaur; man in flight over the land, in rightful domain in a lesser, leg bound humanity.”(p336) In a sense the horse offered the natives liberation and allowed them to easily move place to place bringing on a nomadic shift in there culture. However, there were some disadvantages of adopting this horse culture. Having to worry about protection of the horses from predators as well as thieves was a big concern for the Natives but this wasn’t something that directly impacted there way of life. This horse culture changed the way of life for them in one “negative “way. In order to adopt this culture it required them to live in smaller groups, rather than living in big packs as they had been doing for hundreds of years. This allowed room for horses to graze and feed easily.