Where would we be without horses?

I usually read the NY Times online version everyday when I am at work. It's almost a routine. However, this morning I skipped over most of it....the AIG mess, Bail out this and that, Cocaine and Rebels in Peru....blah blah blah ....Horses....Horses in the NY TIMES? Yea!

This article raises a very interesting question. Where would we be today if we hadn't discovered this instinct or genetic bond between horse and human? Honestly, I can't think of any other domestic animal that has done so much for the human race. Sure, canines have helped man hunt for centuries and cattle as well as other livestock have provided milk and meat but no animal has served man quite like our equine friends. Take a look at this article and tell me what you think!

Editorial
NY Times

Equine Alternative

Published: March 17, 2009
Early this month, a team of archaeologists reported evidence that horses were domesticated perhaps a millennium earlier than had previously been thought. The site was where northern Kazakhstan is now, the culture was called Botai and the date was around 3500 B.C. The Botai did not just herd horses for meat. Scientists found bit-wear marks on Botai horses’ teeth — a clear sign the animals were being ridden. They also found evidence on pottery fragments that “very likely” came from mare’s milk fat — a sign that the horses were being milked.
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Related
Earlier Date Suggested for Horse Domestication (March 6, 2009)
This discovery pushes back the date for a hugely important technological change in human existence. But it’s also a reminder that domestication isn’t just the conquering of one species by another. It’s the willing collaboration between two species, a sharing of benefits. There is something in the equine nature — genetic or social — that allowed it to partner with humans, just as there was in the character of dogs.
You might also say that there is something in human nature that allowed us to seek out this partnership. Among all the animal species on this planet, humans have domesticated only a handful. And that fact gives rise to a thought-experiment. What if that genetic or social something had been missing in horses? What if they had remained resolutely wild, refusing the domestic kinship humans tried to impose upon them?
It is not a far-fetched notion. But what it suggests is an alternative history of human development, one in which we could have moved no faster over land than our own foot-pace.
How that would have retarded the spread and integration of language, culture, civilization is hard to calculate. It is safe to say that without domesticated horses, we could not have begun to be who we are today.