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Horses were domesticated thousands of years ago. People needed them for transportation, work, and they were even used for meat and milk in some places at that time. -
People needed better ways of transportation, so they hooked their horses up to carriages and wagons to transport them to where they needed to be. -
Around this time, people began using horses to pull chariots into battle. Eventually they began riding them into war and using them for other reasons during wars as well. -
People needed better ways to move their heavy plows for farming. So they began to use large draft horses to pull their plows. This way, horses earned their keep and it was a much more effective method. -
Horseback riding gained some popularity during the renaissance. Those with money would buy expensive horses to compete in tournaments such as jousting or mounted archery. -
Around this time, a large Spanish riding school was created in Vienna. This was a huge foundation for the sport and it gained much popularity from this -
The first ancestors of the horse were called Eohippus. They were said to have lived approximately 55 million years ago. Fossils were discovered in Paris in the 1820s. -
Horseback riding became an Olympic sport in the 1900s. People would jump their horses over large obstacles in a sport now known as show jumping. This gained the sport quite a bit of popularity. -
The sport of fox hunting became very popular in the United Kingdom around this time. People (usually men) would take their horses and dogs out hunting for foxes on the countryside. It was normally a longer event and became popular quickly. This sport is now banned in the UK. -
Today, horses are used mostly for entertainment purposes such as horse racing, rodeo, English riding, and more. They are also used to pull carriages and are quite popular in movies as well.