Domestication of the Horse

Domestication of all the different Equus sub-species began in their respective geographic areas for purposes of transportation, hunting and war. Classical Greek authors do not mention Arabian horses by breed, and no Latin author up to the time of Augustus does so in the sense that there was then a recognized Arabian breed.

European authors writing in antiquity give the impression rather that the Arab people used donkeys almost exclusively in peacetime and camels in war. Up to the time of King Soloman, common people in this area had a taboo against horses about as virulant as the one they had against dogs or pigs.

The pious Hebrew looked back to respected patriarchs who rode camels and donkeys, but horses never. To him the horse was inseparably associated with foreign imperialists -- Assyrians or Egyptians or Persians.

Views of the horse changed during later religious wars, where selective breeding of the Arabian is first documented.