Introduction and overview

The horse began as a source of food long before domestication.  There are remains of horses in the middens of prehistoric man.  Some say that luckily for the equine, domestication was not difficult.  The horse had some affinity for the human.  Subsequently man began to ride horses to travel from place to place.  Due to man’s need for conquering, the horse became the main mode for war.  Even today, many of the uses of the horse have origins in war. 

The horse was used for thousands of years as a means of transport, war and food.  Those with horses became dominant in our society.  A horse often reflected the wealth of the owner, a status symbol.  Horses were also fixtures in our centers of society and culture.  People began to breed horses to suit certain activities which is clearly displayed in the crossing of two breeds of pacer (a later type of horse gait) to produce a Tennessee Walker  later refined with Thoroughbred, Standardbred, Morgan, and Saddlebred breed.

Man has used many different types of horses to breed for a particular purpose throughout time.  The dominant use was for war and therefore the horses were a heavier bred for pulling cannons.  There also was a military riding breed. 

With the advent of the automobile the horse has become again a status symbol but one of pleasure rather than transport.  The industry is trying to breed the Ferrari for recreational equine sport.  There are many issues related to this goal.  We will touch upon those in this class.  As an example of this is cloning of horses and the ethical issues surrounding cloning (France has the first offspring of a cloned horse May 5, 2008:  http://www.viagen.com/quarter-horse-clone-produces-first-foal/).   Another example is the breeding of the racing thoroughbred.  Is America (where there are more accidents than other European countries from whence racing began).  There could be  cultural differences which may account for this discrepancy (see NY Times article discussing potential differences) .   

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Many of the issues in the equine industry are common to many business issues.  There are issues unique to the equine world for a number of reasons.  The major reason for the unique problems the industry faces is due to the role the horse has played in human development, human history and human nature.