picture became sharper a little over a year ago they were able to pinpoint the precise location the volgadon region in what is now russiawith such a gargantuan data set the researchers ended up answering additional horsy historical details they found modern horses had two stark genetic differences from other ancient lineages one gene linked to docility and another to a stronger backbone which may have facilitated the animals spreaddomestic horses transformed human history allowing people to travel great distances and develop new technologies of warfare everyone wanted the horse dr orlando saidaccordingly the papers genetic findings constitute major advances in our understanding of the human societies which bred these horses said pauline hanot a postdoctoral researcher at the french national centre for scientific research who was not involved with the researchthe study also knocked down ideas about horses role in earlier human history for instance one preexisting theory suggested a pastoralist people called the yamnaya were able to migrate on horseback in massive numbers into europe around 5000 years ago but the new genetic map found no evidence the researchers point out oxen not horses could have been the driving factor of their expansionthe new paper also reveals domestic horses spread across eurasia along with the bronze age sintashta culture which possessed spokewheeled chariots around 3800 years agoafter taming all of this horse data dr orlando has taken on a new hobby he started taking riding lessonslike all other humans he rides domestic horses descendants of the ancient animals that galloped in southern russiai would not dare approach a przewalskis horse dr orlando said they kill wolves i am not that fast of a runner