Domestic animals have been bred by humans for thousands of years, but breeds, as we know them today, have existed for much shorter periods. When a species is domesticated, only selected individuals, which carry desired traits, are allowed to reproduce. This kind of selective breeding forms the basis of breeds. This is true for horse breeds as well. The horse is commonly agreed to have been domesticated in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, about 5300-5500 years ago (Anthony, 2007) with recent genomic studies pinpointing the lower Volga-Don as the domestication location (approximately 4000-4200 years ago) of horses from which the modern horse lineage has descended (Librado et al., 2021). A few horse breeds are believed to have existed for a long time. One of them is the Caspian horse, a miniature horse that is believed to originate from the oldest known horse breed that existed already close to the time of horse domestication (Pluta et al., 2020), and another is the Icelandic horse that is assumed to originate from horses brought to Iceland by Norse settlers 1100 years ago (Aðalsteinsson, 1981). However, most horse breeds have more recent origins, some tracing back to the Middle Ages (e.g. the Arab, Kucera, 2013; and the Andalusian, Valera et al., 2005), but most have been officially founded within the last
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