T.G.I.F. 11/29/19

[dukealien]

Black, White, and Red

Interesting. However, selective breeding for desirable traits should lend any animal to domestication, more so pack animals, and non-predators (trial and error with a lion doesn't really appeal to most people). The question of why the zebra wasn't domesticated remains.

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Eurasian horses can also be seen as the Irish, the Scots, and the working poor of Europe more generally. Nice.

@busker - A little rushed, when the marmosets refused to cooperate.

As to horses vs. zebras, the problem may be one of vision: after seeing through the decoration to the basic shape, we fail to look beyond the shape to basic instinct. An unbroken horse goes nuts, but (usually) gets over it with appropriate treatment; a zebra doesn't get over it, ever. In my limited understanding of evolution, the survival situation might run something like this: when a lion jumps onto a zebra's back, death is clear and present, no point in holding back; there's also a degree of social protection since the chosen zebra can save others in the herd from serial slaughter by making the lion work for her kill. (Plus, a lioness is heavy and very sharp.) A horse on the plains of Asia, jumped by a wolf, can try bucking but its best tactic (given the wolf lacks a lion's fangs to penetrate its neck) may be to run like crazy, outdistance the wolf pack, then deal with the rider at leisure. Stretching the story, if the horse can reach its herd the other herd members' instinctive mode of fighting is to bite at the back of the neck - where the wolf happens to be clinging.

Just stories, of course - like a lot of evolutionary theory, especially in its early days. Glad you liked it.