In the News

William Taylor’s new article on horse domestication on the cover of Scientific American. Read the full article.

This image depicts 9 researchers who were awarded the AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize and the award ceremony. They stand in front of an AAAS banner and are wearing a mix of suits and traditional Indigenous regalia.

An interdisciplinary team of more than 80 researchers led by Indigenous scholars received the 2024 AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize. Read the full article.

A new review explores what we can (and can’t) learn from ancient humans about early horseback riding. See the article here.

Podcasts and radio

New research on the history of horse domestication. NPR’s The World, 2024.

How Horses Conquered America (Twice). American History Hit, 2023.

Horses. Patented: History of Inventions, 2023.

A wild horse isn’t just a horse, of course. Lost Highways, 2023.

Horsin' Around with Will Taylor. A Life in Ruins, 2020.

Videos

The history of our country has always been told from the colonizers’ perspective. One mythology is that horses integrated into Native American cultures after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680, but the truth was found hiding in plain sight – in both oral histories and the bones of Native horses.

People have been captivated by horses for a long time. They appear more than any other animal in cave paintings dating back 30,000 years. But how did horses make the journey from wild animals to ones humans could hitch themselves to and even ride?

An international team of researchers, including several scientists from CU Boulder, recently revealed what might be the most exhaustive history of horses in the American West to date. Their findings show that horses may have spread earlier and farther through today’s United States than European records previously suggested.

Horses are not just an animal, but a way of life across much of the Rocky Mountains, Great Plains, and American Southwest. But when – and how – did horses reach the West? And what legacy have they left in our world today?