"First Horse Warriors" (2019 release; 55 min.) is a documentary that assesses who likely were the first people to tame wild horses and ride them. As the documentary opens, anthropologist Niobe Thompson reminds us that "no animal has been as important to the rise of human kind as horses", and also that "recently ne evidence has emerged as to who were the first to ride horses." And with that we are off on a wild goose chase, leading us eventually to Eurasia.
Couple of comments: Niobe Thompson not only hosts the documentary, he also produced and directed it. His travels go all over Eurasia and Europe. For the uninitiated *such as myself), we get a History of Horses 101, which is quite insightful and helpful. As to the debate who were the first to ride horses, the documentary looks at two primary candidates, and I don't want to spoil it for you who they are and which group the documentary concludes as the likely "winner" of that debate. Along the way we get some wonderful footage of Eurasia. On the not so good side, there are quite a few re-enactments of events that took place 3-4-5,000 BC. I'll be honest: I am not a fan of these re-enactments, as they look overly staged and simply lack credibility. But bottom line is that this is a fairly interesting documentary that flew by in no time.
"First Horse Warriors" was originally broadcast in 2019 as part of PBS' long-running NOVA franchise. I caught it the other day during a rerun, but this is also available on PBS On Demand, Amazon Instant Video and other streaming services, as well as on DVD. If you have any interest in horses, or in anthropology in general, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.
