Abstract: To date, a large amount of equine genetic data has been obtained regarding (i) extant domestic horses of various breeds from all over the world, (ii) ancient domestic horses, (iii) the extant Przewalski's wild horse, and (iv) the late Pleistocene wild horse from Eurasia and North America. Here, a review of mtDNA and Y chromosome marker analyses is presented in the context of horse domestication. High matrilineal (mtDNA) diversity, which can be found in both extant and ancient (domestic and wild) horses, has suggested that a high number of wild (and tamed) mares were domesticated. Alternatively, Y chromosome marker analysis revealed a single haplotype in all domestic horses analyzed; interestingly even a small population of extant Przewalski's wild horses showed two different Y chromosome haplotypes. It seems that an extreme male population bottleneck occurred due to domestication, while reduction in the female population was only moderate, leaving about 100 distinct haplotypes. For this reason, we speculate that domestication might have started when the appropriate stallion was found or was obtained by selection. Perhaps it had some unusual but special characteristics which could have accelerated the process of domestication. We doubt that only a single Y chromosome haplotype will be found in present-day domestic horses if there are no important differences between the founder stallion/s and the other stallions that were not included in the domestication. In the Eneolithic, tamed and wild mares have probably been spread all over Eurasia, although the number of animals was most likely very low and the populations were limited to a restricted area (e.g., taming centers). Only two subspecies of wild horses (Tarpan and Przewalski's wild horse) have survived up to recently. During the further process of domestication, mares (tamed or wild) were preferentially crossed to stallions having more desirable characteristics. We assume that mares from different regions varied in their morphology due to adaptation to their local environmental conditions. These data might explain rapid expansion of horse populations, as well as their rapid differentiation into various phenotypes during the early phase of domestication.

Abstract: Summary Four geldings and four mares of primarily Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse breeding were used in simultaneous 4x4 Latin square experiments to test the effects of dietary cation-anion balance (DCAB), defined as meq ((Na+K)-C1)/kg diet dry matter, on blood pH, blood gases, acid-base status and plasma glucose in horses at rest and following anaerobic exercise. Four diets, consisting of a base concentrate of corn, soybean meal and cottonseed hulls fed in a 60:40 ratio with Bermudagrass hay, were formulated to provide a DCAB of 5 (L=Low), 107 (ML=Medium Low), 201 (MH=Medium High) and 327 (H=High) meq ((Na+K)-C1)/kg diet dry matter. Calcium chloride and ammonium chloride were added to treatment L and ML and sodium bicarbonate and potassium citrate were added to treatment H to achieve the desired cation-anion balance. Treatment MH was not supplemented and served as the control treatment. Prior to the experiment, horses performed six weeks of long, slow, distance (LSD) work. During the experimental periods, horses were subjected to an exercise regimen alternating LSD with an interval training protocol 6 days/week. Venous blood pH, pCO2 and bicarbonate levels were significantly lower in horses at rest consuming diet L versus diets MH and H. Blood pH and acid-base parameters decreased with decreasing DCAB. There were no significant differences in blood pH or acid-base parameters between treatments, after anaerobic exercise. Plasma glucose concentrations for treatment L were significantly lower than treatment H at 10, 20, and 30 minutes post-exercise. These data suggest that DCAB has significant effect on acid-base status and indicate that horses consuming diets with low DCAB may experience a metabolic acidosis.