A Horse Skeleton Found In A Utah Backyard Was Thought To Date Back To The Last Ice Age, But Newer Analysis Revealed The Mare Was Domestic, And Its Remains No Older Than 340 Years

Radiocarbon dating of the bones and clues from the horse’s DNA revealed that the mare lived more recently.

“Once we looked closer, we found other clues, including severe arthritis—and ultimately, genetic data helped us to confirm this idea,” Taylor said.

According to Taylor, it died sometime after 1680 but before European settlers moved into the Salt Lake region in the mid-19th century.

There were also fractures on the horse’s spine that indicated someone had ridden the horse frequently—either bareback or with a saddle pad.

The rider would have banged up and down on the horse’s lower back, causing fractures that are rarely seen in wild horses.

Even though the mare had injuries, people continued to care for the horse, possibly because they wanted to breed her with local stallions.

Additionally, an analysis of the isotopes in the mare’s tooth enamel demonstrated that it consumed water and vegetation in the Wasatch Front region of Utah, providing further evidence that the horse was raised and tended locally.

The study was published in the journal American Antiquity.