This week’s episode is all about horses. If we had to give a relationship status on horses, it might likely be “It’s complicated”. Using advanced genetic techniques and analyses, Scientists found a signature genetic event 4000 years ago that revealed  that the ancestors of all modern horses were domesticated in what is now southern Russia. Scientists had been on this trail for a while and in 2016 a project known as Pegasus was launched to get to the bottom of it. What they have now pieced together is that humans started artificially breeding this horse and it was genetically unique from all other horses 4000 years ago. It only took 3000 years for this horse, our modern horses, to replace all other lineages across Europe and Asia. Generations later they were reintroduced to the Americas by the Spaniards, bringing horses back to their ancestral homelands. These descendants are what we today call mustangs. Although bestselling author Claire Eckard wasn’t writing about mustangs in her new book Gallant: The Call of the Trail: Two horses, two people, one journey, it is the first a trilogy so you never know. This first one already went to #1 on the Amazon bestsellers list and that’s not too surprising because it’s a wonderful story. I caught up with Claire to talk about this beautiful book that explores the sometimes special relationship we humans have with our horses.   You can get a copy here   And if you want to support an organization doing something to help wild mustangs check out the Mustangs of America Foundation http://www.mustangsofamericafoundation.org   If you are digging the show subscribe and share it so others can enjoy it too. You can follow the show on Itunes, Google Play, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Also follow the show on Twitter: @WildConnectPod You can also follow me on  Twitter: @realdrjen Instagram: @readrjen Facebook https://www.facebook.com/RealDrJen There is also a YouTube Channel where you can find a range of videos, some of them tied to podcast episodes. More are on the way so subscribe to Wild Connection TV