Horsefriends international

Horse Domestication, Genetic Selection and Structural Change in Modern Breeding

Domestication is not a closed chapter in history.
It continues to shape modern horses — influencing temperament, stress physiology, locomotion and skeletal structure.

In this episode, we explore the scientific foundations behind modern breeding trends:

- the two domestication waves of the horse

- the DOM2 expansion and large-scale genetic turnover around 2200 BCE

- selection for rideability, locomotion and reduced aggression

- the Silver Fox Domestication Experiment as a model for behavioral genetic selection

- genetic bottlenecks and inbreeding using the Isle Royale wolves as a biological case study...

Domestication is not a closed chapter in history.
It is still active today – in the bodies, nervous systems, and resilience of our horses.

In this episode, Celina Skogan explores:

why domestication is biologically different from taming

how it reshapes populations across generations

why modern horses are deeply shaped by selective breeding and genetic bottlenecks

and why training, management, and welfare cannot be understood without genetic context

Because before we talk about training,
we need to understand what kind of bodies we are actually training.

At the core of this episode lies a personal turning point:
the realization that doing...

Why Inside the Horse’s Mind?

In this solo episode, I explain why horse training needs to be thought from its origin — not from methods, but from biology and neurophysiology.

We talk about why learning, emotion, and behavior are not training issues, but biological processes, why behavior is always the end point of what happens inside the nervous system, and why understanding neurobiology fundamentally changes the decisions we make with horses.

Inside the Horse’s Mind is a curated knowledge summit that connects neurobiology, learning, emotion, and training practice — not as isolated topics, but as parts of one system.

What if horses are not showing problem behaviour at all?

What if what we label as conflict, resistance, or dysfunction
is actually normal behaviour expressed under abnormal conditions?

In this episode, Celina Skogan, trainer, osteopath and founder of Equidemia, explores how our perception of “normal” horse behaviour may be shaped by environments that are anything but normal.

Drawing from equine welfare science, human trauma research, and personal observations after relocating to Norway, this episode challenges the idea that calm, compliant behaviour automatically equals wellbeing.