Horses were first domesticated around 2200 BCE (about 4,200 years ago) in the Pontic-Caspian steppe region, which includes parts of modern-day Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. This timing is about 1,000 years later than some earlier estimates. The dominant lineage of horses that emerged there quickly spread across Eurasia. Earlier evidence of horse domestication, such as that by the Botai culture around 5,500 years ago in Kazakhstan, involved horses that were not ancestors of modern domestic horses. This more recent domestication led to the modern horses known today and was associated with cultures such as the Sintashta in the Bronze Age, who rapidly expanded throughout Eurasia using horses for transportation and warfare.

In summary, the currently supported view is that full domestication of modern horses occurred approximately 4,200 years ago in the Eurasian steppes, replacing earlier, less direct management of wild horses.