Ability for a Smoother Horseback Ride is from a Mutation

The Vikings may be the ones to thank for the ability to have an easier ride while horseback riding.  Scientists have traced the event to around 850-900 C.E. when the Vikings had possibly brought horses from the UK to Iceland.  The horses were bred in Iceland and then spread throughout Europe.  This information comes from the mutation detected in the DMRT3 gene.

Scientists first detected a mutation in the gene DMRT3, which influences limb movements, in all ambling horses in 2012, but they weren’t sure how it changed the horses’ gait.

 It is possible that the mutation actually effects the developing spinal cord in a way that allows longer strides to occur giving the horses their 4 beat rhythm.

http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(16)30752-7