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Landscapes

Requirement

Relatively flat grasslands are best.
Relatively flat plains. Good horses need to run around in the first year.
More grass implies more horses.

Suitable Spots

Eastern steppe, aka Mongolian-Manchurian steppe - between Tibet, below altai mountains, from Taklamakan desert right up to Manchurian mountains.
- Very undulating terrain.
- Severe cold winds from the north - climate change prone.
- Very fertile. Lush green grass.
Kazakh Steppe (Central Steppe) - Mostly desert - Kara-Kum, Kizil-kum. Amu and Syr darya-s draining into Aral Sea provide water. Turan area. Big fertile patches surrounded by flat desert provide good horse growing areas. Sournce of major invasions into India.
- In the south east is the fergAna valley.
- In the west : Khwarezm oasis, Samarkand oasis and Bukhara oasis along the Zeravshan River. Khwarezm is bigger than sAmarkanD and bukhAra put together - hence dominated those + oft persia.
Pontic–Caspian steppe (Western Steppe) - above black sea.
- Drier grassland compared to Eastern steppe.
- Bulgaria / Thrace. Source of Greek horces. Very fertile.
Miscellaneous Europenan spots
- Macedonian depression
- Hungarian plains
Persia
- Southern caspian.
- South of herat in afghAnistAn.
Arabia
- Southern Arabia and Yemen (Tihamah) - narrow coastal fog fed fertile patch. Horse growing area much bigger than that in India.
India
- Tiny sliver between kAThiawar, mewar, mArvAr. Famous Indian breeds - balUchi, kAThiawadi, mewari. Most of kAThiawar peninusula: Shrubbery prevents massive horse-rearing. Mewar/ mArvAr - much drier, less fertile than say - similar sized sAmarkanD oasis.
- One hourse would take area which would support 60 people.
- Gangetic plain is flat - but forested and agriculture intensive.
US great plains
Uruguay, argentina

Central Asia

Central Asia & Middle East didn’t have horses until 1500 years after Europe did. Their raiders were less effective, & improvements on land were more valuable as result of lack of horses perhaps. No wild horses in southern Central Asia - only onagers. Horses first introduced around 2000 BC - same time as Mesopotamia & Iran. They were not eaten, & were a status symbol & trade commodity imported from the steppe.