Introduction

This book was conceived with the aim of providing a broad readership with information written by expert authors, with comprehensive coverage across the field of domestic animal biology. An important notion has been to provide information over reader-friendly themes, presented within sections.The Section on domestic animals as comparative models to humans,provides some insights into the ways in which scientists better understand human health and disease through studying similar processes in animals.Horses have a long association with humans across most of the world, and have been bred as athletes, for work, as companions and in some cultures,for food. Ken McKeever provides great insights into a deep historically framed examination of what we have learned and how we have benefited from human association with horses.