A family without horses was a family that could carry only what adults and older children could manage on foot, over distances measured in miles per day rather than tens of miles.

A horse hunted buffalo.

Buffalo hunting on the Southern Plains was conducted primarily on horseback — the chase, the approach to within bow range or close rifle range, the control of direction and position during the kill.

A skilled horse-and-rider pair could work a buffalo herd in ways that were simply impossible on foot.

Without horses, buffalo hunting reverted to older methods — driving animals off cliffs or into corrals, or opportunistic hunting of small groups — which were far less efficient and far less able to produce the volume of meat and hides that winter preparation required.

A horse enabled military defense.