The use of the whip, in particular, to "push" horses to gallop faster and straighter has been proved to be both unpleasant and hazardous. We discovered that whips had no effect on a horse's direction, jockey safety, or even speed. However, they did cause the horse to fight harder for every stride, which resulted in them running faster. Horses first became used for transportation in Europe around 3000 B.C. They were used for military purposes (cavalry) as early as 800 B.C., but it wasn't until about 500 B.C. that people started using them for commercial purposes (buggies). Early riders would use any kind of weapon available to them to ensure their horse stayed ahead of the one next to it. As time went on, weapons were improved upon and different materials were tried out for war chariots (e.g., wood, metal, leather). But despite all these efforts, none of them were effective at making the horse go faster. This changed in about 1800 B.C. when the Chinese invented the bit. The bit is a piece of metal or hard plastic used by a rider to control a horse's head and mouth movement. It can be used to calm down a nervous horse or force it to obey your commands.