Was Saudi Arabia the Home of Horse Domestication?

Saudi archaeologists are challenging the new theory that the earliest solid evidence for horse domestication was found in north east Kazakhstan, among the relics of the Bronze Age Botai peoples. They believe that they’ve found traces of horse taming in al-Maqar, dating back 9,000 years – approx. 4,000 years older than the Botai material.
This BBC report doesn’t mention anything like the carefully examined Kazakh artefacts (which included traces of mare’s milk fat in pottery, ‘bit wear’ on horses’ molars and layers of dung in a stable or paddock). I shall investigate further…