During the nineteenth century, which was an age of melodrama and theatrical spectacle in the United States, the horse reached the zenith of his importance in both theatre and society. The horse at this time was exceptionally useful, providing transportation, enhancing commerce, and serving as an essential element of the military machinery of virtually every country in the world. The decline of equestrian drama roughly paralleled the decline of society's dependence on the horse, a period in history whose hallmark was increasing mechanization. As human dependence on the horse for labor, transportation, and warfare diminished, so did the demand for and production of equestrian drama. Actual "real" horses, which had appeared onstage enlivening equestrian drama in the nineteenth century moved off the stage and transitioned into film at the turn of the twentieth century. Film also presented audiences with a new way of experiencing spectacular realism, as equestrian drama had done for theatrical audiences a century earlier.