The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion

Reading The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion filled me with awe and wonder at the mystery, not only of horses, but also the mystery of our great and grand world. AS a very young girl I was aware of the evolutionary story of the horse, but I had no idea the depth of the mystery or how the dynamic forces of evolution worked. This book is a solid introduction that welcomes me into the conversation, even though I have been a skeptic of evolutionary theory.The Horse opens with a description of how widespread and beautiful early humans' artistic depictions of horses were. I was slack jawed and amazed at how much horse art people created during the Stone Age from paintings to sculptures. It's almost as though there was something mystical about this ancient relationship between humans and horses that goes beyond horses as a food or transportation source.This book is not only about the horse/human bond that goes back millennia, but it's also about how the world has always endured climate change, with warm periods that saw explosions of species and ice ages where some species adapted and survived. The Horse: The Epic History... illuminates how climate change has effected what species were able to survive until now. I was startled to find out how horses very nearly became extinct when savannahs changed to forests and horses weren't able to adapt fast enough.Williams has done an excellent job of reporting in this book. Even though it describes horses from a scientific perspective, Williams keeps you reading in order to find out what the next discovery is or insight is. I gained new insights into my own relationship with horses, by learning how they literally see the world. Williams draws on the latest ethological studies to show how horses get along in the wild and she draws on personal experience to convey her respect for their intelligence.I highly recommend The Horse: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion. It is a fascinating, fast and enjoyable read.

Of course, we all read books for different reasons. I purchased this book because of the subject matter and because I know some of the people referenced in the book. What I received was a gem! It covers a very broad sweep of earth history and science in a way that is both entertaining and intellectually enriching. Ms. Williams has a playful writing style that includes the reader in her discoveries. She presents well researched science amidst a paleontological travelogue that brings the dazzling intricacies of evolution to life. It left me in a welcome trance of wonder (too rare in this age of instantaneous social media critique!). If you are interested in horses, humans, life, ice ages, grasses, eyes, ears, teeth, toxic acorns, barrier islands, gorse, plate tectonics, cave paintings, bones, tar pits, and Polecat Bench, then you have found your next book purchase! I have already started re-reading my new favorite book!

The author did an excellent job with this. As a veterinary and general reader of almost anything with a horse on the cover, the book did include a lot of things I had read before. But the presentation was excellent and there were many interesting factoids that I had NOT heard of before (particularly in the sections on evolution and cognition -- and I've read a lot about equine evolution and cognition....). I bought a copy for a similarly well-read horse person and will be interested to see what she thinks of it. There is a good bibliography for those of you interested in chasing things down to the original research articles.The title could have been better. When I told my horse he was supposed to be "noble" he had a good laugh about it.

“The Horse”: The Epic History of Our Noble Companion by Wendy Williams “Horse People”, and likely most “Animal People”, should really enjoy this book. It presents snapshots of the horse's history over the last 56 million years or so, of course, but the really fun part is that Williams shows how modern Science is now proving many of the things that all of us barn flys have long known/believed about our beloved horses (as well as dogs and some other animals). In fact, she shows that humans and horses developed interdependently and that is the main reason why humans and horses are so enthralled with each other even today. Williams is a surprisingly fine and entertaining writer and has structured this work so the “science” (mainly anthropology, paleontology and ethology) comes in small, very clear doses and always lead the reader into great (and thought-provoking) discussions of horses and the horse-human relationships. Like most “Animal People” I've read fifty-'leven books about horses but I have to say this is probably the best I've ever seen. If you are a “Horse Person” I promise you will find yourself laughing and saying “I knew it, I knew it !” over and over again.

Ms Williams tackles an immense topic. It is a daunting task to tackle. The history of the horse goes back millions of years and pervades nearly every culture. She mixes information from research studies, personal situations and anecdotal evidence to weave a thoughtful and entertaining look at our equine friends. She spends a great deal of time on the abundant evidence of the human/horse bond. Yet she somehow never mentions the vast history of natural horsemanship (there is evidence of this philosophy from Greek history to the present time). Natural horsemanship in its many forms is very alive today with some quite famous practitioners such as Chris Cox, Stacy Westfall and Buck Brannaman. There are many many others. The basis of this form of living and working with horses is bonding with the horse in a positive way. I realize that this book is not intended to include everything about the horse but the omission of natural horsemanship seems a bit glaring given the point of view the author expresses.

This book starts off very well but then gets a little bit deep and complicated. But if you persist with it, it turns out to be a fascinating read with lots of in depth knowledge. There should be more books like this.

Un libro perfecto para un amante de los caballos.

Das Buch ist wirklich sehr interessant. Die Geschichte des Pferdes wird hier detailliert beschrieben, auch wenn es manchmal ein wenig populärwissenschaftlich ist. Dennoch auf jeden Fall für eine private Weiterbildung zu empfehlen.

The binding of the book was bad. The outside margins of the pages were very wide and so the body of type fell very far into the spine making it very hard to read.

very well wriiten and a fascinating insight if you like horses