Volume 44, Number 8 · May 15, 1997
Horse Sense
By Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
The Nature of Horses: Exploring Equine Evolution, Intelligence, and Behavior
by Stephen Budiansky
Free Press, 290 pp., $30.00
Twelve hundred years ago, a Mongol chieftain wrote a poem to celebrate his war horse Dapple. Apparently he and the horse cared deeply for each other, reading each other's minds in battle and, when not in action, sharing the chieftain's tent. This is one of the oldest texts about horses. The chieftain's poem has been followed by a seemingly endless collection of opinions, facts, and emotional expressions about horses from scientific papers to dressage instruction manuals to racing forms to Black Beauty. The most recent contribution to the subject is Stephen Budiansky's The Nature of Horses: Exploring Equine Evolution, Intelligence, and Behavior. Why has it taken 1200 years to achieve such clarity and insight?
Review, 3410 words
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