Man's best friend is said to be the dog and a case can be made for many animals as to which has been most important to man - the cow, the deer, the bison. But before the age of steam, only one animal provided speedy personal mobility on land, improving food gathering by hunting, industry, communications, ariculture, and - more detrimentally - warfare. It was the speed and strength of the horse that gave mankind a mobility he never had before.
How did man first domesticate the horse? We don't know - but what is certain is that around 9,000 years ago, the hunter-gatherers of western Asia began to alter their way of life. They started keeping flocks of live animals, first sheep and goats, then cattle and pigs until they finally encompassed horses.
With domestication came breeding - for submissiveness as well as hardiness and ease of feeding. Man also learned to breed types of horses epecially adapted to the work needed of them, a process which continues to this day.
in 1492 Columbus discovered the New World and, as he and successive waves of conquistadores claimed it for Spain and Christendom, so the horse was introduced to the Americas. It was to play a huge part in the development of the Continent. The legacy of the western horse - from American Indian pony to the mounts of the Seventh Cavalry - has been raised to the level of myth by film and television: stage-coaches, the Pony Express, posses on horseback and, of course, at home on the range, lariat in hand, those heroes of the far frontier who kept those dogies rolling - cowboys.
For 5,000 years the horse dominated the world at the tip of an immense industry which affected every level of life. No decent-sized town could survive without stables, farrier or coaching inn; no reasonably affluent residence was built without stables. The canals needed horses; the original railways were pulled by horses, as were the first omnibuses. It was only the advent of the steam engine and the industrial revolution, that lef to the lessening of thehorses's importance. Horses would still see huge use under extreme conditions - the German army at the end of World War II could boast more four-legged than four-wheeled beasts of burden - but fossil fuels and mass transit systems relegated the horse in the developed world to its use today: for social and recreational purposes.
A new industry has grown up: not as all-encompassing as during the equine immennia before the 20th century, but significant nonetheless. Racing and breeding racehorses continues to hold its allure; the inclusion of equestrian events in early Olympic Games ensure a worldwide commitment to equestrian sports; recreational use of horses - vacations, long-distance rides, trekking - is growing.
This book is not a detailed history of the horse and man, although the opening chapters sketch its evolution from Eohippus to Equus caballus. It is, rather, a general introduction to the world of the horse, the world of equestrianism and equine pursuits, horse care and management, the world's horse and pony types and breeds; finally there's a detailed glossary of equine terminology.
Hardback.