'Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History'; and 'The Horse' - 2 book reviews
Horses: Wild, Iconic, Inspirational - and Literary (2024)
The theme for this literary review post is Horses. Specifically, I will be reviewing The Horse by Willy Vlautin (2024) — and Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History by William T. Taylor (2024). Even though it may appear that this thematic review post is simply a tethering of two recent publications (one fiction and one non-fiction) around the topic of horses - this topic is personal as well.
Most of us know about the unique social connection between wolves/dogs and humans in terms of human development from an ecological and evolutionary perspective (see ‘Human-directed attachment behavior in wolves suggests standing ancestral variation for human–dog attachment bonds’, Ecology and Evolution (2022), but the other animal that was critical in the expansion and exploration of humans across the globe was the Horse. As David Chaffetz (2024) has indicated in his new book (not reviewed here), Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires, that if you could ride and doctor horses - one could take “over the world.”
Thus, even as we think in our current world of cyber-trucks, petabytes, online shopping, iPhones…a lot of what signals “power” in terms of mobility and transport is associated with “horsepower” - both literally (e.g., agriculturally) and mechanically (e.g., cars, boats) - to the point that horse & power combined equals a complex notion and measurement of power. The horse still projects the connection of power to “move” and increase mobility on the land, on sea, and in the air.
I grew up riding horses. In my undergrad/college days, our family sold a horse and the person who wanted to buy the horse made a deal with us: could she keep it at our barn and pasture area? And then could someone go riding with her along the country roads in southern Louisiana? (Calcasieu Parish). Yes, I guess I could do that. So, Cheryl would ride ‘Christy’ (mare - Morgan/Quarter Horse mix) and I would ride ‘Champ’ the Arabian (gelding). Off we would go - and there would be conversations about the future (this was in 1978) and I remember telling Cheryl I could ride horses riding bareback (no saddle/no halter/no reins) and thought of myself as a Lakota Sioux warrior (well - at least in riding a horse). I was ‘showing off’ in front of Cheryl in a closed-in fence area and then disaster. I was riding Christy pretty fast in the fenced area, but the horse decided to a quick turn into (and through) the door of the barn. The door was only tall and wide enough for the horse - not the rider (me). I slipped to one side to avoid my head hitting the door frame, but I was slammed into the side of the barn with a rusty metal hinge making a nice mark on my ribs. I think I was knocked out for a while. Anyway, I came around and a neighbor and Cheryl helped get to my feet. Hubris checked. No more showing off. But I still would ride horses - but lesson learned. Cheryl and I got married and headed West. More horseback riding in Utah, Idaho, Colorado. My favorite horses: Buckskin and Appaloosa. But one more quick story: I had a chance to go on a cattle round-up in Idaho between Challis and Salmon. The real deal - not a dude ranch experience. It was around late November - close to Thanksgiving time. The further we drove up the road - the colder it got. We ended up at a barn full of mountain horses - the ones that had the endurance and take the winters. The goal was to drive cattle out of the high country and down into lower pastures where there would be less snow piling up - and access to range land grasses. And the snow did fly on the cattle drive - I thought for a moment I had been transported back in time - riding a horse in the high country - and I will never forget the experience. The experience was primal and connected to a world that seemed to exist before the Pony Express - as though seeing myself as a part of a cycle of the seasons, and that the horse was the portal to the “old” West.
Horses have crossed my path in other ways as memories and meaningful connections:
Neal Young with Crazy Horse (album/songs - 1969) Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere - songs: Cinnamon Girl, Sugar Mountain, Down by the River.
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (film - 1969)
A Man Called Horse (film - 1970)
Wild Horses - Rolling Stones (album - 1971)
America (song - 1972) - I’ve been through the desert with a horse with no name.
U2 - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (song - 1991)
Before the summary reviews, I would like to briefly present two fascinating research articles: 1) recently published in Nature (2024) magazine. Here is the citation: Librado, P., Tressières, G., Chauvey, L. et al. Widespread horse-based mobility arose around 2200 BCE in Eurasia. Nature 631, 819–825 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07597-5
Horses revolutionized human history with fast mobility. However, the timeline between their domestication and their widespread integration as a means of transport remains contentious. Here we assemble a collection of 475 ancient horse genomes to assess the period when these animals were first reshaped by human agency in Eurasia. We find that reproductive control of the modern domestic lineage emerged around 2200 BCE, through close-kin mating and shortened generation times. Reproductive control emerged following a severe domestication bottleneck starting no earlier than approximately 2700 BCE, and coincided with a sudden expansion across Eurasia that ultimately resulted in the replacement of nearly every local horse lineage. This expansion marked the rise of widespread horse-based mobility in human history, which refutes the commonly held narrative of large horse herds accompanying
the massive migration of steppe peoples across Europe around 3000 BCE and earlier. Finally, we detect significantly shortened generation times at Botai around 3500 BCE, a settlement from central Asia associated with corrals and a subsistence economy centred on horses. This supports local horse husbandry before the rise of modern domestic bloodlines.
Okay - think about this: Horses and humans go way back. This research helps to fine-tune the era of horse-based mobility to around 2200 BCE (Before Common Era) in Eurasia. The human connection to horses is multi-layered and historical - No…make that evolutionary.
2) William Timothy Treal Taylor et al. Early dispersal of domestic horses into the Great Plains and northern Rockies. Science, 379,1316-1323(2023).DOI:10.1126/science.adc9691
Horses evolved in North America and dispersed to Eurasia across the Bering Land Bridge. They continued to evolve and were domesticated in Eurasia, but, as far as we know, they became extinct in North America by the late Pleistocene and were then reintroduced by European colonizers. Taylor et al. looked at the genetics of horses across the Old and New Worlds and studied archaeological samples. They found no evidence for direct Pleistocene ancestry of North American horses, but they did find that horses of European descent had been integrated into indigenous cultures across western North America long before the arrival of Europeans in that region.
Okay - think about this: The full ‘circle’ of horses in North America - evolved in N.A. then across the Bering Land Bridge and domesticated in Eurasia - then became extinct in N. A. - Then the horse “returns” from European descent into indigenous cultures (western N. A.) before the arrival of Europeans in that region. Note the author (Taylor) of this research paper (Science) is the author of one of the books to be reviewed below.
Now let us turn to the first book for a brief overview - Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History by William Taylor (2024) - then the next book overview to follow, and at the end - the Skye Summary Review for both.
Hoof Beats: How Horses Shaped Human History (2024) - Overview
William Taylor has a great website that offers many links to related resources (e.g., podcasts, and YouTube videos). From the publisher’s website: “From the Rockies to the Himalayas, the bond between horses and humans has spanned across time and civilizations. In this archaeological journey, William T. Taylor explores how momentous events in the story of humans and horses helped create the world we live in today. Tracing the horse's origins and spread from the western Eurasian steppes to the invention of horse-drawn transportation and the explosive shift to mounted riding, Taylor offers a revolutionary new account of how horses altered the course of human history. Drawing on Indigenous perspectives, ancient DNA, and new research from Mongolia to the Great Plains and beyond, Taylor guides readers through the major discoveries that have placed the horse at the origins of globalization, trade, biological exchange, and social inequality. Hoof Beats transforms our understanding of both horses and humanity's ancient past and asks us to consider what our relationship with horses means for the future of humanity and the world around us.”
The Horse (A Novel) by Willy Vlautin (2024) - Overview
Overview Goodreads
Al Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada fifty miles from the nearest town. A grizzled man in his sixties, he survives on canned soup, instant coffee, and memories of his ex-wife, friends and family he’s lost, and his life as a touring musician. Hampered by insomnia, bouts of anxiety, and a chronic lethargy that keeps him from moving back to town, Al finds himself teetering on the edge of madness and running out of reasons to go on—until a horse arrives on his doorstep: nameless, blind, and utterly helpless. Al hopes the horse will vanish as mysteriously as he appeared. Yet the animal remains, leaving him in a conundrum. Is the animal real, or a phantom conjured from imagination? As Al contemplates the horse’s existence—and what, if anything, he can do—his thoughts are interspersed with memories of his life as a musician, from the moment his mother’s part-time boyfriend gifts him a 1959 butterscotch blonde Telecaster, to the day his life as a traveling musician begins. He joins various bands—all who perform his songs once they discover his talent–playing casinos, truck stops, clubs, and bars. He falls in love, and finds pockets of companionship and minor success along the way. Never close to stardom or financial success, he continues as a journeyman for decades until alcoholism and a heartbreaking tragedy lead him to the isolation of the barren Nevada desert. A poignant meditation on art, addiction, loneliness, heartbreak, and the reality of life on the road in smalltime bands, The Horse is a beautiful, haunting tale from an author working at the height of his powers.
Book Trailer on YouTube (video)
Link to audio sample via HarperCollins (publisher) and web site info
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Skye Summary Review
I decided to combine both books in this review posting because not only do they have common ground with the topic of horses, but the books are (very) different (e.g., fiction and non-fiction) in terms of the balance between literature in science and art, and how the human connection with horses is portrayed; one in the grand sweep of Time, and the other as a direct individual story set in a specific time and place.
William Taylor (Hoof Beats) has the ability and expertise to conduct the science (actually engage in the empirical work - there - in the field) and write this book in a very engaging manner for both scientists - and the general public. Taylor structured the book in four “hoof beats” corresponding to four key stages in the relationship between humans and equids.
In beat 1, “Horses and People”, Taylor explores the origin and evolutionary history of horses and humanity’s oldest relationship with horse as predator and prey. We learn of the “dawn horse” a prototype of the horse about the size of a dog that flourished as the grassland ecosystems became more prevalent. Why did it flourish? The ability to run (speed) and adapt to the grasslands for a food source - basically the horse as a grass-powered machine equipped with strong teeth and stomach to digest the varied plants of the grasslands. Horses also adapted to the grasslands with a “herd” survival strategy and a robust communication within the social group. This may sound harsh (and unfathomable to many) but the first encounters between humans (Paleolithic hunters) and horses was of the predator/prey dynamic. Humans hunted horses for food.
In beat 2, “The Cart”, Taylor traces the earliest emergence of domestication. The innovation of the chariot helped to spread people and horses across much of Inner Asia. “In this way, horses helped built the first inklings of a truly globalized world in the 2nd-millennium BCE, moving people, goods, ideas, languages, and organisms into areas that they had never been before. Charioteers toppled dynasties and built new ones, now laid on a foundation of horsemanship and access to horses…the horse-human partnership would change humanity forever.” (p. 98) I thought about this paragraph for quite some time, and I realized the crucial inflection point of this partnership (in my opinion) seems quite understated in the long scope of history. That is to say, in our modern era, the horse was as critical to the ongoing human expansion of social-cultural groups as the industrial revolution, and I will propose - as critical as recent technological innovations. There is a bit of myopia - and generational amnesia - about human history, and the ecological dimensions of human-environment interactions. Thus, the wolf/dog and human, and the horse and human “partnership” stands out (from my perspective) as much as the “Guns, Germs, and Steel” theories and interpretation of Jared Diamond.
In beat 3, “The Rider” innovation in horse control and how the emergence of horseback riding transformed ancient in Eurasia and re-positioned the steppes as the center of global cultures, economies, and empires. There is a very informative (two-page) map (see Map 3) which shows the sheer coverage and range of “horse-mediated” linkages (e.g., trade routes) from Asia to Europe, into the Middle East (Fertile Crescent) and into Africa. But the epicenter of the beginnings for “horse culture” was in Mongolia. By the end of modern era, horseback riding was a part of life in every corner of Eurasia. Horse warfare stripped authority and geopolitical power from the great agricultural river valleys of the Nile, and the Tigris and Euphrates, and the Yellow River and transferred it those living in the cold tundra, high mountains, dry steppes, and parched deserts. Horses became an imperative for survival (p. 142-143), and a key factor in overcoming even the most extreme geographic barriers. This was another great section of the book by Taylor and I thought about trains, automobiles, planes, and then rockets…all mechanized (and fueled)…to “carry” people faster and higher (and then to escape gravity and to outer space), and yet, the unbounded experience, the “freedom’ to jump onto the back of a horse - and “fly” across the land. I think of the song by Christopher Cross, “Ride Like the Wind” - and there is that essence of escaping to wherever the horizon is…that way. And since I am thinking of the West (U.S.) - I cannot help to think of the song and lyrics by Marty Robbins (old school!) - El Paso (1959) where “horse culture” is the escape and the tragic return. And check out Michael Martin Murphey’s album - The Horse Legends (1997)
In beat 4, “The World” Taylor explores the journey of the horse over the globes great oceans and how horses sparked drastic social across the Americas. Another great map on pp. 168-169 showing the great dispersal of domestic horses (across the oceans) and the return of horses to North America (their ancestral home) via Hispanolia (1493 to 1503) and then Mexico, and also Florida - by Spanish explorers. From the Pueblo nations the horses quickly spread north. Taylor presents evidence that horses were widespread across the plains and the Rocky Mountains by at least the first half of the 17th century. For many Native nations, especially those in southwest and on the plains, domestic horses had an immediate and transformative cultural impact (p. 187). But then the “Iron Horse” arrived (railroads)…and yet Taylor notes in the final chapter that, “even in the heart of the urban United States, horses are still deeply embedded in culture, artwork, symbolism, and identity.” (p. 220-221). I would agree…as noted by Robert Sullivan in the New York Times (2024), Horses: Some People Just Drank Their Milk, Others Built Empires, horses continue to be connected to the human experience…”Now, equine therapy is recommended by the Mayo Clinic, and we turn to our old comrades for help in soothing the anxiety of our children, to ease the path of citizens returning from incarceration, to help our soldiers heal.” I highly recommend Taylor’s book - it is a welcome addition to the literature and is enlightening in regards to the human-horse ‘partnership’ over the arc of time.
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Willy Vlautin (The Horse) has a writing style that reminded me of the work of Jim Harrison and Mark Spragg…there is a melancholy and a hard scrabble sense of existence going on here - in this novel. Al Ward (my first reaction was - what a gerontological nightmare!) is living alone in rural Nevada living off Campbell soup, a wood-stove, and seemingly miles and miles away from the nearest neighbor. And then there is the structure of the novel which has this ebb and flow of Time - present and then a jump to the past where memories unfold about Al and his wife, friends, his music interests, and all of it as precursors to his current dilemma: a horse has shown up near his “home” (an old miners shack) and just stays put - nearby. The horse is obviously in bad shape - and Al is trying figure out what to do about it. But the reader is also ‘along for the ride’ to learn of Al’s talent for writing songs that just about cover (and capture) the heartache and travails of being “down and out.”
So what is the allure - or better said this way - why read this “novella”? It sounds depressing, sad, and bordering and sliding into a story of self-neglect. Yes, some of it is that. Al is getting by and relying on tequila (and whatever) over the many years has not helped the situation. But…the horse. The horse - in need of direct care - who is also teetering toward the end of it all, seems to lift Al from his decline - and to do something about it. Al has always had his music, his songs (and by the way - the array of song titles throughout the book are both revealing and add a touch a comic relief about trying to eke out a life in the Nevada desert - and how relationships are so very important - if they can work out - which is the problem…one hard luck story after another). So, by the end of the novel, the reader will see where all of this going: Al decides to get help for the horse. The horse is symbolic and toughing this thing out - and becomes a beacon for Al - a reminder to return to what matters - by caring. Al will walk miles and miles in the cold to a nearby ranch to ask for the help he needs - for the horse and himself.
The horse - the iconic figure of the West - is struggling to survive and ends up at Al’s mining shack. This serves as catalyst for Al to begin again - back to what he loves - songwriting. And the horse will serve as inspiration to live again. Maybe a song - right?
“’I bet you’ll probably write a song about that horse. Am I right?’
“Al sat up in his seat. ‘It’s interesting you said that, Lonnie, because while I was walking to find you, I thought of a couple ideas that could work. I’m just not sure which angle yet…I’ll probably have to write a few to get the right one.’” (p. 192).
I have a framed photo image (via Leslie Le Coq Photography) on my desk that reminded me of both books (image titled “No Man’s Land”) - it is a horse looking out on a vast range land - and there is something about it that is archetypal and capturing the essence of entire arc of Time (Taylor’s book) and then the existential spirit - of meaning for a human Being. Humans (as E. O. Wilson would phrase it - biophilia) have a connection to living systems and organisms. People can choose “pets” to live with them (as a part of the household), but there is also the animal that is spiritual in the sense of a reminder of our earthly existence (grounded to this Earth); that is Being alive, rather than just living. The Horse is that for me -and I think for many others as well. A bond - a partnership, but also the horse as wild - running in the herd - across the grasslands.
link on image to see source/credit (or here)