 | By: DK Publishing Binding: Paperback Publisher: Dorling Kindersley Australia ISBN: 078949826X ISBN-13: 9780789498267 Released: 16 Sep 2003 RRP: Average Rating:  |
There is a lot of information crammed into this volume, beginning with the first paragraph describing the horse family where we learn that the nearest relative to horses, asses, & zebras are the rhinoceroses & tapirs, & that a pony is a horse that has a height of less than 14.2 hands. The spectrum is demonstrated with a picture of the Shetland pony (8 hands) next to a Shire horse (19.2 hands). As is always the case with these DK Eyewitness volumes, each chapter consists of a two-page spread offering one main paragraph of text & then a series of illustrations with detailed captions. Clutton-Brock covers how horses evolved, looks at some of their ancient ancestors, & shows how the teeth change over the life of the horse. The bulk of the book looks at the various types of horses, from donkeys, mules & hinnies to war-horses, heavy horses, & sporting horses, as well as the various jobs horses have had in human history. Young readers will learn about the names for the different colors of horses & their markings, as well as how the horse changed life in North America once they were reintroduced by Columbus. As always the rich illustrations will get a lot of the attention, showing us ancient art depicting horses, dozens of different breeds, & a wide variety of the vehicles that horses have drawn.
About the only thing that seems to be missing from this rather comprehensive introduction to the horse are mention & pictures of some of the more famous horses from history. But you will not find mention or a picture of the likes of Secretariat or Man-O-War within these pages. When we are shown a horse whose name is remembered, such as Bucephalus, Rosinante, Black Bess, & Marnego, it is because of their riders (Alexander the Great, Don Quixote, Dick Turpin, & Napoleon Bonaparate respectively). But then, it was the famous horses of history & fiction, from Traveler to the Black Stalllion, that I already knew about before I picked up this look at "Horses," so it is hard to criticize a book for performing its main function of providing new information instead of telling you what you already know. Whatever you know about horses, this book will teach you more.
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