One day when I hadn’t yet started working on The Age of the Horse, I was at a National Trust property in England, vaguely on the trail of a woman who fascinated me and whose story I had researched but was unsure how to tell. I was trying to find a work-around for the limitations …
Tag Archives: Wild Horses
Over to You, Saudi Arabia…
Saudi Arabia’s claim to have the oldest evidence for horse domestication took a substantial knock today as Cambridge scientists published the results of an examination of modern domestic horse genes. Their conclusion? Domestication began on the Eurasian Steppes. Their research shows that the extinct wild ancestor of domestic horses, Equus ferus, expanded out of East …
Whole Heap of Little Horse Links
Ponies: the fatter they are, the naughtier they be. Thelwell proved correct by science. Cheap gelding clinics are becoming a reality in the US. Here’s one in California. Jane Smiley on National Velvet. A fell pony riding holiday in Lancashire. A swimming race for horses that commemorates a Venezuelan battle of 1819. A wild stallion …
The Persecution of the Mustang
I’ve blogged a handful of times about the round-ups of wild mustangs that are occurring in the US just now, and the furious debate over them. I haven’t kept fully up to date, although I did get an excellent grounding in the history and issues from Deanne Stillman’s Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse …
The Other Wild Mongolian Horses
Stunning photographs of shaggy, wild horses in Mongolian snow drifts published by the Daily Mail.
The Pony Cull
UPDATE: I’ve added a second post here with a historical perspective on ponies on the moor. A tip off about the mass culling of Dartmoor Hill ponies appeared on Horse and Hound On-Line yesterday, and appears to have been taken up by “Daily Mail Reporter”: Over 700 Dartmoor hill ponies have been killed in the …
Horse vs Helicopter
Thanks to Karen Krizanovich for sending me this link. You have to wonder for whom the helicopter round-up is safer – people or horses?
Of Oil and Wild Horses
The American mustang has long since passed from resource (for war, for ranching, even for movies) to designated “pest” in the eyes of the government. A couple of years ago I read Deanne Stillman’s excellent, detailed history of the mustang which takes in everything from the sea crossing from the Old World to nineteenth-century cattle …
Konik Section
Nina’s Filly
Last summer I was lucky enough to be introduced to one of the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s herds of Konik ponies, who are busy doing conservation work by stuffing themselves silly on grass, rushes, and tree leaves. The material wasn’t right for If Wishes Were Ponies, but I hope to use it in future work. Meantimes, …