“You should come to Mongolia next month”: Most of the information in this chapter came directly from my visit to Mongolia and from conversations with scientists, government officials, and local people during that time. When I first began researching this book, finding background information on the Takhi and other horses in Mongolia was a challenging task. Though much has been written, most documents are either in the Mongolian language or in Russian. I came across two fantastic books by the American historian Jack Weatherford, which I gobbled up: Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (New York: Crown, 2004) and The Secret History of the Mongol Queens: How the Daughters of Genghis Khan Rescued His Empire (Crown, 2010). These books are required reading for anyone interested not only in Mongolia, but in world history in general. Weatherford spent years living in and researching in Mongolia. Additionally, he was kind enough to spend several hours on the phone with me, helping me prepare for my own research trip. Substantive books about the history of Mongolia are difficult to find in the West, although this is slowly changing. To understand some of the nation’s modern problems, try Manduhai Buyandelger’s Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Memory, and Gender in Contemporary Mongolia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013) and Tim Cope’s accessible adventure tale On the Trail of Genghis Kahn: An Epic Journey Through the Land of the Nomads (Bloomsbury, 2013). Also available is History of Mongolia: From World Power to Soviet Satellite by Baabar (Cambridge, U.K.: White Horse Press, 1999). To learn more about the founding of Hustai National Park and the story of Jan and Inge Bouman, read The Tale of the Przewalski’s Horse: Coming Home to Mongolia by Piet Wit and Inge Bouman (Zeist, the Netherlands: KNNV Publishing, 2006). This large volume has a myriad of information about the park itself and about the process of bringing the horses from the European zoos back to Mongolia. Included is a disk with an informative documentary that’s well worth watching. Inge Bouman and her colleague Annette Groeneveld have also written a personal history booklet, privately published in 2008, about their experience, which Inge gave me during our lunch together: The History and Background of the Reintroduction of the Przewalski Horses in Hustai National Park. Since Hustai’s founding, researchers from around the world have studied various aspects of the Mongolian ecosystem at the park. Some of these have been published in English, but are only available by visiting the park itself. Hustai has become an important center for bird conservation as well. Two local scientists, S. Gombobaatar and D. Usukhjargal, have published an excellent guide: Birds of Hustai National Park (2011). This, too, is locally published and available at the park’s gift store.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book owes a great deal to a long list of people, including Deborah Cramer, author of The Narrow Edge and an exceedingly kind person. I’d also like to thank Joni Praded, whose calm, supportive suggestions were consistently both insightful and heartening, and Joan Chevalier, a wise counselor in the ways of the world.
Particular appreciation goes to Diane Davidson, Mark Spalding, and Angel Braestrup of the outstanding organization the Ocean Foundation, for their support of my interest in all things oceanic.
And to the many people who have read all or parts of the manuscript, including Matthew Mihlbachler of the American Museum of Natural History; Chris Norris of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History; Jason Ransom; Phyllis Preator; Kathleen Pratt (a knowledgeable reader and avid horsewoman) of the Cotuit Library; Hans Hofmann of the University of Texas at Austin; and Stephanie Kokal of the HorseTenders Mustang Foundation in Greenfield, New Hampshire.
And thanks to the many wonderful scientists and experts in the field of equine husbandry who hosted me in locations worldwide, including Piet Wit; Inge Bouman; park director Bandi Namkhai and the scientists and staff of Mongolia’s Hustai National Park; Phyllis Preator and her friend Nettie Kelley, who drove me at length through their beloved Wyoming and filled me in on the recent history of the region’s horses; thanks to Kim Scott and Eric Scott of the San Bernardino County Museum, who spent several days showing me local paleontological and geological sites and patiently answered my onslaught of questions during long, hot car rides; thanks to Stephan Schaal of the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum of Frankfurt, Germany, who showed me the mille-feuille pages of the Messel research site; thanks to Isabelle Castenet, who spent hours talking to me about the horses on the cave walls discovered long ago by her great-grandfather; thanks to Herwig Radnetter for introducing us to his three magical white stallions.
And a very special thanks to Laura Lagos of Galicia and her colleague Felipe Bárcena Varela de Limia of the Instituto de Investigación y Análisis Alimentarios, Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, for organizing one of the most fascinating research trips I’ve ever experienced. Together they made sure that I saw so many different areas of Galicia where the Garranos roamed, explained the deep history of their beloved countryside, and provided wonderful meals with the best of local wines. Thanks to them for introducing me to Javier Álvarez Blázquez (Asociación de Gandeiros de Cabalos do Monte da Groba), Xosé Lois Vilar (Instituto de Estudos Miñoranos and S.O.S. Groba), Xilberte Manso de la Torre (Instituto de Estudos Miñoranos and S.O.S. Groba), Modesto Domínguez Roda (Asociación de Gandeiros de Cabalos do Monte da Groba), José Manuel Rey García (Parque Arqueológico de Campo Lameiro), Dr. Jaime Fagúndez (heathers expert and professor in the University of A Coruña), Dr. Roberto Hermida, Dr. Santiago Bas.
And thanks to the many, many scientists who kindly forwarded me research studies and spoke at length with me—often more than once—including Harald Floss, John Turner, Gus Cothran, Philip McLoughlin, Darrin Pagnac, Christine Janis, Philip Gingerich, Ken Rose, Chris Beard, Martin Fischer, Shari Ackerman-Morris, Claudia Uller, E. Christopher Kirk, Elise Renders, Neil Pederson, Sarah Feakins, Jeffrey Stevens, Caroline Galloway Strang, Kevin Uno, Nick Famoso, Lee Olynyk, Grant Zazula, Dale Guthrie, Robert Raynolds, Brian Kooyman and Len Hills, Stuart Fiedel, Gary Haynes, John Tyler Bonner, Craig Packer, John Hoffecker, Sebastián Jurado Piqueras, Robin Bendrey, the Kokal family, David Anthony and Dorcas Brown, Robert Cook, Sandra Wise, Margery Coombs, Joseph Carroll, Gerald Jacobs, Brian Timney, Karen Murdoch and Lukas, Sherril Stone, Konstanze Krüger, Nicole Waguespack, John Wible, Gregory P. Wilson, Gina Semprebon, Timothy J. Gaudin, Zhe-Xi Luo, Jacquelyn Gill, Harry Jerison, Andrew Hill, Lillian Spencer, Pamela S. Soltis, Matthew Sisk, Ross Secord, Megan Nordquist, Mike Voorhies, Thomas Barfield, Paula DePriest, Julien Riel-Salvatore, Melissa Songer, Donald Prothero, Budhan Pukazhenthi, William Fitzhugh, Brianna McHorse, Robert W. Meredith, Bolortsetseg Minjin, Karyn Malinowski, Katherine Albro Houpt, Caroline Strang, Lynne Isbell, Dennis Jenkins, Tom Tobin, Gregory Curtis, Anthony Fiorillo, Richard Stucky, Roland Kays, Christopher Hemmings, Lawrence Straus, David Archibald, Lee Boyd, Elizabeth Kellogg, David Grossnickle, Sandra Engels, J. M. Adovasio, Richard B. Alley, Ray Bernor, Luke Holbrook, Melinda Zeder.
To my tolerant family—Kay, Susan, Diana, Bruce, Judy, Mike, and Greg—love and appreciation from the bottom of my heart. Writing a book like this is an all-out effort. Without their patience, the task might not have been completed.
And thanks of course to my supportive agents, Wendy Strothman and Lauren MacLeod, and to my editor, Amanda Moon; to Melissa Cavill of the Cotuit Library, who never told me that any book I wanted to read, no matter how arcane, was too difficult to find (what would the world be without librarians?); to Laird Gallagher, for his phenomenal efforts in assembling the art for this book; and to Annie Gottlieb, to whom I am so deeply indebted.
INDEX
The index that appears in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.
A. afarensis
Abric Romaní
Abri de Cap Blanc
abris; see also cave dwellings
adaptation, see evolution
addiction
Admiral (horse)
Africa: horses adaptation to; livestock in; Miocene tracks in; primates in; wildlife in
Agenbroad, Larry
Age of Insight, The (Kandel)
Age of Mammals
Alberta, Canada
American Museum of Natural History
American West; Equus in; ethology in; geology of; horses extinction in; horses protected in; horses reintroduced to; “mustangs” from; as origin of horses; paleontology in; predators in
Amsterdam
Anchitherium
Andes Mountains
Andics, Attila
Animal Minds (Griffin)
Antarctica
Anthony, David
anthropologists
anthropomorphizing
Appaloosa horses
Arabian horses
Arab Tent, The (Landseer)
archaeologists
Archibald, David
Arctic Circle
art; eyes in; Holocene; meaning of; modern; perspective in; Pleistocene; Renaissance; riding in; tenderness in
artiodactyls
Ashfall Fossil Beds
Asia; domestication in; Holocene horse populations in; horse art in; horse hunting in; migration from; migration to
Assateague Island
asteroid, Chicxulub
astragalus bones
Atlantic Ocean: coast of; creation of; Pleistocene extinctions and
attachment, see bonding
Aurignacians
Australia
Australopithecus afarensis
autism
baboons
Bahn, Paul
bands; conflict within; fluidity of; hierarchy between; mares’ power in; parentage in; post-zoo; shared knowledge within; status in; territories of; vision in; see also bonding
barbed wire, invention of
Bárcena, Felipe
Basque country
bats
Beagle, The
Beebe, C. William
bees
beetles, temperature and
Beginning of the Age of Mammals, The (Rose)
behaviorism, see rewards
Bendrey, Robin
Bengali (horse)
Berger, Joel
Beringia; humans in; as not a bridge; as refuge from ice; size of
Bible, horses in
big bluestem
Big Horn Canyon Gorge
bipedalism
bison; in cave art; as different from horses; grasses and
biting
Bjornerud, Marcia
blinkers
blitzkrieg hypothesis
Blonder, Benjamin
bonding; in bands; brains and; as chain reaction; fluidity of; with humans; between mares; between mates; in other animals; post-zoo; Ransom on; see also bands
Bonner, John Tyler
Botai, Kazakhstan
Bot River delta
Bouman, Jan and Inge passim; backgrounds of; Foundation formed by; success of
Bouri, Ethiopia
Boxgrove, Britain 160
Bradley, Richard
brains: bonding and; endocasts of; evolution of; facial emotion and; rewards and
breeding: for gait; for hair; of Takhi; of other wild horses; see also mares: pregnancies of
brontotheres
Brown, Dorcas
brumbies
Bruneau-Jarbidge eruption
bulls
Bureau of Land Management
buttercups
cabinets of curiosity
calcaneus bones
caliche
California
Camargue wetlands
camels; in North America
Canada
Cap Blanc
carriage horses
Carroll, Joseph
Cassidy, Butch
Castaños, Pedro
Castenet, Isabelle
Castillo
cats
causality
cave art; preservation of
cave dwellings
Cave of Lascaux
Cave of the Horse Hunters
cecum, as key to evolution
Chamberlin, J. Edward
Chauvet Cave; age of
Chernobyl
Chicxulub asteroid
Chile
chimpanzees
China
Chincoteague Island
civilization
Clever Hans
climate change; current; Eocene; Holocene; human adaptation to; Miocene; Oligocene; Pleistocene; teeth and
Clovis people
Clydesdale horses
coal
Cody, Wyo.
cognition, see intelligence
Cold (Streever)
Cold War
colonialism
Colorado; see also American West
color blindness
communication; biology and; via body language; bonding and; eye contact and; between horses; between humans; with horses; by other animals; as two way; via voice
community hearths
competition, see under stallions
conflict resolution
connectivity
continental drift
cool-season grass
cooperation: between horses; between humans; by other animals
cortisol
Cothran, Gus
Coupure
cows; digestive systems of; domestication of; as herd animals; herding of
Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution
crocodiles
crows
culture hearths
Cumberland Island
Cunliffe, Barry
Currituck Banks Reserve
cursorial animals
Danube River Delta
Darwin, Charles: character of; criticism of; on emotions; on horse fossils; limitations of; simplistic readings of
Darwinius
dawn horses; confusion about; diet of; disappearance of; euprimates and; eyes of; faces of; gait of; geography of; as index fossil; life span of; migrations of; pregnancies of; prevalence of; size of; skeletons of; teeth of; toes of
Dawson City, Yukon
Death Valley
deciduous forests
Denver Museum of Nature and Science
Descent of Man, The (Darwin)
diets; of dawn horses; evolution and, see teeth; flexibility of; poor; seasonal; tooth health and; toxins in; of wild horses
digestive systems
dinosaurs
Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs (Novacek)
Dmanisi, Georgia
DNA testing
Dnieper River
Doggerland
dogs: bonding with; communication with; domestication of; research on; vision of
domestication; as continuum; horse agency in; of other livestock; paucity of evidence for; rehabilitation as; social cognition and; success of; time line of; see also breeding; rewards; riding
dominance, myth of male
Dordogne, France
draft horses
Dream, Think, Speak (Le Brun)
dressage horses
drought, grasses and
Duke (horse)
dust storms
ears
Edinger, Tilly
Eiseley, Loren
Ekain
Ekman, Paul
El Castillo
elephants
Ellesmere Island
emotions, of animals
endocasts
English Shire horses
environment, see climate change; evolution: as adaptation to environment
Eocene epoch; bottleneck in horse evolution during; climate change during; mammals during; preservation of; see also dawn horses; euprimates
Eohippus; see also dawn horse
Eohomo; see also euprimates
Epihippus
Equus; American extinction of; ancest
ors of; physique of; senses of; species of; see also horses, modern
Equus ferus atlanticus; see also Garranos
Equus lambei
Equus simplicidens
Eternal Frontier, The (Flannery)
ethology; horses neglected by
euprimates; Eohippus and; origins of; primates vs.
Eurasian steppe: reach of; see also Kazakhstan; Mongolia
Eurohippus
Europe: Eocene; Holocene; horse fossil confusion in; horse hunting in; land in; Miocene; Pleistocene; post-Soviet; royalty in; Takhi reserves in; World War II in; zoos in; see also specific countries
Europe Before Rome (Price)
evergreen forests
evolution: as adaptation to environment; Beringia and; of brains; changing theory of; Eocene; flexibility and; as gradual; grasses and; horses as proof of; metaphors for; Miocene; as non-linear; Oligocene; as ongoing; as process; progress and; puzzles of; as synchronous; as unidirectional; see also eyes; teeth; vision
“Evolution of the Horse Brain” (Edinger)
Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, The (Darwin)
extinction; as abrupt; of American horses; of American primates; causality and; as gradual; of horse branches; horses near; IUCN and; size and; see also climate change
eyes; in art; communication via; contact with; of dawn horses; emotions and; of humans; placement of; running and; size of; teeth evolution and; see also vision
Facts and Legends (Preator)
Fagúndez, Jaime
Famoso, Nick
farming; grasses destroyed by; horse obsolescence in
Feakins, Sarah
feet: four-toed; odd-toed; one-toed; three-toed; see also hoofs
feral horses, see wild horses
Fiedel, Stuart
Fischer, Martin
fish
Flannery, Tim
flies
flooding; see also sea levels
Florida
Florida Cracker horses
Floss, Harald
food bridge
forests
Forest Service, U.S.
Formby Point
fossil fuels
fossils: conditions for survival of; see also paleontology
Foundation for the Preservation and Protection of the Przewalski’s Horse
France: Camargue wetlands of; Percherons from; Pleistocene art in; Pleistocene peoples in; Takhi reserves in
Franco, Francisco
Frankfurt, Germany