Wild About Horses: Our Timeless Passion for the Horse by Lawrence Scanlan tried to make sense of "horse fever" or what Scanlan calls the "human love affair with horses. Scanlan is an experienced journalist, producer, and editor as well as an author of non-fiction - and it shows in the depth of his research and the clarity of his writing. Scanlan collaborated Canadian show-jumper Ian Millar in writing his memoirs, and with Monty Roberts on The Man Who Listens to Horses. In Wild About Horses he draws on these experiences and addresses "horse lore" in all its facets, from anthropological evidence to Hollywood steeds, to horse whisperers of today and the past. It is an informative book with a great list of references.

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Product Description

The human love affair with horses is an ancient and far-reaching one. Moving effortlessly from history to literature, from science to sport, from anecdote to personal experience, Lawrence Scanlan sets out to discover the essence of our powerful, almost mystical attraction to this noble creature. Scanlan covers a wide territory: from the mythic horses of cultures long past to the real-life whisperers of today, to the timeless wild mustangs still roaming the Great Plains.

As he touches on each aspect of the equine-human bond, Scanlan makes perfect sense of "horse fever" -- that curious affliction that has been known to strike both the seasoned professional and the rider who has galloped only in his or her dreams. Written in lyrical prose with wit, humor, and an eye for drama, meticulously researched and complemented by fifty compelling black-and-white photographs, Wild About Horses addresses our need to know everything we can about the horse.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #486262 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Released on: 2001-11-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Scanlan, author of the Canadian horse books Riding High and Big Ben, may be wild about horses, but that doesn't mean that his gushing prose couldn't use some taming. "Time and Space and a Horse are what we had out there," he proclaims of a trek through the Wyoming wilderness. "I hiked up to the ridge... and felt powerful emotions surging in me. (Or was I just out of breath?) I kept thinking of the Shoshone.... Maybe they felt what pilgrims to Chartres or Mecca felt: an overwhelming sense of their own smallness." After wading through obvious observations ("To understand the unique and powerful kinship that humans feel with horses, we must look past mythology to history") and a choppy, uncritical amalgam of oft-retold horse lore, reverential character sketches, simplistic factoids and extensive quotes from other (better) works, such as Stephen Budiansky's The Nature of Horses, this equine elegy reads like an overgrown term paper. "In the world of horses," Scanlan observes, "it might also seem that under the sun there can be nothing new. Or at least nothing more to be written." Readers may well agree?and return instead to the primary sources listed in the extensive bibliography. Photos.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Scanlan, who has published two books about horses in Canada, explores the cultural significance of our love of horses from various perspectives that range from the historical to the mythological. Recounting epic horseback journeys, profiling famous horses in sports, literature, and film, and detailing other aspects of the horse-human connection, Scanlan's book is neither dry nor overanalyzed, and his writing style is effortless, conversational, and sometimes moving. Scanlan's status as a relative newcomer in the equine world makes Wild About Horses understandable and entertaining to readers who are not yet well versed in horse lore, but his obvious passion and thorough research make his book valuable and entertaining to the experienced equestrian as well. Recommended for all collections.AStacey Hathaway-Bell, State Lib. of Louisiana, Baton Rouge
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
"The best thing for the inside of a man is the outside of a horse." Beginning his book with this well-known quote from Lord Palnerstone, Scanlan sets the tone for his examination of why so many people love horses. The fact that there are more horses in the U.S. today than there were during the era before the internal combustion engine is an almost inevitable outcome of this unique connection humans have with horses. The stories of such well-known horses as Secretariat and Traveller, and those less known (except to aficionados) such as Snow Man and Comanche, are placed in the context of their times. Scanlan's discussion of horses through history--horses in war, horses in sports, wild horses, the gentling of horses through "whispering" --at times approaches the lyrical and has the power to move the reader to tears. The author's ability to explain the importance of horses to different people in different times places this work beyond the realm of standard "horse books" and recommends it highly. Nancy Bent

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Customer Reviews

New Age Slant on good horse yarns
I gave "Wild About Horses" four stars instead of five because I'd already heard or read most of the stories in my fifty years of being 'wild about horses'. They're good stories though, and well worth repeating. Scanlan reports a variation on 'The Pacing Mustang' (one of my all time favorites): the wild stallion who threw himself off of a cliff rather than endure capture by men. He includes a chapter on 'Epic Rides' which made me want to just saddle up and go (one of his riders, A.F. Tschiffely rode 10,000 miles from the tip of South of America to Washington D.C. in two and a half years. Anyone game for a trip from Texas to Alaska?).

'Wild About Horses' would be an excellent book to give to your horse-crazy teen-ager. It's all about relationships (between horses and humans, in this case) and is written in a laid-back, New Age style that is easy to read. Scanlan talks about his own experiences with horses, and if you're a beginning rider you'll empathize with him!

An excellent, excellent book for the horse fanatic.
I always knew that there were others of us out there...those horse crazed people who can't get enough of our equine friend. This book tries to unlock the secrets of our obession with horses through wonderful tales of people and their horses. It helps to explain why it is that we must stop our car and just look out at a pasture filled with horses silently grazing. What an excellent, excellent book. When you're, done, you'll want to read it again.

Nice collection of horse tales with a wide variety of themes
The author, Lawrence Scanlan, is something of a 'born-again' horse lover, by his own proclamation. He admits that for much of his life he failed to see the overwhelming appeal that many people find in horses. But as an adult, in preparation for his job as co-author of "Riding High" with show jumping champion Ian Millar, Scanlan started to take riding lessons. Soon he was hooked. Although he still does not have horses of his own, he now loves riding and spending time in the company of our equine companions. As he read more and more about the equine creature, he became fascinated with the intertwined histories of humans and horses. This is what led him to write "Wild About Horses," a collection of [mostly true, some fictional] stories celebrating this inter-species bond.

Scanlan does not really have a central thesis, but rather explores the numerous ways in which horses have participated in and impacted humans throughout history and into the present day. His writing is fluid and to the point. The book is divided into ten chapters, each with a slightly different theme, covering such stories as the following (these are not the only stories he addresses, but just a sampling to give you an idea):

Horses in rituals and sacrifices through history; Pegasus; the Trojan Horse; Scanlan's own horseback trip in Wyoming; the history of mustangs; Wild Horse Annie; the evolution of the horse; the domestication of horses; horses as a food source; Xenophon; Native American horsemanship; trainer John Solomon Raney in the 1850s; trainers Monty Roberts and Tom Dorrance; Alexander the Great and Bucephalus; the history of warhorses; the Huns and Mongols; Medieval knights; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; Comanche and the Battle of Little Bighorn; Napoleon and Marengo; Wellington and Copenhagen; Roy Rogers and Trigger; Eadweard Muybridge's motion photography; the Lone Ranger and Silver; the books "Black Beauty," "Misty of Chincoteague," "My Friend Flicka," and "Smoky the Cow Horse"; the movie "National Velvet"; author and former jockey Dick Francis; equine athletes Ruffian, Northern Dancer, Secretariat, Phar Lap, Man O'War, Big Ben, Halla, and Arkle; cattle drives; Scanlan's own stay at a working ranch; A.E. Tschiffley's 10,000 mile ride across the Americas; Barbara Whittome's 2,500 mile ride across Russia; Welsh Pony breeders Dick & Adele Rockwell; the Pony Express, and Buffalo Bill Cody; Snow Man, a horse rescued from slaughter that went on to become a champion jumper; Marocco the 'dancing horse'; Clever Hans; horse psychic Fred Kimball; and the bonds horses form with other animals.

While I did enjoy reading this book, I have a few criticisms. First and foremost, Scanlan seems to have borrowed heavily from the book "The Man Who Listens to Horses" by Monty Roberts (for which Scanlan wrote the introduction and afterword). He has used material both from his own contributions to the book, as well as Roberts's own writing, often using identical phrasing. This parroting was especially evident since I have only just finished reading Roberts's book, and was somewhat disappointing. The sense of repetition is also furthered by the fact that most of these stories are very common ones, and I've heard about 75% of them before. They're not bad stories, but I do wish Scanlan had dug a little deeper for some less commonly heard-of accounts to include.

Furthermore, Scanlan's coverage is not balanced. He leaves out vast areas of the horse world. The book has plenty of material on riding horses and ponies, but almost nothing on draft horses. The "Sport Horse Legends" chapter focuses almost entirely on Thoroughbred racehorses. There are a few jumpers thrown in, but no Western horses at all. When he talks of horse trainers, he talks a great deal about Monty Roberts, and a little bit about a couple others, but does not even mention many of the most influencial trainers of the last few decades. At times I also questioned the author's analytical skills, particularly when he dismissed a story as false on the basis that the horse involved, reported to be a palomino, had a Spanish name that translated to Cinnamon (which he said was too dark a color for palomino). However, this does not seem so far-fetched to me, as my father once owned a small black dog named Big Red...

And finally, his writing is not completely focused on the supposed subject of the book - why humans love horses. He has included an overwhelming number of stories about horse abuse, and most don't even lead into more uplifting stories. In the "Epic Rides" chapter, he even commends several long-distance riders known for riding horses to death. Even more strange to me was the fact that, although much of the first chapter talks mildly and even respectfully about the ways horse skins and heads were used to adorn ancient holy spots, Scanlan later launches into a tirade against equine taxidermy and condemns horsemen such as Roy Rogers, who chose to have Trigger preserved and mounted.

However, despite its faults, I did like the book. It was not perfect, but it was enjoyable. I did find some of the stories to be new and quite interesting, and Scanlan's extensive list of recommended further reading has lengthened the list of books I plan to read. If you're a connoisseur of horse lore, "Wild About Horses" may not hold any surprises for you, but it is nevertheless a nice collection. It's easy reading, and the text is interspersed with many black-and-white photographs. This would be nice for a personal treat or a gift for a friend.