The Last of the Wild Horses

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This revised edition, with new photos, gives us a renewed opportunity to
appreciate the wild and feral horses of the world. The book begins with
a general overview that touches on the myths, folklore, and legends
surrounding wild horses, the distinction between wild and feral animals,
their evolution from ice-age times to the present, and how they are on
the edge of extinction. After a look at behaviours—including feeding,
grooming, and mating—the next chapters are devoted to eight distinct
groups of wild horses. These include the mustangs of U.S. western movie
fame, the ponies of Sable Island on Canada’s east coast, and
Britain’s well-known Dartmoor and Exmoor ponies. Other breeds
highlighted will be less familiar to Canadian readers: the Przewalskis
of Asia, Poland’s Tarpans, the French Camargue, and Australian
Brumbies.

The text, although a bit stodgy, is packed with facts. The colour
photos of the horses in their natural habitat, however, make the book.
Some are beautiful, some elegant, but all are informative in that they
tell us more about the appearance, posturing, behaviour, habitat, and
attitudes of these rare animals. This is a fine book that, sadly, tells
the story of a rapidly disappearing species.