The Horse Booklist: High School and Adult

Nonfiction

• Cowboy: The Illustrated History
  By Richard W. Slatta
  Vivid historic and modern photography captures cowboys and cowgirls of the American West. Accompanied by text.
  Sterling, 2006. ISBN: 1402718004

• Fossil Horses: Systematics, Paleobiology, and Evolution of the Family Equidae
  By Bruce J. MacFadden
  MacFadden is a leading authority on horse evolution and a curator of The Horse exhibition. This academic text covers aspects of the horse fossil record, evolution, anatomy, and behavior.
  Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN: 0521340411

• Horse: From Noble Steeds to Beasts of Burden
  By Lorraine Harrison
  Majestic equine art in all mediums adorns this small-size book, which is organized by the animals’ different roles.
  Watson-Guptill, 2000. ISBN: 9780823023349.

• Horse: How the Horse Has Shaped Civilizations
  By J. Edward Chamberlain
  The long and powerful relationship between horses and humans is described through examples from archaeology, biology, art, literature, and ethnography. Black and white illustrations.
  BlueBridge, 2006. ISBN: 0974240591

• The Horse In The City: Living Machines in the Nineteenth Century
  By Clay McShane and Joel A. Tarr
  This book details the critical role of horses in urban life in the rise of the industrial age. A bit scholarly for leisure reading, yet a thorough reference for the “One Horse Town?” activity in the Back in the Classroom section of The Horse Educator’s Guide.
  The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. ISBN: 0801886007

• Horses Through Time
  Carnegie Museum of Natural History
  Edited by Sandra L. Olsen
   An accessible cultural and evolutionary walk through horse history, from ancient origins through early domestication to modern breeding. Edited by a curator of The Horse exhibition.
  Roberts Rinehard, 2003. ISBN: 1570983828

• My Guy Barbaro: A Jockey’s Journey Through Love, Triumph, and Heartbreak with America’s Favorite Horse
  By Edgar Prado and John Eisenberg
  In straightforward prose, the famous jockey relates the triumphs and tragedy of his mount Barbaro, who had to be euthanized after breaking his leg in 2006’s Preakness Stakes.
  Harper, 2008. ISBN: 006146418X.

• A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals
  The Natural History Museum
  By Juliet Clutton-Brock
  From dogs to cattle to camels (and many more), this thorough book details how humans came to tame and make use of other species.
  Cambridge University Press, 1999. ISBN: 0521634954

• Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail
  by Theodore Roosevelt
  An eyewitness description of ranch life in the 1880s from the perspective of the twenty-sixth U.S. president. It’s illustrated by Frederic Remington, making it a good pick for fans of the American West.
  Kessinger Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 142863598X

• River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West
  By Rebecca Solnit
  A chronicle of the original stop-action photographer Eadweard Muybridge, whose 1882 images of horses in motion catapulted the technological advancement of an era.
  enguin Books, 2003. ISBN: 0142004103

• A Song for the Horse Nation: Horses in Native American Cultures
  National Museum of the American Indian
  Edited by George P. Horse Capture and Emil Her Many Horses
  A rich, accessible compilation of photographs, artifacts, narrative, poems, and songs of Native American cultures to which horses were integral.
  National Museum of the American Indian in association with Fulcrum Publishing, 2006. ISBN: 1555911129

 

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