Farewell to the Horse

<p><b>THE <i>SUNDAY TIMES</i> HISTORY BOOK OF THE YEAR<br><br>'A beautiful and thoughtful exploration of the role of the horse in creating our world' James Rebanks<br><br>'Scintillating exhilarating ... you have never read a book like it ... a new way of considering history' <i>Observer</i><br></b><br>The relationship between horses and humans is an ancient profound and complex one. For millennia horses provided the strength and speed that humans lacked. How we travelled farmed and fought was dictated by the needs of this extraordinary animal. And then suddenly in the 20th century the links were broken and the millions of horses that shared our existence almost vanished eking out a marginal existence on race-tracks and pony clubs.<br><br><i>Farewell to the Horse </i>is an engaging brilliantly written and moving discussion of what horses once meant to us. Cities farmland entire industries were once shaped as much by the needs of horses as humans. The intervention of horses was fundamental in countless historical events. They were sculpted painted cherished admired; they were thrashed abused and exposed to terrible danger. From the Roman Empire to the Napoleonic Empire every world-conqueror needed to be shown on a horse. Tolstoy once reckoned that he had cumulatively spent some nine years of his life on horseback.<br><br>Ulrich Raulff's book a bestseller in Germany is a superb monument to the endlessly various creature who has so often shared and shaped our fate.</p>