The World According to Horses

How They Run, See and Think
by Stephen Budisansky

When I reserved this book at the library, I didn't realize it was a juvenile version of Budiansky's other book, The Nature of Horses. Still, I had it in hand while kiddo was involved in a library activity, so I started to read. It was pretty interesting, and well-written (not "dumbed down"). And it's been long enough since I read The Nature of Horses that the information in The World According to Horses felt fresh and new again. The book describes different aspects of horse behavior, biology and evolutionary history, answering the why's and how's. At the end of each chapter there's also a segment explaining methods the scientists used to answer their questions, which is just as interesting, and a final chapter brings up more questions that science hasn't answered yet, while encouraging young readers in the pursuit of scientific inquiry. Some of the things addressed in the book are how horses changed the course of human history when they were domesticated, how the natural social bonding between horses makes it easy for people to interact with them, the intelligence of horses, their communication methods, how their vision is different from ours, and why their physical conformation makes them good endurance runners. Any young reader interested in horses is sure to enjoy this book.

Rating: 3/5 ......... 101 pages, 2000

Anyone else read it? I'll add your link here.