Horse Power: A History of the Horse and Donkey in Human Societies Book

	Acknowledgements	8
	Preface	9
	Introduction: The role of horsepower in the evolution of ancient civilizations	11
Pt. I	Wild Horses and Asses	16
I	The family Equidae	17
	Reproduction	19
	Teeth and food	20
	Behaviour	22
	Equids as hunters' prey at the end of the last ice age	24
2	Wild horses and asses in historic times	26
	Wild horses	26
	The tarpan, Equus ferus ferus	26
	Przewalski's horse, Equus ferus przewalskii	30
	Wild asses	33
	The African wild asses, Equus africanus	33
	The Asiatic wild asses, Equus hemionus and Equus kiang	36
	Feral horses and asses	38
Pt. II	Equids That Are Without Pride of Ancestry or Hope of Posterity	41
3	Hybrids and the breeding of mules	42
	Hybrid vigour	42
	The first 'mules'	43
	Mules and hinnies	44
	Telegony	46
	Zebra hybrids	47
	The bell-mare	49
	Poitou mules	50
	The beast of burden	50
Pt. III	History of the Domestic Horse, Donkey and Mule	52
4	The earliest domestication of the horse and the ass	53
	The horse	53
	The ass	62
5	The first wheeled transport, horse-riding, the stirrup, and nose-slitting	67
	The need for transport and traction	67
	The first carts and waggons	68
	Wheel-making	70
	Harness	71
	Control of the equids	72
	Horseshoes	73
	Horse-riding and the stirrup	73
	Slitting the nostrils of equids	77
6	Equids in ancient Egypt and western Asia, and the enigma of the onager	80
	The enigma of the onager, Equus hemionus. Was it ever domesticated?	87
	Textual evidence for equids in third millennium BC Mesopotamia	89
	The Assyrian palace reliefs	90
	Horses and asses in the Old Testament	92
7	The horses of Scythia and the Orient	96
	Scythian nomads in the first millennium BC	97
	Equids in the Orient	102
8	Equids in the classical world	106
	Cavalry in ancient Greece	107
	Horses in ancient Greek pageantry and sport	112
	Cavalry in ancient Rome	113
	Equids in Roman agriculture and transport	117
9	Equids in the Middle Ages	121
	The horse in feudal Europe	121
	The great raids of the Magyars	124
	The art of venery	124
	The battle of Hastings and the Bayeux tapestry	125
	The Crusades	129
	Genghis Khan (1162-1227) and the Mongol hordes	133
	The travels of Marco Polo (1254-1324)	134
	The economics of horsepower in the Middle Ages	136
10	Conquest of the Americas	140
	The extinct species	141
	Introduction of the domestic horse	143
	Native Americans become horsemen	144
	Nomadic horsemen in North America	145
	The horsemen of South America	148
	The ethos of the cowboy and the ranch	151
11	Equids in agriculture, transport, exploration, and warfare	154
	Animals for plough and traction AD 1100-1800	154
	The emergence of the heavy draught horse	156
	Working ponies and the horse trade	156
	The age of improvement	158
	Exploration	160
	British cavalry since 1800	162
12	A history of horse-racing	165
	The Homeric chariot race	165
	The Olympic Games	167
	The Roman chariot race	168
	Horse-racing in Britain from AD 1100 to Eclipse	170
	Influence of the Arab and the early Thoroughbreds	172
	Conclusions	178
	Appendix: Nomenclature of the family Equidae as used in this book	182
	References and publications for further reading	184
	Index	189