After writer and journalist Wendy Williams finished college, she lived in a small horse barn in Vermont, where she cared for two horses. Williams was presented with plenty of surprises from the horses, particularly from Whisper, a half-Morgan palomino that was adept at solving problems and getting what he wanted — whether Williams was involved or not.
Those years changed how Williams saw horses. She grew up thinking that the animal’s evolution was simple, and that horses were more like working machines than companion animals. Whisper, though, was smart, sensitive, resourceful, and, Williams says, extremely polite.
That experience formed the basis for “The Horse,” Williams’ new book about the history and evolution of horses and their ongoing relationship with humans. Williams is a science journalist who’s written books about the science of squids and a proposed wind farm off of Cape Cod. It took her some 30 years to get back to the subject of horses, but in “The Horse,” she does so whole-heartedly, examining the complex ecological and evolutionary changes that made horses into the animal we know today.
Williams will discuss “The Horse” and share pictures from her research at Water Street Bookstore in Exeter on Friday, Dec. 4. The Sound caught up with the Massachusetts author by phone to talk about how horses have evolved and why they remain a continuing source of fascination.
Why did you decide to write about horses? Do you have a personal connection?
I’d been riding horses since I was 5 years old. … I also have been a science journalist for 30 years. So when I turned 60, I decided it was time to bring those two strands of my life together and write a book I really wanted to write. I’d promised my mother when I was 5 years old that I would write a horse book, so I figured I better get that done since I was getting on in age (laughs).
I went to college in Vermont, and when I got out of college … I rented a house that had a tiny little horse barn. I didn’t own these horses; I was jut taking care of them — there are always people who need their horses taken care of. Ever since then, I’ve really had a lot of very hands-on experience with horses, until around the age of 40 or so, when I realized I could either continue with the horses or put that aside for a while and get serious with my career. I always missed it.
What was your research process like? How did you approach looking at thousands of years worth of the natural history of horses?
When I was 5, I was given a book on horse evolution that basically said they were big, then a little bigger, and then they became the best possible horse we could have.
In the last two decades, science has become much more sophisticated and able to look at ecosystem changes, changes in atmosphere, changes in ocean circulation, changes in the plant life that was available to the horses, and so, much to my delight and surprise, I was able write a book that showed how the evolution of the horse was interdependent on the evolution of the planet as a whole, which is something we have not understood until very recently. I thought it was a very neat story. We have volcanoes and asteroids and tectonic collisions … and the ebb and flow of ice over the planet, and all of these things were what drove the evolution of the horse through all these changes.
How far back does the relationship between horses and humans go? How did we first connect with them?
That goes all the way back 56 million years, which is something I didn’t know. I describe (in the book) a site in Wyoming that I went to see, which is now desiccated, windblown, and, in my opinion, not vaguely hospitable. But 56 million years ago it was wet, wild, the weather was incredibly warm and it did not get cold, and in that nurturing cauldron of moisture and heat there arose the form what we can tell so far is the evolution of a lot of different lines of mammals, including horses and primates.
How would you characterize the bond between horses and humans?
I think there’s a triumvirate in our world of horses, dogs and humans. I know almost no one who keeps horses who doesn’t also keep dogs. It’s a group that also seems to go together. One of the reasons is that horses and humans do well living in small bands or groups. Horses don’t really live in herds, they live in bands and have tight relationships with other horses in the band. … That’s their social group and it turns out that’s the kind of social group humans like to form, too.
What was the most surprising thing you learned while writing the book? Were any of your common assumptions about horses challenged?
There were all kinds of things. Writing this book has completely changed my understanding of horses. When I was very young, I was taught that horses had a brain the size of a walnut, that they were stupid, and … to think of them more as machines than living things. I was taught to ride in a show barn where horses weren’t used to plow fields, but were treated the same — they were kept in some pretty strict constraints and not allowed to do very much. It makes me feel bad now, and it may be one reason I wrote the book. … But it turns out none of that is true. They are very intelligent animals, and I learned about intelligence, learned about resourcefulness.
We don’t use horses in the same way we used to, but the relationship between horses and people still endures. Why do you think that is?
I think there’s something serial about our relationship with horses. It’s clearly there; there’s a prevalence of art, starting around 35,000 years ago and up to current day. … I think it’s their beauty — horses are beautiful. Some are majestic, some are alluring, but at the same time, approachable, and people are amazed an animal that big and powerful is approachable and, very often, kind.
Wendy Williams will discuss “The Horse” on Friday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. at Water Street Bookstore, 125 Water St., Exeter.