Just about everybody knows what a horse is. Equus caballus. Odd-toed ungulate. Large herd animal. Prey animal. War machine. Transportation. Companion animal. Sports equipment. Racing vehicle. Semi-mythical beast. Not nearly as many people know what a horse is not. The horse in song and story, not to mention in film, sometimes bears only a tangential resemblance to the animal on the hoof.
We’re firm believers in positive thinking here—believe me, when you work around horses, negativity can get you splatted in three seconds flat—but sometimes it’s useful to talk about the ways in which the equine demographic is misrepresented or misunderstood in popular culture. Here we go, therefore, with a brief roundup of what the horse is not, as a pointer toward what he really is. (And as always, dear readers, please add your own experiences in the comments.)
A horse is not a motorcycle.
Or, as a couple of commenters observed in the Intro post, a Chevy. That is, a machine that runs for long distances on a relatively small quantity of fuel, can survive with infrequent maintenance, and does not suffer from the kinds of diseases and systemic failures that beset living organisms.
(Yes, yes, motorized vehicles break down, need to be looked after, etc., and our witty commenters also remarked on this, but you know what I mean.)
Horses are large herbivores with a quite simple digestive system in evolutionary terms: what goes in can only come out the other end, and any interruption or failure in the middle can be fatal. That means that horses cannot vomit, so a tummyache is a serious problem.
They need significant quantities of forage daily in order to survive, they must drink gallons of water every day, and their hooves while hard and sturdy, particularly when supported by shoes, can and do wear down to the point of rendering the animal nonfunctional. As every horseperson knows, “No Foot, No Horse.”
In practical terms, for the writer or filmmaker, this means that if the work is set in a world that features horses as transportation, the people of that world will need a whole lot more than a barrel of gas and an oil can to keep their ride going. Each horse will need at least ten to twenty pounds of forage—grass, hay, or in a pinch, some browsable leaf-type things—and a minimum of ten gallons of water. Per day. In temperate weather and if not exerting itself excessively. If those conditions worsen, the need for food and water goes up. And up.
It is possible to provide nutrition via concentrates (oats, barley, modern complete feeds, etc.), but a horse’s digestive system still requires roughage in order to work. He’ll have to graze, which means frequent stops on the road, or eat dry fodder, which he is either being fed at the handy inns in the morning and evening, or you’re carrying that plus the many pounds of grain with the pack train that’s following you in order to provide support for your horse. And you’re probably stopping several times during the day rest, drink, and have a snack.
Why no, horses can’t go on for hours and days without stopping. They break down. If pushed hard enough, they die.
And then there’s the portable forge for the shoes and the tack repair, with blacksmith to man (or woman) it. And the prayers everyone in the caravan says, pretty much nonstop, that none of the horses will go lame, break a leg, get sick, eat something toxic and colic and probably die…
For writers I cannot recommend highly enough a concise but thorough little book that spells out in detail how all this works: Donald W. Engels’ Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army. This book is gold.
So. Yeah. Horses are a little more complicated to keep going than a motorcycle. Or even a Chevy.
A horse is not a dog.
I see this a lot in books and film, when the writer apparently knows dogs, but doesn’t know much about horses. So he extrapolates. He figures, four legs, presumably sentient, must behave similarly, right?
Not really.
I have actually read books in which the horse wags or shakes its tail to express happiness or positive emotions. Um, no. If the horse is swishing its tail neutrally, that means there are flies in the vicinity. Flies are drawn to horses like bees to flowers. Fly control is a major preoccupation for anyone who takes care of or works with horses.
If the tail-swish is not fly-related, it’s distantly analogous to the cat version, not the dog version. It’s an expression of irritation and can indicate pain (a mare in labor will lash her tail from side to side and also fling it up and down in a characteristic up-and-down motion). A horse will not be wagging its tail to be friendly.
Even more common than this is the conviction that horses whinny by way of conversation, the way dogs will bark or whine. I see this all over the place, and in film it’s a shorthand for “Here be horses.” Again…no.
Stallions can be noisy, that’s true. They have a whole repertoire of come-hither noises, including a truly epic and ear-splitting aria which they will sing when the lady of the hour is ready to accept their favors. If you’ve stood next to a Heldentenor in full blast, that’s about the decibel level. They also will raise vocal hell when challenging each other, claiming territory, or just declaring their presence in the world.
But for the most part even stallions, and for sure mares and geldings, are not especially vocal. They communicate through movement and body language, and occasional flutters of the nostrils (the whicker or nicker, which is a tender and loving sound, the first one a foal hears from its mother when it’s born). A herd of horses will snort (clearing the pipes usually, but a sharp, loud one is an alarm signal, and a soft, regular one can express horse at work, trucking along here, snort-snort-snort), snuffle, chomp, teeth-grind, stamp, munch, snore, sometimes groan especially if lying down or getting up. But they almost never whinny.
A whinny is primarily a distress call. Its main meaning is, I’M ALL ALONE, WHERE ARE YOU, I CAN’T FIND YOU! It can also mean, HEY! I’M OVER HERE! Or HELLO! HORSE HERE! WHO ARE YOU? Or, urgently, DANGER DANGER NEED YOU NOW GET THE HELL OVER HERE!!!
It’s not a casual howdy, in short. It’s reserved for special occasions.
A horse is not a “dumb animal”.
When people aren’t anthropomorphizing horses—i.e. imputing human psychology and motivations—they seem to default to horse as sports equipment. Not very bright, not really sentient, just there to pack the human cast around. No individual personality, or if there is one, it’s kinda sorta based on, again, dogs.
Horses are actually quite bright. They have considerable verbal comprehension and can easily remember their own names, plus a range of human words. A smart horse can check out around, or above, the border collie level for intelligence.
They are still an alien species, and their agenda may not necessarily coincide with ours. They’re herd animals, therefore highly social and not in general happy alone. They’re prey animals, which means they’re wired to interpret the unknown as “probably going to eat me”—and when that kicks in, their first impulse is to run like hell away from it.
This is not stupidity. This, if your main defense against being eaten is speed, is very smart. It only becomes a problem if your brain shuts off in the process, and you run off the cliff to get away from the mountain lion. But a smart horse, again, can control his instincts and keep track of where he’s going when he runs. The horse who can’t do this is less likely to pass on his genes, unless he’s bred by humans to do nothing but run very fast. (Human interference is a whole ‘nother issue. And post.)
What’s amazing really is that the herd instinct makes the horse innately willing to connect socially with other species, and also allows her to overcome her aversion to predators when that predator is the human (and frequently the human’s dog or cat—these three species get along famously as a rule). This is key to the horse-human partnership.
And it is a partnership. Humans use and abuse horses as they do everything else, but when both sides are on the same page, there’s a real bond. The horse does not have human priorities, and does not think like a human, but the two species can definitely find common ground.
Top image: Tangled (2010)
Judith Tarr is a lifelong horse person. She supports her habit by writing works of fantasy and science fiction as well as historical novels, many of which have been published as ebooks by Book View Cafe. Her most recent short novel, Dragons in the Earth, features a herd of magical horses, and her space opera, Forgotten Suns, features both terrestrial horses and an alien horselike species (and space whales!). She lives near Tucson, Arizona with a herd of Lipizzans, a clowder of cats, and a blue-eyed spirit dog.
Ms. Tarr, really enjoying these posts!
Not sci fi or fantasy, but there’s a lot about horses in Wilder’s Little House books and other writing (including an article in A Little House Reader). Horses were used for transportation, livelihood, exhibition (Farmer Boy) recreation (By The Shores of Silver Lake), sleigh rides and buggy rides when courting (These Happy Golden Years), and hauling hay for fuel and in search of wheat (The Long Winter).
Regarding the relative merits of horses v. motorized vehicles for transportation…there is a reason we rely almost exclusively on the latter. They are simply superior by a huge margin. Pre-steam engine travel was tough, whether by foot, hoof, or boat.
I’m hooked on the old westerns I watched with my dad as a kid. Lots of them are on the many nostalgia channels now. I love how everyone rode everywhere at a gallop. Wanted Dead of Alive was one of the worst ones. He never walked his horse except in town. However, Steve McQueen did pat his horse and would often rub its neck and would show some affection for it, so it would see as if he actually liked horses. Rawhide was one were the actors didn’t gallop as much, mainly because that is not a good idea around cattle. Plus, one of the actors had been a real, working cowboy in Oklahoma and he knew what he was doing. (Shep Wooley, who also wrote Purple People Eater). Many people got the idea of horses being Chevy’s from those old westerns, I think.
Judy! A voice from the equine past! (Equine-L — wow, that goes back a ways!). How are the aliens from the planet Lipinzinger? :-D
Thanks for the voice of common sense for our wonderful equine friends.
Of course, in Tangled, the fact that Maximus thinks he’s a dog is a deliberate joke, probably at the expense of all those other works that think horses are dogs.
Some early reader of The Hobbit clearly took Tolkien aside to task over how little thought he’d given to the practicalities surrounding all those ponies, because the treatment of horses in LotR almost feels like an apology to them.
Wow, the memories you brought up!
First, the tail-swish: When I first started riding him my horse used to swish his tail so hard, or high, that he would hit me in the back or neck, and it STUNG So I taught him what his tail was and corrected him for stinging me with it, and eventually he quit doing it. (Looking back, it’s entirely possible that I was annoying him somehow with my riding, but we did eventually come to an accommodation.)
Second, running away: One time when I was out on a trail ride with my roommate and a friend, we were cantering. My horse zigged and I zagged, and fell off over his shoulder. He went haring off, with my roommate after him. She had just caught up to him when he realized I was no longer with him, and he turned around before she could catch his rein and came haring right back to me!
My boy is long gone, but I still miss him.
Slightly more on topic, I get a huge kick out of the horse in Tangled.
@smeek
I don’t know horses well, myself, but I’ve read that what we ignorant ones usually interpret as a gallop, is actually what is called a canter.
Maybe someone who knows more about it could comment?
Maximus is hilarious. Though Tangled goes overboard with characters surviving nasty falls. The more noticeable since I don’t think horses fall very well.
Great, now I’m going to notice if fictional horses whinny inappropriately. Thanks.
Another trope is one horse per rider. So that the knight fights on the same horse he rides to the battle on.
The obvious counterpoint to this article is how authors justify invoking these tropes.
In unrelated news, I need to find a place to go hang out with horses. I do want to write epic fantasy at some point and I’d rather not end up as the subject of one of these articles.
I’ve often thought that someone could have a nice sideline by putting together a “dude ranch” for would-be fantasy writers where they spend a few days riding horses, wearing armor, swinging swords, learning archery and eating stew.
EDITED TO ADD: And carrying improbable amounts of gold.
@10 There actually is one in Canada. Check the comments on the intro post for this series, the owner links to his site. I could get into a trip up there myself.
@8 Yes, the loping motion is a canter and the runlikehell is the gallop. But in Europe a canter is a galop, so that may be part of the confusion. (English “canter” allegedly comes from the gait favored by pilgrims to Canterbury. Lovely rocking motion, though not particularly easy for the horse to maintain over distance.)
@9 and @6 and Admin: Oh, I howled when I saw the graphic attached to this post. I first heard about Tangled via multiple messages from people saying things to the effect of, “Somebody knows your stallion really, really well.” He has a noble European name and a lineage to match, but his name around the farm is Pooka, and he is Maximus. I’m glad there’s no video access in the barn, or he’d learn some things from that film that I’m really glad he doesn’t know.
@5 HI, TINA!
@3 All too true, though there are still times and places where a horse (or mule or donkey) may be a more efficient or effective option. Really rough terrain in the back country, too rough for anything on wheels, for example. A good horse or a mule can be almost as surefooted as a mountain goat, and can carry a rider and/or a pack into the bargain.
I am still taking notes about possible references and topics, so keep them coming.
My horse-back riding instructor said a horse has about the smarts and sense of a kindergartner. If what you are asking them to do coincides with what they want to do – they are happy and enthusiastic. If they don’t want to do something, you can still get cooperation if they see you as the boss, confident and in charge. But if they sense any weakness in you, any tentativeness or inexperience, they will march right over to the nearest fence post and rub you off their back.
Also, if you don’t regularly ride horses, you do not just ride for a full day. At least you don’t do that two days in a row. There’s a reason cowboys walk with bowed legs. The pain is amazing.
@9 noblehunter – some authors/series that appear to handle horseback riding and the attendant problems well (at least in my relatively inexperienced perspective) are Bujold’s Chalion books (World of the Five Gods series), and Modesitt’s Recluce books.
@12 Yep, we figured about the intelligence of a smart 3yo. Not so good on abstract concepts but eidetic memory and really solid on concrete concepts. Also, excellent sense of when it’s feeding time.
If you know from smart dogs, you’re somewhat in horse territory, though the agendas are different.
And oh my about the rider and the pain. IN-deeed. Owie owie owie. That’s one way to tell if the author did her homework. Either she knows it firsthand or she talked to people who do.
I would also be fascinated to get a reaction to the Bob’s Burgers episode where Tina goes to horse camp.
Edited to add: And I went back to the intro post and found the link to the dueling academy and now I want to go there and take all of their courses. Despite being woefully out of shape and not even remotely outdoorsy or athletic.
@13 I hadn’t remembered that about Modesitt. Elizabeth Bear has some solid horse storytelling in the Steles of the Sky books.
@15 The Dueling academy is in BC. Rats. But there should be something closer to home, too.
There is one way a horse IS like a motorcycle – you don’t just climb aboard and take off. You need to learn how to ride, and it’s not something you accomplish in an afternoon. Learning to ride means getting dumped to the ground, and you need good protective gear. Also, you are going to get dusty. Or muddy.
There’s an exciting race in Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage.
Will there be a discussion about the tv show Fury?
Some other things to remember, when comparing the fantasy or medieval horse to today’s horse, is that most of the horses we hang out with today are not working for a living, leaving them sadly out of shape! The average horse of yesteryear worked every day – and consequently was in a different sort of shape than today’s typical trail pony. In the American west, the farmer or rancher’s horse frequently walked 15-20 miles a day chasing cows, or pulled a plow a mile, then pulled the wagon into town, or pulled tree stumps all day. Assuming that you have taken care of feeding them properly, messengers on horseback can easily cover 20-30 miles a day on a forest trail or halfway decent road and keep going for many days. Totally different if the horse is a knight’s charger, intended to go fast in short sprints for a couple of hours on the battlefield. Getting them To the battlefield is going to happen over several days and at a walk. Just lots more grist for the mill that when writing, you need to understand the job assigned to the horse, the type of horse that is used for that job, and the conditioning that goes into making the horse fit for the work. Judy does an awesome job of getting it right!
Listen to Alison. Alison rides endurance. 100-milers. That’s hard core. :)
Love your post, Judy.
It totally agree about the whinnying et al. It’s almost as if the SFx folks want to remind people watching movies that those are, indeed, horses. Fionna is a “greeter”, which is nice. Fritz, the Halfinger, is a talker, though. He does make cute, grunting, whinny sounds when he eats treats, and when he is asking for more. Oddly enough, he just started doing this last year. He’s also a greeter, but will keep “greeting” if I ignore the initial greeting. He’s quite the character. I’m starting to think that he imagines himself a Lipizzaner like Fionna :)
I’d have to say that Roy Rogers treated Trigger more like a team member than an Uber ride.
Oh! I hadn’t thought of it before now, but what about mounted archery? It seemed to be well done in Brave, but that was before I picked up a bow, myself. My point being, there are a lot of places around that give intro clinics, if any authors need that type of education, and Lisa would be the one for that.
Just a thought.
PS
Should be “Haflinger” up there.
My daughter’s riding teacher tells me that after horses stopped being utility animals nearly everywhere in American culture, they started losing physical type. She cites quarter horses, which for quite a few generations were big shiny animals poised on tiny little hooves that couldn’t hold them up for long. Apparently this trend is passing/has passed off, thank goodness, but people crossbred those lousy quarter horses with a lot of other animals. Also cute little children’s ponies in the U.S. are likely to carry the genes for dwarfism because some dwarf ponies are the cutest and roundest of all. The other offspring from the same dam may be stillborn or so malformed that they shuffle along in pain for their entire lives, but some breeders do/did (hopefully did) not care and now it’s hard to know whether your little pony is carrying something awful until you breed it.
On a less depressing note, Maximus isn’t just a dog. Maximus is Bolt.
on the fodder point, there is a bit in Elizabeth Moon’s Paksennarion trilogy where Paks impresses the knights in training (or at least their teacher) by knowing how many mules you need in the baggage train for each mule you need for riding or other military purposes. I can’t remember if it is 7 or 9, but in any case it seemed like a lot.
@Nebilon — Many, many years ago, I read an interview with Elizabeth Moon in, I think, an issue of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine, in which she talked about using Civil War-era reference books to work out the logistical tail for her soldiers.
There are some good horse scenes in Elizabeth Moon’s “Deed of Paksenarrion” – dealing with getting to know a horse that had been abused previously, and figuring out what his training was so as to not get thrown off by accidentally asking him to rear… I also remember there being some grumbling about having to include one extra mule for every three mules, just to carry the fodder.
Anne McCaffrey’s “Black Horses for the King” is very good – she really knew horses well. It tells about King Arthur’s men going to Africa to get the big black horses for his knights to ride – and then having to invent farriery to keep their feet from rotting in the wetter climate. “No hoof, no horse!”
I’ve been reading an online discussion of the Narnia books, and there has been much criticism of “The Horse and His Boy”. One thing that I had somehow never clicked on before is that Shasta does not know how to ride at all – he just knows how not to fall off of an intelligent Horse who has an active interest in his not falling off. When he is forced to ride a regular horse, he has no idea what to do!
I love to read Andy Adams’ novels of the western trail. One of his frequently voiced rules was ‘never tire a grass-fed horse,’ explaining that working cowboys needed multiple horses available to get through a day’s work.
A few comments on real horses in real war, as told to me by my paternal grandfather, who finished World War 1 as chief wrangler for an Austrian horse-drawn field artillery battery.
By law, draftees could not be sent to the front until they turned 18. He spent a few weeks in garrison, working at assorted scutwork, until a call went out for stablehands. As a farmboy, this sounded like a soft job, compared to other “careers” he was tried out on.
The depot was to check out incoming “draft” draft horses for suitability for various combat roles, or utility work behind the lines. The senior NCO was to evaluate the reviews of each recruit’s efforts, and send the horse on to the proper branch for final training.
The sergeant noticed that my grandfather had an infallible eye for what type of work a horse was best suited for, by how quickly he semi-socialized with the other strange horses around him. While all of this made for better numbers for the sergeant’s unit, it could also lead to faster promotion for this farm boy, who could be a career-limiter for someone who had a soft, safe job behind the lines.
A cavalry officer needed a wrangler who could choose and provide schooling for handsome, easy-to-manage, horses for new officers who had never come within 50 meters of a real horse. Urbanization and mechanization was already reaching out through the western world.
So until my grandfather turned 18, he ran his small, one-man empire, browsing through iincoming horses, picking the ones he thought would do best. He also had more time to train and evaluate the horses, because they went mostly to higher-ranking, but still-green, offficers, so parades and fancy dress would be part of their duties. He usually had a half-dozen horses in his “inventory” ready to assign, once he found the proper match. If more than one horse would be suitable, the officer could take his pick, although he was warned that too-flamboyant a color would make the officer sniper bait if he ever got near the front.
When he turned 18, he was offered his choice of any job in the Imperial Army that he was qualified for, including the one he made for himself, because his results were so well-liked that they weren’t sure when they could find a suitable replacement. Mail clerk, batman, wine steward, every cushy job open to an enlisted man was his for the asking.
He chose wrangler in a horse-artillery battery, saying he probably saw, or worked with, every green artillery horse that went through the depot in that sector. They weren’t quite part of the family like his father’s farm horses, but more like distant cousins who deserved something better.
He had also seen what modern warfare did to infantry, cavalry, and cavalry mounts, and found it unspeakable. So he decided to fight with “his” horses as part of the artillery, which had already become, and still remains, “the greatest killer on the battlefield”. They just hadn’t crunched the numbers yet.
It’s also why I never saw “Warhorse”, no matter how beautiful and idyllic it must be in parts. Whatever they portray of combat, no matter how much they sanitize it, or produce one set-piece scene of gore and horror, as in “Blackhawk Down”, or “Band of Brothers”, is to trivialize what real Soldiers, dogs, and horses went through
So just for a slight change – did you ever see David Drake & SM Stirling’s General series, in which there are no horses at all- the horse role has been replaced by (presumably) genetically modified oversized dogs. Having mostly omnivorous mounts made for an interesting change in logistics.
Also what were your thoughts on GGK’s Under Heaven, with its underlying theme of the Ferghana horses?
Love the article, and love the comments.
One thing that always buggers me in movies and series is how people ride in, hop off and then just walk away to get on with their business. At best, they loosely throw the reins around some suitable thingy, but often, they just leave them to fall on the ground. I’m always asking myself whether these horses are so well taught that there is no fear they’ll make a step and step on the reins and break them, or whether they’re not afraid at all that something will spook the horse. Also, how so often the character just ties the horse down and goes away after galloping in (or, indeed, cantering in :) ), leaving the horse with his saddle and bridles on. I’m always curious how long the horse has to wait with a taut saddle girth or whether it gets sick when having to stay put after an exercise (I was taught you always had to walk the horse down so he could catch his breath or at least rub him down afterwards). I’m always happy when there is somebody there to lead the horse away, and that is also a thing I liked in “The hateful eight” – they were shown taking care of the horses after they arrived in the waystation.
I’m sure I will remember tons of other things I would have liked to say right after I press “submit”, but I’ll leave it here at the moment :)
PS Regarding “a horse is not a motorcycle” – the “BEST” case I have ever seen a horse being treated like a motorcycle is the legendary Indian chase sequence. Watch at your own risk :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imM6omziU_I starting at 00:58
(Edit: I am SERIOUSLY worried about the welfare and safety of the horses used in the Bollywood clip)
I grew up in Connecticut, where there are probably more horses per capita than there were 140 years ago, and my knowledge of horses is from friends and relatives (I have a cousin who moved to Texas, where she taught riding until she retired). What I do know is that horses take a lot of care (I think my cousin spent more time mucking out stables and grooming her horses than actually riding — and she competed in dressage and jumping) and they are expensive, with a good horse being somewhat closer to a Porsche than a Chevy in price (a poor peasant is very unlikely to have a coveted horse). Unlike a car, you can’t just park your horse in a garage and ignore it for a month or so, either.
One of the useful (?) things I found out while wargaming in college was that cavalry units were not much faster than infantry, if at all. While a cavalry unit may travel more miles in an hour or a morning than an infantry one could, it would tend to travel about the same distance in a day and less in a week (the Wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had some insane infantry route marches, some of which covered over seventy miles in less than 24 hours; cavalry couldn’t keep up). Cavalry units also required tremendous amounts of supplies, at least five times that of soldiers.
As an aside, John Adams, when he practiced law, would walk 7 miles, each way, to his office every day. He could certainly afford a horse; he probably weighed the inconvenience of keeping a horse near his office and decided the time he could have shaved of his commute — he may have been able to half the time — wasn’t worth the bother.
About the canter/gallop debate. In Britain it goes walk>trot>canter>gallop, in terms of speed and stride length.
What words do you you use in the US?
@@@@@ 8 Yeah, gallop and canter (or lope, as I learned growing up) are different speeds. Watching Westerns with my father, who IS a cowboy of the variety that spent whole summers living in bunkhouses or out in pastures, is an exercise in frustration. A minute by minute critique of all the stupid horse related blunders. Starting with air between butt and saddle, on through flapping elbows, and right into “You can’t run your horse everywhere, you’d kill it”. Alternating the paces, stops for rest, and being aware of the heat are what I was taught. I’ve also realized, growing up, that different regions do things a bit different. A horse in a stall, vs one that can come into a shed when it wants, vs the ones that NEVER come in. For example, I have a different set of relatives who ranch. In winter, there are no blankets on the horses. They might be brought in to a close pasture so feeding them is easier and they can get under tree cover. Or, if the winter is milder, they’re left out.
Which reminds me of another issue. Feet. And the horse’s awareness of where they are. My relatives occasionally have to get new horses, and they specifically look for ones that were raised or have been kept in the river bottoms where they have their ranch. Flatlander horses are liable to get hurt because they’re not used to the terrain, the quasi-badland up and down and flat, then steep, gopher holed, brush filled, clay banked hills. So, major consideration ;)
I absolutly love this post. Horses are so much more than they seem in stories or movies. I would like to point out however i have the most vocal mare in the world. She does in fact nicker to great you and will have a rolling rumble the whole time you are working with here. When you pull up she winnies at the top of her lungs. It’s so cute and unusual we had her bread and her baby talks to us too.
The difference between gaits is as follows: slowest is generally a walk, with four distinct footfalls; next is the trot where two diagonal legs touch the ground at the same time having a two-beat motion ( a variant is the pace in which the legs on the same side touch the ground at the same time. It too is a two-beat gait, but the horse rolls from side to side (camels also pace) and pacers are generally not ridden, but rather worked in harness.) the canter is a three-beat gait in which the horse pushes off with one hind leg, then the other hind leg and its diagonal foreleg touch the ground, followed by the remaining foreleg (known as the leading leg-don’t ask, it took modern photography to determine the sequence and the fact that the horse has a moment of suspension when all four feet are off the ground.) Canter can be slow and rocking chair back and forth. The fastest gait is the gallop or run. Starting from the canter the foot falls are the same as the canter except that the diagonal pair become individual footfalls. When viewed is slow motion, the hind legs give a powerful push and then the front legs serve as a fulcrum. The gallop is a true four-beat gait. There are several specialty gaits that are breed specific but classical equitation only recognizes the above gaits which all horses can perform (some better than others).
You’re capriole from equine-l!?! The one who claimed to be the main supporter of the QuicSilver shampoo company for your herd? I’m a supporter too, since 1985. Ironically I was just explaining today that we say “canter” in English instead of “gallop,” German for canter. I so wanted my next Arabian to not be grey, but here he is. And since there’s no QuicSilver in Germany, my sister mailed me a bottle. And his tail is white now. I don’t remember much that was posted to equine-l, but I remember you and your horses.
~lytha from Seattle, in Germany
So glad you’re doing this now! I’ve really been missing Sue Bolich’s ongoing blog about horses in fiction. Your phrase “the horse is not a motorcycle” really hit me, because my husband and I say that so often to students it’s like a mantra. I was going to go into a long diatribe about all the whys but you’ve covered the physical aspects, and I think I’ll use the emotional part for the topic of a whole ‘nother blog. Regarding whinneying; I believe the generic “horse noise” Hollywood usually uses was first recorded in 1947, or somewhere around then. A stallion courting a mare in season. So every time you hear those whinneys in the movies, you’re hearing horses talking dirty to one another. Cracks me up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FaRl_h2G5M
Yeah, I remember in Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” (the animated version) how Belle rides her horse up to the Beast’s palace, ties its reins to the gate, goes inside for months, and comes out to her horse who has apparently not needed any maintenance for those months.
How do y’all feel about the treatment and portrayal of horses (and unicorns) in Piers Anthony’s Apprentice Adept series?
The discussion of horse gaits reminded me of the scene in, I think, Split Infinity, where the unicorns are described as having a gait that the rider finds particularly difficult to deal with.
@@@@@29 – The only thing I remember about GGK’s horses is that there wasn’t nearly enough about them – the legend was all through the book, but I don’t remember that he actually ever spent much time on the horses themselves. It’s been a while, but that was a big disappointment in an otherwise wonderful book.
@@@@@39 – Given that the Beast’s servants were not compelled to stay inside the castle, I’d assume some member of the staff kept Belle’s horse from starving to death. If nothing else, I think she’d raise a fuss.
@@@@@ Ms. Tarr – I loved your “Writing Horses” – it was a terrific primer. The only things I wish it had gone into seem like what you’re going to address here – Like a little more of how a horse demonstrates personality and communication. Horses speak with their ears: pricked sharply forward means interest, flattened back means you need to back away, slowly and without any sudden moves. Whickers and whinnies and snorts and flaring nostrils and head shakes – I think it would be equally valuable to have knowledgeable insight on the little details of equine behavior: corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude. Other little things about riding that you’re probably only going to learn by doing, like how it’s helpful to stand in the stirrups to ease weight off the kidneys if the horse you’re riding needs to urinate. Speaking of which, some talk about the scents associated with horses – from manure to hay to the sweetness of a horse’s breath – would be a nice addition.
Thank you for what looks like a great series of articles!
All those discussing Elizabeth Moon: She’s a real horse person. Knows mules, too, and mountain packing. Her horse stuff is the real deal. Someday maybe she’ll come out with the book on how to write horses that she was working on back along.
My Writing Horses wasn’t meant to be the last word–it’s a primer. The information in it was supplemented for years by the Horseblog at Book View Cafe, with frequent posts about equine personalities and other finer points. I’ll be doing similar things here.
There’s only so much one can say to non-horsepeople before they glaze out. Too many fine details and you lose your audience. As is true with any serious avocation. :)
@32: US uses the same terms, unless you ride Western, in which case it’s walk > jog > lope >run or gallop. Those gaits these days are much slower than the walk/trot/canter/gallop continuum, in fact the jog and lope can be extreeeeeemely s l o w. In ranch work, the analogy is closer, though smoothness is a definite asset for the working cow horse. And the jog is more like a collected trot.
@36: HI, LYTHA!
@37: I didn’t know about Sue Bolich at all, and I’ve been doing horse posts online for years and years. Great to know of another Horseblogger.
LOL! about horses talkin’ dirty. I get a lot of that around here.
Re. ranch and war horses: There’s not a lot of sentimentality in either of those, though good cowboys, like good cavalrymen, sincerely appreciate the mind and needs of the horses their lives depend on. I see ranch horses around here hauled back and forth, saddled and bridled, in open stock trailers, and that whole ethos is so different from the bubblewrapping of the recreational set. When a horse is a tool, you take good care of him, but you won’t fuss over him. He’s got to work and that means getting the saddle on at the ranch and keeping it on all day till he gets back home.
So leaving the horse out with his saddle on is not necessarily a sign of wrongness, nor is dropping the reins. That’s ground-tying and is taught to the horse so he’ll stand while you work, and stay put while you move away. Hobbles are a thing, too, especially for overnighting, though a particularly evil-minded horse can cover quite a bit of territory in them.
How many people today know the 19th-century saying “horses wouldn’t wave their tails in his face”, and what it meant?
Another book where the author really knows horses is The Horse Mistress by R.A. Steffan. The main character uses natural horsemanship principles. She pretty much does “taming” miracle in the 2nd book with a horse that has been previously trained then lost its mind and couldn’t be handled.
A warning: this book is interesting and done well but it is about sexual identity more than about horses and has erotic content.
If you’re interested in working horses, your local county fair likely has people entering draft horse competitions who would be patient with questions, though not at the competition. Lots of draft horse owners/trainers really do use their horses on farms. Or to pull out their friends’ truck when it gets stuck in the mud . . . For distance riding, there’s AERC (American Endurance Ride Conference) https://aerc.org/. The local Washington state chapter has lots of knowledgeable riders (and writers, and librarians) at http://www.pner.net/. Offer to help with grooming or tack cleaning, or buy ’em a cup of coffee.
Elizabeth Bear’s Range of Ghosts was one of the few books I’ve read recently where the description of things horse didn’t make my eyes go all twitchy. Not just the care and feeding stuff, but also much of the equine behavior was dead-on correct. I found Tangled‘s Maximus cute, but too much so. Brave‘s Angus, on the other hand, while still a caricature, possesses many behaviors and reactions that are genuinely horse-like. Like when he’s nervous and moves his head up and down to focus on the scary thing, a function of equine eye placement (side of their head).
My horse’s primary vocalization is what I call his sexy, “How-yoo-doin’?” nicker, which he employs for treats or withers scratches. Neighing is reserved for bugling angrily (gelding, but he sounds like a stallion) at the house when a meal is late.
The image with your post is an example of one that I really, really dislike. Horses do not sit like dogs. They can’t even force their hind legs in that dog-like position as in the Tangled image.
I don’t even like to see photographs of people who proudly show off how they taught their horse to sit (or bow down, or any of those other unnatural positions). It’s absurd. It’s wrong. It is belittling. I’m sure it can’t be comfortable for the horse, either. And I know from sad experience with a horse that was used in parades, making a horse assume those unnatural positions enough ends up with a horse suffering from severe arthritis.
The only time I’ve ever seen a horse sit on its own has been when there’s been a problem. It looks awkward in real life, and it’s alarming to see. Plus, seeing images of horses sitting (and doing all the other unnatural things depicted in movies) just removes people a little more from reality than they already are these days.
My family (when I was growing up) did endurance riding, so we spent a lot of time with our horses… The personality changes when at rest in the paddock vs being ridden was very distinct for our (only) mare, Mishka: in the paddock she was at the bottom of the pecking order, bullied by the geldings. As soon as we were on her back, she turned into alpha mare, and would try to nip or cow kick (with an ear-rending squeal) if any of the other horses went in front of her. She also knew the word “go”, so if we wanted to go for a short gallop up a fire trail, we had to spell it out – “Shall we Gee-Oh?”
But taking off like that was always the exception, and brief. So the trope of horses cantering across the landscape all day is an incredibly annoying one: the real progression was trot-trot-trot, and when we got to a hill, usually to dismount and walk up or down it with the horse to lower the impact. Every waterhole was stopped at to see if they wanted a drink, and moved away from hastily if they started digging at the water to roll… Speaking of equipment, there was an amazing horseman who I remember seeing at one ride. He didn’t use a halter, or bridle. Just a rigid circle of plaited leather (maybe cored with wire to give it stiffness?) around the horse’s neck. That was amazing to see. It wasn’t flickering an ear at the sea of other excited, super-fit equines around it.
Unfortunately we stopped doing endurance riding when the equine flu hit Australia. A neighbour down the road had rubbish fences, and wouldn’t fix them, so their sick horse escaped repeatedly, and eventually infected ours. By the time they were better, we’d lost the impetus to get them fit again, and they were beginning to get old. We still went trail-riding up until they reached retirement age.
The closest damage analogy I can think of for riding is mountain biking in terms of the impact when you fall off. Out of an immediate family of 5, 4 of us have broken bones off horses from arms and wrists to ribs to fractured skulls, and the fifth got scared so badly in a bolt he pretty much quit riding on the spot. I’ve been kicked, bitten, fallen under and fallen off. And one spiteful gelding would go out of his way on narrow trails to bash my knees against trees (got good at getting my leg up behind the saddle quickly!). I was nine at the time, and lacked the muscle to stop him. They are wonderful creatures, but like someone above said, they don’t have our priorities or cognition, and they aren’t people-pleasers like dogs.
I’m going to stop reminiscing now!
The only problem with this commentary is: I know someone who has a barn full of horses, and “they’re just big dogs” is exactly how he describes them. Of course, like dogs, every horse has its own personality, and wild horses *and* dogs can be quite different from their domesticated counterparts.
I should add, other than that your description of *how* they’re different from dogs is accurate.
Just read Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five,” which shows at the end prisoner of war Billy Pilgrim being transported away from Dresden by train and hearing sympathetic German voices:
Billy opened his eyes. A middle-aged man and wife were crooning to the horses. They were noticing what the Americans had not noticed–that the horses’ mouths were bleeding, gashed by the bits, that the horses’ hooves were broken, so that every step meant agony, that the horses were insane with thirst. The Americans had treated their form of transportation as though it were no more sensitive than a six-cylinder Chevrolet.
In The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, the protagonist, Kvothe, purchases a horse he names Keth-Selhan. Rothfuss, in Kvothes voice, goes into great detail about how to treat a horse when you have to ride a long distance in a short amount of time. I found this narrative to be practical and realistic (except where he kept referring to the saddle and bridle as the saddle and tack.)
I spent my summers on a farm and at the end of my street was a horse farm. So I’m pretty familiar with horses. When we saw The Black Stallion we were howling with laughter during the scene where the guy is brutally whipping the horse. People in the theatre thought we were heartless monsters, but in order to get the horse to “scream in pain” they had dubbed a mare’s sex noises. We thought it was hilarious this horse was into BDSM.
I like the book it is cool but I like the movie the best.
So is there the horse equivalent of the Wilhelm scream? Not that I really want to know since just recognizing the scream is annoying enough.
Dick Francis novels are often very good about horses, especially the differing temperaments of horses and riders. I especially remember that Because Reasons, a juvenile delinquent type horse was given the chance to mug old ladies and slow-moving jockeys (I rode on a horse like that once, and yes, Pocahontas, I’m talking to you), while another horse would need meth to simply be interesting in moving faster than a walk. (I inflict the 12-hour-walk-the-horse-with-colic on a character in an upcoming novel because he’s the newest and needs to learn all this stuff). My husband’s family once had a horse who wouldn’t step on your foot unless you were standing on a hard surface.
Yeah, Dick Francis’s books are good (IMHO). As a previous jockey himself, he knew what he was talking about.
One of the horse-related things that made me laugh in Eye of the World was when Egwene, Lan, and Moiraine were trying to slip through the woods without leaving any track or trace behind them. And not only do horses need to eat and graze during all this, but they’re gonna have to poop as they walk. And how hard would it be to track fresh piles of horse manure?
@40, you’re talking about the 5-beat gait the unicorns could affect and how Neysa was trying to get rid of Stile. That was a great sequence, but I’m not sure a real horse could pull it out. I did ride an Arabian gelding of my dad’s, who was a mean little cuss. He had a trot that felt like that. The funny thing that happened with him is my dad was riding him and he got that feeling he was going to buck. Any horse rider knows what I’m talking about. You feel them puff up and get tense. Well, he was riding under a tree when he felt it and just reached up and grabbed a limb. The horse walked out from under him. It scared the crap out of him when he realized his rider was gone. He forgot to buck and just started yelling and running around.
@48, it made me laugh when you mentioned pawing at the water. I have had one lay down with me and have to be especially careful with the two I raised as they love swimming at the river. Also, the thing about riding your knees into trees. That’s what convinced me to start wearing blunt spurs.
I should have read this post before commenting on last weeks. I kind of ranted about these same issues. I also forgot to mention Terry Goodkind’s “Sword of Truth”. There isn’t a lot of horse riding in the series, comparatively, but there are several moments I really liked. One that stood out was when Richard is captured by a sister and is forced to go back with her. He find out she’s using a really harsh bit and ends up cutting them in half with the sword. She freaks out, asking how they will control them, but he reassures her. It ends up saving her life, because the horse takes the bit, so to speak, and saves her life by running away. He also spends time rubbing the horses down at the end of the day, even when the only thing available is a handful of dry grass.