HOOF BEATS
A bold new take on domestication and the human-horse story.
Journey to the ancient past with cutting-edge science and new data to discover how horses forever altered the course of human history...
From the Rockies to the Himalayas, the bond between horses and humans has spanned across time and civilizations. In this archaeological journey, William T. Taylor explores how momentous events in the story of humans and horses helped create the world we live in today. Tracing the horse's origins and spread from the western Eurasian steppes to the invention of horse-drawn transportation and the explosive shift to mounted riding, Taylor offers a revolutionary new account of how horses altered the course of human history.
What People Are Saying
"Hoof Beats helps readers see the drama even in the grass eating. . . . Taylor has written that too-rare work that is as authoritative as it is legible to the lay audience."
— New York Times
"This eminently readable, patiently argued, and insightful history of horses will delight and instruct readers, even those who have never felt the pull of saddle leather and horse sweat.”
— Asian Review of Books
"Taylor is helping break new ground with his scientific perspective on horse domestication, the timing and origins of which scholars have argued over for decades."
— Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine
Horse petroglyphs adorn a mountainside in Central Asia's beautiful Ferghana Valley, home of the famed "heavenly horses" of the Silk Road.
About Dr. William T. Taylor
Dr. William T. Taylor is an archaeologist, scientist, and author whose work explores the domestication of the horse and the ancient relationships between people and animals. With active field research projects in “horse country” around the world, from the steppes of Eurasia to the Great Plains of North America and the Pampas of Argentina, his work brings together emerging technologies and cutting-edge scientific techniques alongside historic records, traditional knowledge, and personal experience to help tell the story of people and horses.
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