horses in pre-history – THE LEGEND OF THE GREAT HORSE trilogy

Historical Notes: Leaving the Prehistoric world behind …

In Eclipsed by Shadow, the first book of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy, young Meagan Roberts takes the ride on a prehistoric wild horse … that’s just how things were between horses and humans 20,000 years ago.

In Eclipsed by Shadow, the first book of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy, young Meagan Roberts takes the ride on a prehistoric wild horse. (excerpt of the scene)

According to fossilized bones and cave paintings, that’s just how things were between horses and humans 20,000 years ago.

Our clear understanding of the distant past remains shrouded by the passage of time, but there are two important facts we can know about prehistoric horses:

1) Horses have always been with us. Early man spent many thousands of years watching, stalking, hunting … and painting horses. The horse has been part of humanity’s story since the very beginning.

2) It took thousands of years for primitive humans to even begin to learn to use horses to assist in work. Man’s journey from the caves required a change in attitude to seek forms of cooperation, away from seeing horses as only a form of prey. This new outlook took an amazingly long time to happen, especially considering that it was so tangibly rewarded by a horse’s willingness to share his strength with mankind.

Perhaps we can’t know details about how mankind’s attitude toward horses shifted from meal to tamed beast — but the change is a case of old ways of thinking being replaced by new and better ideas. In this way, horsemanship is a living demonstration that cooperation brings new possibilities to human life and can open entire new worlds.
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Copyright © 2010 John Allen Royce, Jr.

The Road Slowly Traveled: the artist’s view

A scene in “Eclipsed by Shadow” involves a prehistoric horse hunt, with man as the predator. This hunting scene took place in the same era that prehistoric cave paintings were being created, art still visible to us in places like the amazing caves of Lascaux, France. Even in prehistoric times we have Man the predator … and Man the artist.

Are these the same Man?

Much cave art is utilitarian and crude. Only a few “works” stand out … could it be some artists saw the horse differently — as something to be admired and approached for qualities beyond that of mere food?

If so, the artist’s path was not quickly taken: mankind crouched and crept through his world for many thousands of years, scrounging a life as both predator and prey. Yet eventually, somehow, the idea of using horses for limited work prevailed, and later the concept of the horse as a partner opened possibilities unknown by our distant ancestors.

It would be hard to argue with the primitive hunter “in the moment.” There is clearly a meal on the hoof, it tastes good: an undefeatable argument. It was a limited, self-serving failure of an argument … but undefeatable at the time! The use of horses cannot happen if your fellow caveman simply kills them.

It mirrors the age-old problem of progress, of mankind bound by its own ignorance and short-term, “greedy” impulses. We have left the caves, but this basic conflict still echoes.

Still, there was a moment when a human didn’t kill a horse he was able to. People did begin to stop hunting/killing horses, and learned better ways of being.

The artists saw the horse as something other than quarry. Art can truly be a window into new reality.

Another outcome …

Strangely, even the best cave art discovered in North America is more crude and hunter-focused than that found in caves of Europe. Illustrated animals in cave art of North America are usually depicted being pierced by arrows.

Horses evolved in North America, but disappeared long before European settlers arrived … and evidence suggests equines may have been hunted to extinction by natives. If so, whether resisted by a more ‘artistic’ view or not, heedless hunting had its way.

Horse-using cultures outstripped others in the development of civilization — American natives were overrun by people who had benefited from their association with the horse. What difference might horse domestication have made to the cultures of the native American had the horse survived … if, perhaps, the artists had won?

There are too many generalizations to make a point, only a question…

Little Horse on the Prairie

The horse is prey and never forgets it: his motto is to ‘run away to live another day.’

Horses are built for speed over distance, and with a good headstart he is safe from his natural predators.

The only hole in the equine’s survival program is the time it takes to reach top speed. To solve this problem horses come “fully-loaded” with highly advanced bio-technology to detect predators.

The Super-Human Horse

An equine’s sense of hearing and smell rivals that of a dog, with additions of swiveling ears and a canyon of a nose that sifts the wind with every breath. Their eyesight is much different than our own, featuring extreme motion-detection ability and a field of vision of almost 360 degrees, with only a few blank spots right behind and in front (which is why you never walk up behind a horse, and why jumping is such a challenge).

Equine abilities extend beyond the human experience. A horse’s legs serve as a sounding board to feel ground vibration, and can even recognize a person by their walk. Horses also have an amazing “photographic” memory and are able to see well at night.

Horses don’t see the world as humans see it

As you ride, the horse has mapped out the robin in the hedge 100 yards away, noted a freshly-painted mailbox and the spot where a dog barked seven years ago … even as feels the rumble of a distant train and responds to your cues.

We don’t share the outlook of horses, the same mind or same senses–we hardly share the same world. Yet somehow, implausibly, a close partnership was made … and is still kept.

Photo: Bureau of Land Management / Wikimedia / Public Domain