Melissa Holbrook Pierson

Dark Horses and Black Beauties

A diverse meditation on the ways, and whys, of women's deep attraction to one animal above all others: the horse.

In a phenomenon too prevalent to be mere chance, little girls all over the Western world wake one day to find themselves completely taken over by the love of all things equine. They collect model Breyer horses; read books on horse anatomy, evolution, and history; and barely breathe between riding lessons. For some of them, the obsession fades after a few years but returns with a vengeance in middle age. Then there is no stopping them. In fact, the majority of horse owners in countries such as the United States and Britain are female. The explanation turns out to be as full of surprises as the state of affairs it describes.

Melissa Holbrook Pierson was one of those horse-crazy girls who later returned to riding with a new appreciation for the nature of horses. She delves beneath the shallow hypotheses explaining women's connection to horses to look at how this communication with another animal opens us up to a new apprehension of the larger "natural" world. Melding memoir, sociology, history, anecdote, and a bit of prose poetry, Dark Horses and Black Beauties is a unique approach to its subject that also seeks to transcend it, to venture into the dark territory of humankind's relationship with animals—and with itself.

"Whoever likes animals will love this book, and better yet, whoever seeks to fathom the mysterious relationships between ourselves and other species will be transported. Pierson's work is studded with remarkable insights, her voice is clear and fresh, and her heart is with her subjects in a deeply satisfying manner. This is not about horses as such, nor is it about people, thank heaven. It's about a very prevalent, very powerful emotion that horses stir in women, and it's riveting."—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

"Pierson treads fearlessly on territory others have attempted to explore: the passion little girls and grown women feel for horses. I like her honesty, her frontal approach, her refusal to mythicize or glorify the attachment while at the same time giving us an eminently readable account of her own life and times among equines. This is a poignant, charming, and realistic book."—Maxine Kumin