This newsletter presents a small collection of geographic, historical, archaeological, cultural and/or artistic articles that have caught my attention. As a fantasy writer, I am fascinated by the nooks and corners of our real world and constantly find inspiration for my own world building and storytelling — it’s my hope that these newsletters are an inspirational resource for other writers, too, or for anyone who wants to learn more about our world.
Is it possible to write a fantasy story without horses? Yes, of course it is — but why would you want to? I must admit, my perspective may be skewed because I was an official Horse Girl in my childhood. I was one of those who, lacking the resources for more than occasional real-horse experiences, galloped around the backyard neighing, convinced I was at least part horse myself.
These days, my horse experiences mostly come through fiction, and my current work-in-process features a horse-centric culture so I’ve found myself having to do research on things like how long it takes for a foal to be born and how hard it is to reproduce certain coat colors. (I know, it seems a silly thing to be worried about, but I didn’t want to piss off any grown-up Horse Girls by getting it wrong.)
But what has captivated me the most are the stories of wild and semi-wild horses, how they live, and where they manage to survive and thrive. As the poem by Ai Ni below expresses, nothing captures the spirit of a landscape more eloquently then the site of horses galloping across it. Horses stabled and saddled for use are convenient for fantasy storytelling. But wild horses whose “thunderous galloping hooves engulf sky and earth” add a tangible magic that bridges this world and the fantastic.
A Band of Mares
The conventional view, as described in a recent National Academy of Sciences report, is that “a harem, also known as a band, consists of a dominant stallion, subordinate adult males and females, and offspring.” At first glance, this assessment would seem to be true: what people notice when watching wild horses is the uproar created by the stallions. But research by Jason Ransom of Colorado State University and others has shown that this male-centric view is wrong. Far from being subordinate, mares frequently initiate the band's activities. The stallions are quite often little more than hangers-on.
Ransom was once watching a band of mares that stopped grazing and began heading for water. The stallion didn't notice. When he looked up and saw his female companions leaving, he panicked. “He started running after them,” Ransom told me. “He was like a little boy calling out, ‘Hey, where's everybody going?’” The mares ignored him. Whether the stallion caught up or not didn't appear to concern them.
Read more: The Secret Lives of Horses
Wild Things Make My Heart Sing
Namibia — a vast country of over 825,000 square kilometers with a population of less than 2.6 million people—may not be the place that springs to mind when one thinks of wild horses. But the country, or more specifically its famous Namib Desert, is home to an estimated 90 - 150 of them. The Namib Desert horses are likely the only herd of feral horses in Africa and one of the most isolated horse populations in the world.
The horses travel in bands as small as two animals, but often in larger groups. They are most genetically similar to the Arabian horse. Their average range is 34 square kilometers and they must travel as far as 20 kilometers between water and grazing sources.
Read more: Namib Desert Horses
If you’re lucky, you might find them there on that plain with Mt. Erciyes as a backdrop, led by a strong, gray stallion. You don’t have to be a horse expert to notice the wary eye he keeps on you, nor to appreciate the discreet way he’ll round up his mares if you get too close. If you gaze at the herd long enough, you’ll see in the eyes, coats, and hoofprints a tale of civilizations come and gone, of battles won and lost, of winters weathered, of history very much alive.
Read more: Tracking Turkey’s Wild Horses
Disheveled Manes Streaming
Eight Horses
Ai Nisky and earth bathed in sunlight as far as the eye can see
the most dazzling place, the most quiet
thunderous galloping hooves engulf sky and earth
eight horses
a spectacle I’ve seen or perhaps not
each a hue of whistling coats
colors of the wind sprinted past ears
eight horses traversed the sunlight in their own unique choreography
disheveled manes streaming
the only sequence a single formation
the ground ripe with echoes
sky and earth bathed in sunlight as far as the eye can see
eight horses now shrinking into a long smudge of distant vistas–translated by peter micic
Read more: Li Gonglin’s copy of Wei Yan’s “Pasturing Horses” and Ai Ni’s “Eight Horses”