Hoofprints in the Sand: Wild Horses of the Atlantic Coast

Rating:
Summary: At last, a good book on the wild horses!
Review: I remember searching through gift shops in and around Chincoteague looking for a good book on the wild horses and being amazed that there weren't any. There were a few children's books, and a couple of dry, academic ones, but nothing that would serve as a reminder of my visit there.

Well, now here it is!

Hoofprints in the Sand is just what I wanted. The book is full of information about the various herds of wild horses on the East Coast and covers each one with its own chapter. I had no idea there were herds other than the famous Chincoteague and Assateague horses. Urquhart covers six different herds! She carefully sifts through the many contradictory stories about the origins of each herd and adds lots of interesting information about their history. Did you know there was once a mounted Boy Scout troop on Ocracoke? She also details how each herd has been protected and maintained over the years, and she describes the controversy over whether they are a natural part of the ecosystem that deserves protection or a threat to the local species. I loved reading about the often heroic efforts of people to protect the wild horses they love.

Besides talking about the herds, there's a chapter on the history of horses in America. She also discusses the difference between wild and feral horses and whether these herds are horses or ponies. Finally, there's an interesting section on wild horse behavior and one on how to see the different herds.

But most of all, you've got to see the photos! The book is full of beautiful shots of the horses in their wild state, nosing around picnic tables, and playing in the sand.

If you've been to Chincoteague and want a reminder, if you've got a young girl who's fallen in love with Misty, if you're looking for information about wild horses, or you just want a good read, you're gonna love this book.

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent
Review: _Hoofprints in the Sand_ is a marvelous book that succeeds on many levels at once. Horse-lovers can peruse it for enjoyment. Laymen can curl up with it in their beach cottages on rainy afternoons. Children can read it for edification. Students of all ages can cite it as a reference. Concerned citizens can quote it at public hearings. Browsers who don't know a word of English can lose themselves in the author's delightful drawings and photographs. It's one of those rare books that are never out of place.

_Hoofprints_ is not only the best work in print on the feral herds of the East Coast; it's also the only work ever published in any language for a general readership. The horses that frolic about our seaside resorts are in trouble. Their range has shrunk to a few dynamic spots that they occasionally outgrow. They're losing genetic diversity. They compete with native species. They're mired in scientific controversy, historical ambiguity, political rhetoric, and raw emotion. The few government reports and scholarly papers are hard to read and usually limited to one herd or one specialty. Popular coverage is mostly local, often romantic, and sometimes fictional. Bonnie Urquhart is the first nonfiction writer brave enough to deal with this complex subject in its entirety, and she does so without stuffiness, stridency, or sentimentality.

While telling the stories of a half-dozen similar, but distinct herds, she looks in on some of the people who interact with them: curious vacationers, innovative scientists, determined defenders, struggling officials. She examines threats to coexistence: economic development, environmental change, even some attempts at preservation. She deals with such abstract issues as the definition and value of wildlife. She examines an assumption or two, and she gently bursts the odd bubble. As she says, whatever significance we attach to these animals, anything we do about them, including nothing, may have decisive effect. Our wisest course is to act (or not) on understanding.

Every decade or so, someone combines art and science, culture and nature, kindness and clarity, analysis and wonder to create a book that enriches as no other has done or is likely to do. _Beautiful Swimmers_, William W. Warner's Pulitzer-winning essay on Chesapeake Bay crabbing, is a one such book, unique when it was first published in 1976 and still superlative. _Hoofprints in the Sand_ is every bit as good. It's all the more remarkable because it's the author's first major publication. I look forward to the next.