Horsewatching

About this book

How intelligent are horses? Why do they toss their heads and what makes them paw the ground?

After spending more than twenty years studying the body language of the human species, Desmond Morris has turned his attention to the behavior of some of our closest animal companions. First he looked at dogs, then cats, and now horses. As Curator of Mammals at the London Zoo he was able to study closely the zebras and wild horse in his charge. More recently, as a racehorse owner, he has scrutinized the glamorous world of thoroughbred racing.

Throughout his long involvement with horses, Desmond Morris has never stopped asking questions. In Horsewatching he sets out to answer them. As a zoologist and a lifelong student of animal behavior, he approaches the horse world in an unusual way, dealing with topics often ignored in equine literature. In addition to examining details of behavior, Dr Morris considers such questions as why horseshoes bring good luck, why we don't eat horses, why jockeys are allowed to whip their mounts and why we call a bad dream a nightmare.

And for punters everywhere, he applies his zoological mind to the all-important question of why some horses run faster than others…

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Biography

Desmond Morris was born in 1928. Educated at Birmingham and Oxford universities, he became the Curator of Mammals at London Zoo in 1959, a post he held for eight years. In 1967 he published The Naked Ape which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide and has changed the way we view our own species forever. An accomplished artist, TV presenter, film maker and writer, Desmond Morris's books have been published in over thirty-six countries.