Originally published on July 29, 2024 (Episode 369)
Introduction
Once a prey animal, the horse became humanity’s indispensable ally: transforming warfare, trade, agriculture, language, and even imagination. Then, at the moment of its greatest global impact, it was displaced by the internal combustion engine. Timothy Winegard joins me to tell the story of the horse — a creature that remade our world in ways both obvious and subtle.
About the Guest
Timothy C. Winegard is Associate Professor of History at Colorado Mesa University, where he also coaches hockey. He is the author of the bestselling The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator and, most recently, The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity.
For Further Investigation
Resources
Timothy C. Winegard, The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity (Penguin, 2024)
—The Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator (Penguin, 2019)
Peter Mitchell, Horse Nations: The Worldwide Impact of the Horse on Indigenous Societies Post-1492 (OUP, 2015)
Joyce E. Salisbury, The Beast Within: Animals in the Middle Ages, 3rd edition (Routledge, 2022)
Related Episodes
Mosquito, with Timothy Winegard
Listen & Discuss
Did horses really make us more “human” than we would have been without them?
Share your thoughts in the comments — and tell us your favorite horse story (real or fictional). Then pass this episode along to a friend who still thinks horsepower belongs only in an engine.
