Nearly 100 pages into Horse, author J. Edward Chamberlain finally gets around to making a thesis-like statement – that horses have fascinated mankind because they straddle a line between barbarism and civilization.

Though it is buried more than a third of the way through the book, Chamberlain’s point is a good and meaty one, one he continuously hints at with neato stories about famous horses, rituals involving horses, horse evolution, and horse semiotics.

He refrains, however, from truly taking the plunge with these ideas. Instead, he flits from one historical time period to another, occasionally throwing in some quotes about civilization or barbarism to bind all the elements together. Most commonly, the quotes are used not to support his argument (there really isn’t one), but just to provide authoritative touches on each page.

In one particularly awkward paragraph, Chamberlain prefaces a discussion on the unspoken bond between horse and rider – the “horse code,” if you will – with a quote from Thoreau on civilization. This is followed by a Wole Soyinka quote on horse-ness. The connection is loose at best, and reads like a justification of ideas by way of quotes from smart people.

Chamberlain is at his best when writing as Big Bird, a fictional Navajo horse possessing the wisdom of horses past and future. Big Bird clearly expresses Chamberlain’s passion for the majestic animal beloved by kids and cowboys the world over. Though not an artful choice, it’s a passionate one.

Chamberlain clearly set out to express his fascination with horses and their mythical relevance in the formation of world civilizations. But without a topical throughline and a stronger global outlook, Horse fails to do more than merely sketch out that fascination through a disjointed collection of horse trivia. – Katy Pedersen