Page 18 - Dark Matter Issue5 Part II

Invisible Horse showing organs and vines of intestine. My portrait in charcoal of four

horses hooked up to sulkies and waiting to run the Little Brown Jug. The Evolution of the

Horse, with charts, for my third grade science fair.

The first horses evolved to survive the changing climate. Human beings eradicated

horses from the Americas, then, eventually, imported them back from other countries.

Through calculated breeding, humans re-designed the species in more ways than they

’
managed to do with any wild thing. Breeding changed the horseslength, shape, size,

weight, to suit the many uses mankind invented.

A pendulum is measured by the height of the bob. The speed of the swing is measured

by the distance of the center of gravity from the point of attachment. If you increase the

length of a horse’s lower leg, you give it greater speed. But it puts greater strain on the

ankles and toes. Then these parts must be strengthened by converting them from ball

and socket to pulley-type joints. You then gain additional strength at the expense of

flexibility.

I’m sure these were primarily men directing breeding. But I don’t want to say “man”

because it is primarily blacksmiths who care most about horses, and horses’ feet, and

most, but not all, blacksmiths are men who love horses.

1998, Ithaca, NY

My Morgan gelding racing the pasture perimeter, keening like a banshee as we buried

his best friend, Wave. Wave was a silver Arabian who died of founder, a disease that

rots the feet. He died the summer my best friend Helen died. Helen, who had ridden him

with me, at night, in the dark pasture under the stars. We rode bareback, and lay on their

backs to watch the stars, unafraid, as they swayed gently, tugging at green grass. Helen,

wearing her neck brace. With his giant excavator, neighbor Jim buried Wave where we

used to ride, gently placing a boulder marker on the fresh mound, and sent his youngest

daughter in to comfort me.