Book review: 'Equus' is great for horse lovers

I think I have a new favorite horse -- or at least member of the horse family: the Poitou Donkey. They look pretty good in this photo, but no where near as wonderful as they look in a new book called Equus by Tim Flach.

I got an early copy of this book to review here and it is pretty neat. You can see some of the photos here on his website. Click on "Equus."


He fills almost 300 pages with all different kinds of horses, from zebras to Arabian stallions with tons in between and almost nothing else living. There are the paws of a dog and part of a rider, but that was it; the rest is pure horse.

What I especially like is seeing breeds I have ridden in more natural habits:

• Mustangs, reminding me of Corey
• Halflingers, reminding me of Andy and other ponies
• Fjord ponies, recalling Finn

There are no photos of Morgans (Don't worry, T; I still love you). No Shire horses like Bella, either. That's OK; there are so many other cool breeds.

Most of the photos are grand, too. I don't care for some of the arty photos were Flach shows just part of the horse or something. I like the ones where he presents the whole horse in all its beauty.

And I know it would probably disrupt the art of the photo, but I wish the book put the little photo captions on the page with the photo instead of at the back. I want to read about what I see when I see it, not 200 pages later, and it is a pain to flip back and forth.

The scenery is so perfect, whether it is the American West for Mustangs or a glacier lake for the frolicking Icelandic Horses or sand dunes for the regal and rearing Arabian. Flach knows how to take a photo.

And that in the end makes this book a winner. You can look and find horses that are cute, horses you want to pet, horses you want to ride, horses you just want to see more of. Flach gives you that in Equus.