This is a lovely book. Especially if one loves horses. I don't especially love horses. I like them as animals I've used them in my work, I've admired them in dressage events, in horse racing and trotting. (I actually lived quite close to Harold Park in Sydney when it was the trotting mecca. But my main reason for going to the trots was for the remarkable buffet dinner for some remarkably small amount. But this book is about the horse in the wild ....as a majestic figure...a Noble figure. And it's all in Spanish. Not your pedestrian Spanish either. It's quite hard going.......mildly poetical in nature.......or, at least with literary allusions, so it's not easy reading. It was a gift to me when I lived in Madrid and I've held onto it all these 40 years because it was a gift and because i liked the quality of the photos and the reproduction. Truely a lovely book. Alas, I'm having to downsize my library, and this is one of the casualties. A real pity, but I'm unlikely to be re-reading it in the future so it's off to the Lifeline sale and I hope it finds someone who really appreciates it. Three stars from me. ( )

Lovely photos, poetic quotes. The perfect book to look at after a day spent with unattractive, flat faced, hairless, opposable thumb havin' bipeds. ( )

There is no doubt that this is one of the best books about horses out there. It is not just a porfolio of gorgeous photographs or a collection of quotes about horses but a fascinating story told using both tools at the same time, as well as a commentary on equine behaviour. Equus first introduces the species, following horses roaming wild and expressing their true nature. Then we see the creation of a horse from the time of conception through pregnancy, foaling and the first wild gallop of the foal. The quotations are from a wide variety of authors: from Bible to Shakespeare, from Navajo songs to Bedouin legends, from Virgil to Dylan Thomas... and each one has been carefully chosen to accompany a fitting photograph. The rest of the book shouldn't be overlooked even after the photographs end: there are the author's notes on the photographs (how and where he took each) and commentary on the social behaviour of the horses he studied. It is quite remarkable that even though Equus was first published in 1977 it hasn't lost any of its charm to the influx of horse photography and behaviour books published since.

This is (at the moment) the only Vavra book I own, but looking at his more recent work online and in various other places like calendars and such I see a clear change, and it is not one I necessarily like. His newer photography seems to consist of a lot of collages and overlaying images and the arrangements look overly romantic and dramatic. In Equus his photographs are more raw and organic, but just as creative and recognisable. ( )