The Haystack Book Festival begins October 4, again bringing a variety of conversations between writers and thinkers exploring ideas in literature, life and the arts.
This year, one theme explores the horse in history and culture, with Sarah Maslin Nir presenting a special program for middle school students about her book series, “Once Upon a Horse,” and then appearing in a conversation with David Chaffetz, author of “Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires,” both on Sunday, October 6.
The authors’ books look at human associations with horses from dramatically different perspectives. Chaffetz tells the story of how the horse shaped civilization, while Nir focuses on the emotional connection modern humans share with the animals.
Chaffetz, an Asian history researcher, realized the profound historical association between the peoples of the steppes and horses when, just before the Russian invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, he and his friend, Willard (Wiley) Wood of Norfolk, set out on horseback to explore the traditional life of the Afghan people.
“My goal was to study the traditional ways of life—the nomads, the poetry, the things that had survived from a much earlier period,” he related.
What he found was an impoverished society whose former wealth and power was built 0n the horse. Chaffetz wondered why, with such a glorious past, they had become extremely poor. “I reflected on my travels in Central Asia and the Middle East and the commonality of culture that they share. There was some kind of gear box in Central Asia that connected them, and that gear box was the horse. But the minute we had cars, horses went from being important to being a hobby and Central Asia became a backwater.”
The transition of the horse from vehicle of conquest to a pet came with consequences. “There are challenges for the urban horse owner,” Chaffetz said. Nir is one of those urban dwellers. She did not have a horse as a child but nurtured her passion through reading and working to pay for riding lessons. Today, she’s a competitive show jumper with five horses. She writes about horses as an antidote for the psychological wear and tear of her investigative reporting.
Nir and Chaffetz are only part of the eight Haystack offerings. For a full account click here.