The Horse

On Saturday I was in New York and, among other activities, I went to the Horse exhibit at the Museum of Natural History. I had been looking forward to the exhibit and frankly I was a little disappointed.

What is there is fabulous and extremely well displayed. The section on the evolution of the horse, including fossils, bones and teeth, are fascinating and, as might be expected from a science museum, beautifully documented with extra video footage of scientists explaining their research.

The next section is about the importance of the horse throughout history and across cultures. Again there are some amazing artifacts--including a gas mask worn by horses in World War I and a full coat of armor. There are depictions of horses in many art forms, from painting to pottery to terra cotta statues. It is not hard to get the message that horses were and are important to many different cultures.

There is a small section on "modern" horse activities, including rodeo, Olympic riding, fox hunting, polo and racing. There is mention of Barbaro and his catastrophic injury, including the now famous photo by Sabina Pierce of Barbaro being hoisted blindfolded above the raft in which he woke up from anesthesia. There is also a radiograph of his leg with all the surgical pins.

But that is it and that, to me, is the problem. What is there is great, interesting and entertaining (many exhibits are interactive with buttons to push and/or videos to watch) but I wish there had been more. It took me about 45 minutes to go through the exhibit and I went slowly and carefully, reading almost everything. I watched families with small children zip in and out in about 20 minutes.

And that is probably the point--in trying to appeal to all ages (parents as well as kids), the exhibit does a good job. But as far as adults go, I think it falls short.

Not that I am complaining that I went. But I wouldn't make a special trip...

I'd love to know if you had a similar reaction if you have seen the exhibit which is there until January.