Bringing the science behind horses to life for a young generation

Carly York, Ph.D., has spent her life living and working closely with horses. As a competitive horseback rider, she rode throughout her childhood, tried out for the junior Olympics and continued riding while in graduate school.

Now an assistant professor of biology at Lenoir-Rhyne, York owns a small farm with a horse named Violet and two donkeys named Rosie and Jude. She shares tales about their adventures and behaviors on her social media channels. These 280-character tweets led to an opportunity York hadn’t considered before.

“A publisher that followed me on Twitter reached out after seeing I was a biologist who also had horses,” York shared. “They were working on a series of non-fiction kids’ books with different topics and asked if I would do the horses. I accepted right away.”

“Horses (A Day in the Life): What Do Wild Horses like Mustangs and Ponies Get Up To All Day?”  tells the story of wild horses in the style of a nature documentary with easy-to-follow science explanations and colorful illustrations for children 6-8 years old. It is among the first titles released by Neon Squid Publishing, a division of Macmillan Publishers.

For York, writing this book gave her an opportunity to work on her science communication skills and translate higher level science in an accessible way.

“This book was never intended to be like ‘My Little Pony’ – it was meant to be science, heavy in facts,” York said. “It was a bit of a challenge to take my Ph.D. science brain and turn it into information that is easily understood but also interesting for a young audience. With the help of my editors, we were able to share complex material — such as mapping out evolution — and make it easy to follow.”

By sharing her lifelong passion for horses and science, York hopes young readers will be appreciative of wild horses and their unique behaviors.

“I hope it can spark a little bit of curiosity for more science and more animal curiosity and interest,” she shared. “I grew up in D.C. on Capitol Hill, so my parents would take me to the National Zoo and the Natural History Museum all the time. That helped shape my interests and future career. I hope this book will help shape some little ones in their futures, too.”

“Horses (A Day in the Life): What Do Wild Horses like Mustangs and Ponies Get Up To All Day?” was released on Sept. 27 and is now available for purchase.