Horsepower - Part One The Animal ITV 1 Sunday 22 August 2010

Martin Clune, the award winning actor, better known for his comedy roles in Men Behaving Badly and Doc Martin, narrates a superb new two part documentary investigating man's relationship with horses.

Martin Clunes on a horse : photo ITV

We hear about his family's seven horses that they keep on their family farm in Dorset: his horse Chester, his wife's horse Bea and his daughter's horse Saracen as well as their four miniature Shetland ponies.  He confesses that he is a terrible rider but has a horse mad wife and daughter.  It is through them his fascination with horses developed.

The documentary sees him interview a host of the great and the good from the equine world: the jockey Frankie Dettori, the horse whisperer Monty Roberts, an extraordinary horse trainer Jean Francois Pignon and Laura Lee, a Nevada resident who campaigns to save the Wild American Mustangs, to mention a few.

Clunes also manages to cover an amazing amount of ground in his quest to understand the horse.  This takes from the ancient to the modern and from Europe to Asia to America. He visits the grand opening of the £1.7billion Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, a rehab clinic in Arizona to undergo equine assisted therapy, the desserts of Nevada to witness the herds of wild mustang, the Niaux cave in the Pyrenees mountains to study cave drawings of horses, the Glasgow Wieper Centre for Equine Welfare - Europe's most hi-tech horse hospital and the open plains of Mongolia to trace the evolutionary roots of the horse by observing the takhi, the last remaining truly wild horse.

This was a truly absorbing and entertaining hour which gave a fascinating insight into man's relationship with horses.  I am looking forward to the second part which looks at the jobs which horses do and have done in the past.