A Gift From the Desert: The Art, History and Culture of the Arabian Horse might sound like a simple exhibit about some of the most gorgeous animals on the planet.

It is that. It is also a veritable history of the domesticated horse.

The exhibit's 409 pieces cover several galleries in the International Museum of the Horse at the Kentucky Horse Park. The exhibit's time line starts about 2600 B.C. with some of the first paraphernalia used by humans to tame and use horses in civilization. It goes to the 20th century, with characters such as T.E. Lawrence, also known as Lawrence of Arabia, the British military officer who played a key role in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman-Turkish Empire.

The exhibit covers a wide variety of items, including fine art, artifacts and displays of cultures that have depended on the horse.

The exhibit was co-curated by Cynthia Culbertson, an expert in Near Eastern languages and religion who breeds Arabian horses, and Sandra L. Olsen, curator of the anthropology section at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. It is drawn from private and public collections around the world.

A Gift From the Desert is the latest in a line of blockbuster equine exhibits at the International Museum of the Horse, including All the Queen's Horses: The Role of the Horse in British History in 2003 and Imperial China: The Art of the Horse in Chinese History in 2000.

Reach Rich Copley at (859) 231-3217 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3217.