The Great Horse Books
April 14th 2007 17:09
Equestrian books gather creases and dust in the lives of most riders. Like shoes you simply cannot have too many. Each delivers new evidence of your need for horses; each reiterates that your horse is your life. There are thousands of books available for each equestrian discipline across the horse world, but a rider should know what she is seeking. Jump technique or lateral work instructionals abound, as do the volumes that followed the natural horsemanship revolution.
But there are a few very special books that feed and nourish the horse tragic, so here is a select group that may parallel your life...
Dark Horses and Black Beauties was written by author Melissa Holbrook Pierson and sent to press in 2000. It occupies the greatest stead in my library. Anecdotes and recollections fill its 254 pages with every reason why horses and women exceed expectation. Beautifully written and magnificently presented, my copy of this book is studded with subtle sepia images of women and their horses that offer pictures (as if you needed any) of a special relationship between she and beast. Carry this book with you everywhere; it will strum your need for your horse.
Few biographies are as well written as William Nack’s effort to storytell the life of an American thoroughbred legend. Secretariat: The Making of a Champion was first published in 1975 and again in 2000, the year it fell into my hands. As detailed as it is entertaining, the book reads like a novel and is the type of book easily commanded by non-racing minds – not an easy feat for its specialist genre. While the racing industry is given much depth here, it appears to me that Nack was dedicated in his subject. Secretariat is given personality and colour, the reason this novel crosses the borders that it does.
I hesitate to sing the praises of racing novels. The genre is so specific that often it is only the racing enthusiast that can enjoy the read. Yet there are two stories that earn the right of mention. Ruffian: Burning from the Start and Michael Wilkinson’s The Phar Lap Story compete with any sports novel ever published. Their subjects, separated by 40 years, are two thoroughbred champions not dissimilar – both fated from the beginning, both massively unbeatable and both tragically killed before their potentials had even been encouraged. These books are very sad, and while written very differently they offer a very real insight into the horses behind the champions that they were.
Kelly Marks is the UK-based right-hand woman of horsemanship flagman Monty Roberts. In recent years she published an excellent volume called Perfect Partners that instructs the horse owner on achieving a perfect understanding with their horse. Marks’ ideologies are superb, but most of all achievable. This book, to me, is essential to the rider - there is little to be achieved from horses without learning their language.
There must be imagination in every list of favourites and in this one the honour goes to a wonderful publication called Hollywood Hoofbeats: Trails Blazed Across the Silver Screen. This book is marvellous in its timeline of horses in Hollywood, from the great westerns to modern blockbusters to every horse movie you ever grew up with. Author Petrine Day Mitchum was ruthless in research. The detail is overwhelming – the reporting honest and eye opening. True horse lovers crave to know everything about horses. This book certainly adds a new and unexplored chapter to the volume.
Several months ago I embarked on a quest to find the most decent, most detailed book on horse breeds. I hit wall after wall. Most publications of this genre were children’s pictorials, featuring only the most common horse and pony types. I turned to the internet where I found Bonnie L. Hendrick’s International Encyclopaedia of Horse Breeds. This publication, of 1996, is far and away the most comprehensive piece of research I have come across – ever. Every breed ever registered (bar a handful by the author’s own confession) is presented here in as much detail as is available. While it is not flawless (Hendrick’s pictures are published in black and white and the entries are listed by alphabet rather than by a much more convenient country list) the encyclopaedia is a fantastic reference book, and at the time of writing the best of its class...
Remember that there are millions of books that, if I asked you, you would tell me I'd forgotten. I have The Black Stallion in my library because of childhood, because I should have it in my library and because it is the stuff of dreams. I have Black Beauty for all these reasons too. I have obscure books that you will never have heard of and I have them simply because they are about horses, or there is a horse in them. I have The Riding Instructor's Handbook because I teach. I have The Veterinary Handbook for Horse Owners because I am a horse owner.
This post is a very small homage to great horse books. There are thousands of them – those that educate, those written to amuse, to school. I have left so many favourites aside that merit mention but not necessarily greatness and, like good jeans in your wardrobe, you can never have too many!
But there are a few very special books that feed and nourish the horse tragic, so here is a select group that may parallel your life...
Dark Horses and Black Beauties was written by author Melissa Holbrook Pierson and sent to press in 2000. It occupies the greatest stead in my library. Anecdotes and recollections fill its 254 pages with every reason why horses and women exceed expectation. Beautifully written and magnificently presented, my copy of this book is studded with subtle sepia images of women and their horses that offer pictures (as if you needed any) of a special relationship between she and beast. Carry this book with you everywhere; it will strum your need for your horse.
Few biographies are as well written as William Nack’s effort to storytell the life of an American thoroughbred legend. Secretariat: The Making of a Champion was first published in 1975 and again in 2000, the year it fell into my hands. As detailed as it is entertaining, the book reads like a novel and is the type of book easily commanded by non-racing minds – not an easy feat for its specialist genre. While the racing industry is given much depth here, it appears to me that Nack was dedicated in his subject. Secretariat is given personality and colour, the reason this novel crosses the borders that it does.
I hesitate to sing the praises of racing novels. The genre is so specific that often it is only the racing enthusiast that can enjoy the read. Yet there are two stories that earn the right of mention. Ruffian: Burning from the Start and Michael Wilkinson’s The Phar Lap Story compete with any sports novel ever published. Their subjects, separated by 40 years, are two thoroughbred champions not dissimilar – both fated from the beginning, both massively unbeatable and both tragically killed before their potentials had even been encouraged. These books are very sad, and while written very differently they offer a very real insight into the horses behind the champions that they were.
Kelly Marks is the UK-based right-hand woman of horsemanship flagman Monty Roberts. In recent years she published an excellent volume called Perfect Partners that instructs the horse owner on achieving a perfect understanding with their horse. Marks’ ideologies are superb, but most of all achievable. This book, to me, is essential to the rider - there is little to be achieved from horses without learning their language.
There must be imagination in every list of favourites and in this one the honour goes to a wonderful publication called Hollywood Hoofbeats: Trails Blazed Across the Silver Screen. This book is marvellous in its timeline of horses in Hollywood, from the great westerns to modern blockbusters to every horse movie you ever grew up with. Author Petrine Day Mitchum was ruthless in research. The detail is overwhelming – the reporting honest and eye opening. True horse lovers crave to know everything about horses. This book certainly adds a new and unexplored chapter to the volume.
Several months ago I embarked on a quest to find the most decent, most detailed book on horse breeds. I hit wall after wall. Most publications of this genre were children’s pictorials, featuring only the most common horse and pony types. I turned to the internet where I found Bonnie L. Hendrick’s International Encyclopaedia of Horse Breeds. This publication, of 1996, is far and away the most comprehensive piece of research I have come across – ever. Every breed ever registered (bar a handful by the author’s own confession) is presented here in as much detail as is available. While it is not flawless (Hendrick’s pictures are published in black and white and the entries are listed by alphabet rather than by a much more convenient country list) the encyclopaedia is a fantastic reference book, and at the time of writing the best of its class...
Remember that there are millions of books that, if I asked you, you would tell me I'd forgotten. I have The Black Stallion in my library because of childhood, because I should have it in my library and because it is the stuff of dreams. I have Black Beauty for all these reasons too. I have obscure books that you will never have heard of and I have them simply because they are about horses, or there is a horse in them. I have The Riding Instructor's Handbook because I teach. I have The Veterinary Handbook for Horse Owners because I am a horse owner.
This post is a very small homage to great horse books. There are thousands of them – those that educate, those written to amuse, to school. I have left so many favourites aside that merit mention but not necessarily greatness and, like good jeans in your wardrobe, you can never have too many!
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Comment by katyzzz
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Comment by JessOw
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Comment by Nickoftime's Sanity Corner
Thank you for such a marvelous list of books...though I seldom have enough time to actually sit down and read, I've jotted down the ones you've mentioned here and will try and find them...
It's not easy being a horse "tragic" as you call it...I sometimes prefer the compnay of my own horses to that of human beings...I own three of them, but Tippett is my pride and joy, he is half Andalusian and half Arab, and yes, he takes it is a personal affront every time I climb onto his back...He thinks more of himself than of anything else, and his ego is ledgendary! But that is part of why I love him so, because he IS so special...because he IS better than everyone else and he knows it! lol
Being an equine vet affords me the opportunity to see many different breeds of horses, from the Miniatures to the Shires, and each animal I deal with and care for has it's own unique personality...Personally I love them all, but my favorite by far is the Thorougbred...They have enormous hearts and the courage of lions...I watch the race for the Breeder's Cup every year, and every year there more and more potential Triple Crown winners...
And you are right, a match race between Phar Lap and Secretariate would be a thing to behold! I don't know if you're aware of it, but in 1999, Secretariate's third generation great grandson Charismatic, came within lengths of winning first Triple Crown in over 21 years at Belmont...Even though he was the 2/1 favorite and took the lead in the final furlong, he faded unexpectedly in the last 1/8th of a mile and was ultimately beaten by The Lemon Drop Kid, coming in a disappointing third...
But his jockey, Chris Antely heard a loud "snap" just as he crossed the finish line and jumped off Cahrismatic, hunkering down in the middle of the track to wrap his own body around the left front leg of his injured comrade...With a field of twenty horses all barrelling past them, Antley still held the colt's head down and kept him still until the equine ambulance could arrive...
Their exploits are retold in a book called Three Strides From The Wire, author Elizabeth Mitchell pulls no punches, and it is an extremely good and accurate tale of one ill-fated jockey, and the horse that would become part of equine history...A marvelous read, I highly recommend it!
Take care,
Nick
Comment by JessOw
The Tack Room