3 comments about Equine Locomotion.

1. As an "engineer turned farrier" I find this book to be a valuable reference. However, I'm not sure that someone lacking a background in physics would be able to understand the information. The contents are very technical and you might find your "left brain" working overtime to obsorb the data. IT AIN'T LIGHT READIN' FOR SURE, but Newton and Archimedes would love this book!!!
   
   There is also a "dummed down" version of this book available. For folks who get a headache trying to understand vector mechanics and angular momentum try The Dynamic Horse A Biomechanical Guide to Equine Movement and Performance instead.



2. This book provides a number of scholarly articles that are both comprehensive and thorough in regards to their subject. However, if you are interested in just learning more about how your horse moves or gait abnormalities and their causes, you are better off getting a book on your breed's conformation or a book on lameness. The information is academic in nature- if you are an academic I'm sure it is a terrific book. However, even for interested, experienced, and capable horse owners, this book has very little useful day to day information.



3. This extensive treatment of the science of movement of horses is destined to serve as an important reference work for decades to come. Essential for the serious scholar of horse gaits and performance.

5 comments about Conformation and Performance: A Guide to the Performance Consequences of Common Conformation Points.

1. The author, a veterinarian, goes against common teachings of conformation defects. She says a horse with a thick throatlatch can take in more air than a horse with a nice clean throatlatch...huh? She also says that horses with short necks are usually heavy on their forehand, then she says that horses with long necks are heavy on their forehands. The neck by itself does not make them heavy on their forehands, it is much more involved than that, but she fails to point out this fact. She recommends horses with upright, straight shoulders, and short, upright pasterns be used for roping and sprint racing events. What really was interesting was her thought on a straight, low set neck, being ideal for a dressage horse! She also says the dish face of an arabian prevents the intake of large amounts of air, "leading to exercise intolerance or poor staying power." That will certainly bring a chuckle from the competitive/endurance riders. Photos taken from a three quarter frontal position are used to show a horse with a proportionally short neck. A giraffe would appear to have a short neck taken from the same angle. Then using a picture of a dressage horse doing a pirouette, she says the rider's leg has slipped back because the horse is slab sided. The rider's leg is back because he has put it back to give the correct driving aid for a pirouette. On page 17, she uses a picture of a dressage horse doing an extended trot, saying that, "Contrary to popular opinion...the horse is extending its foot way beyond its nose." She fails to catch the important fact that the hoof, when it reaches the ground will NOT be in front of the horse's nose. This book does a poor job and is very misleading. Experienced horsemen will get a chuckle out of all the misinformation.



2. used a bit more information. The photos that she uses really shows you what she is talking about. I didn't agree with everything that she said but I did like the book overall. The main thing I thought that it needed was more information on what each thing causes a horse to be able to do and not be able to do.



3. I odered this book with high hopes. The premise is wonderful. The left page lists a conformational aspect and information about it. The right page is supposed to have photos illustrating that fault. This is where the book falls apart, most of the photos are so small that they don't illustrate anything. Some of them are just pretty pictures that make no attempt to do anything but decorate the page. A single GOOD photo of each fault is expected, but not delivered. To make matters worse, the author doesn't seem to distinguish between highly prized breed characteristics, like jibbahs, and faults! Someone should take this idea and do it right.



4. I agree it needed more detail. BUT, I think it makes a great quick reference. If fact, it would of been better to shrink down the size of the book to make it easier to pack around. It makes a nice gift for the beginner and average horseperson. If you are into breeding and buying, it is helpful - but you might want more detail. I like the suggested exercise to help improve horse performance - but it could of been expanded on. I do NOT regret buying it. Everyone that has borrowed the book - ask where did I get it and they enjoyed it.



5. If you are expecting the full range for each conformational defect, then you need to go elsewhere. The one photograph provided for each flaw was of excellent quality, but the performance photographs were repetitive. Pictures of the ideal conformation, or a range from good to bad, would have been more informative. The sections on performance consequences were good, as well as the descriptions.

No comments about 2009 Idaho Cowboy Calendar.

5 comments about Western Pleasure: Training and Showing to Win.

1. Covers everything from basic bloodlines to breeding, buying, and then training and showing. This is the definitive reference book on Western Pleasure.



2. Hard bound book, easy to read and to the point of how to train your horse. Nice big photos, applicable diagrams, spelled out how to compete and be successful.
   I wish it had been the FIRST book I read!
   This is a book I will NEVER loan out.....ever.
   Time to go practice what I read~!



3. This is a good book for people who want to train for show and for those who want to have a well trained horse. It explains in terms that novice horse people can understand and appreciate and still covers the finer points of training. The book keeps your interest and is easy reading.



4. This is the singular most effective tool that I have ever used in working with both young and old horses. As an equine professional, I have applied many of the techniques and methods to my own herd. Doug is truly the pleasure master. I believe that many people outside of the industry would enjoy this beautifully photographed and well written journal about pleasure horses.



5. This book covers everything from breeding a pleasure prospect to working out the kinks in an older seasoned show horse. This will certainly help my new 3 year old filly and I make it in the AQHA show ring. I recommend it for anyone who wants to win!

2 comments about Riding Across Patagonia (Equestrian Travel Classics).

1. Lady Florence is something of an enigma - in some respects, very much a woman of her time, with all the prejudices and highhandedness you might expect of a Victorian aristocrat. However, she is clearly very unusual too as she sails off to a wild and largely unexplored Patagonia, with an all male party and lives primarily off the land for several weeks. Food is acquired mainly by hunting, and clearly proficiency gained whilst foxhunting with the gentry in the English Shires stands her in good stead. Many guanacos, ostrich, puma, deer and game birds are felled with gusto and without sentiment - she's never happy unless a couple of firearms are within easy reach so she can pop off another. It was all a bit bloody for me. But there were some fantastic stories, including galloping head on into a bush fire (God only knows how the horses survived) and a hair-raising and near-catastrophic race down the side of a mountain in a horse and wagon steered by an overenthusiastic local. I was moved to read the book having just returned from trekking the Torres del Paine circuit, but Lady Florence's Patagonian experience and mine were rather different. I 'roughed' it in a down sleeping bag, (she made do with damp guanaco furs). A thermarest protected me from stony ground (Lady Florence lay directly on the earth). At the end of the day I usually enjoyed a hearty hostel meal (her ladyship had to set to work stripping down an ostrich and roasting up a gristly wing on an open fire). Patagonia is certainly far less of a wilderness now - whilst I thought I was quite courageous trekking the John Garner pass, clearly this would have been like a walk in the park to the Dixie party . It's a fascinating insight into some aspects of the Victorian age, though it is a bit repetitive, especially as far as the hunting goes. Lady Dixie doesn't give much away about herself or her party (in this sense she maintains the decorum of a Victoria lady); but if you are thinking of travelling to Patagonia, or have already been, I am sure you will appreciate your Goretex all the more having read this.



2. The Victorian era produced not only fainthearted boudoir queens with lace hankies, but also some of the most amazing and hard-bitten women travelers who ever lived. This is in many ways a companion volume to Julius Beerbohm's WANDERINGS IN PATAGONIA. Where Beerbohm was a rank amateur who had a knack for encountering bad luck, Lady Florence Dixie was like the up-to-date Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. She organized a large hunting party, threw money around for horses, supplies, and guides, and even engaged "Mr. B" to join the party.
   
   At first, Lady Florence comes across as a rich, thoughtless horsefaced boor. To more easily catch guanacos and ostriches (actually, Darwin's rheas), she and her party think nothing of starting brush fires and using beaters to drive the game into their guns' ranges. Starting at Punta Arenas, Chile (then called Sandy Point by the British), she and her party ride along the Magellan Channel and cut inland, heading ultimately towards the eastern escarpment of the Andes, probably southwest of El Calafate. (Unfortunately, there is no map in the book to indicate their progress.)
   
   Once she kills a small ostrich: "The flesh of the young ostrich is not very palatable, so we left the bird, taking only its legs, which make very nice handles for umbrellas and whips." Of Patagonian foxes: "I resolved to make a collection of their skins, and carry them back to England to be made up into rugs and other useful articles."
   
   Amid the stark beauty of the mountains, Lady Florence suffers a change of heart. She shoots a gigantic buck which puts up such a fight for life that she relents finally killing him. Even the guanacos have an astounding amount of fight in them: "Examining him, we found the bullet had entered his side, and passing through the lungs and lights, had lodged near the spine; and yet, thus severely wounded, he had gone quite ten miles at a cracking pace!"
   
   It is a sadder and more likeable Lady Florence who turns around and heads back to Punta Arenas. At this point, they encounter their own run of bad luck. They run out of food, the pack horse that has all their remaining biscuits runs off, all their horses suddenly disappear and have to be tracked down, and finally they appear back in civilization bedraggled and somewhat chastened.
   
   A real page-turner, RIDING ACROSS PATAGONIA is one of those strange books that show the writer's change of heart for the better. At one point, she even becomes disgusted with the concept of "man the destroyer."

No comments about Tales of Teams: Heartwarming Memories of Hardworking Horses and Mules.

No comments about Secrets of the Top Equestrian Trainers.

No comments about Horse Psychology.

No comments about The Manual of Horsemanship.

2 comments about The Haflinger (Allen Breed).

1. This is a great book that goes into detail of the history of the haflinger horse. I enjoyed this book very much but was dissappointed that the photos are all in black and white. I wish there were color photos of these beautiful horses!



2. I enjoyed this book and have referred to it numerous times when explaining to family and friends the uniquiness of the Haflinger. This book by Helen Deverill, tells of the history, comformation and nature of this unique draft pony. The Haflinger is a native of Southern Austria or the South Tyrol and based on this book dates back to 1282. As a mountain work horse it was an asset to the Tyrolean farmer who used the horse for all types of farm work and consided the Haflinger as part of the family. Although is has long been used as a work horse the Haflinger's nature makes it an excellent mount for children as well as the handicapped.

   I found the chapter on Care, competition and training very informitive and provided great insight for planning the training of my own Haflinger. From driving to vaulting or dressage the Haflinger is versatile and willing to please. It has been used in many types of equestrian events but is not widely know in the USA. In order to set up a stud book and lay down standards for registration in America, the Haflinger Breeders' Organization (HBO) was establish in 1993.

   This book provides lots of insight on this little known horse with a big heart.