No comments about Your Mare's First Foal.

3 comments about Real Riding: How to Ride in Harmony With Horses.

1. A friend of mine initially loaned me this book and it resonated deeply with me. I read it twice and then purchased my own copy. Every time that I open the pages I learn something or am reminded of something that profoundly impacts my riding. Usually a "do less" reminder
   I have a strong desire to improve my horsemanship and to increase my understanding of horses and horsemanship. I am interested in learning how to develop a partnership with horses and the ability to work together in harmony. And this book speaks directly to these desires.
   The book focuses on some specific techniques and questions to ask yourself that get results based on communicating clearly to the horse and being a kind and respectful leader to the horse.
   I would highly recommend it to both new and seasoned riders.



2. Great book for reading! No strait practical recommendations, but still absolutely helpful. Moody & groovy.



3. As a beginner to English riding, I found this book great to learn the essentials with thoughtfulness to the horse. The book focused on getting results while being a good and respectful leader to the horse; the less guides that are actually used, the better! Be aware, however, that some of the vocabulary used in the book was taken for granted by the writer. There is a glossary at the back, but it didn't include all of the 'horsemanship' words that you wouldn't know if you are new to English riding. Regardless, I learned a lot of helpful tips that I could apply in my lessons, including much of the psychology behind horse's actions.

No comments about Cherry Hill Horsekeeping & Training CD-ROM, Rider Library.

No comments about The American Paint Horse (Edge Books: Horses).

1 comments about Cup of Comfort for Horse Lovers: Stories that celebrate the extraordinary relationship between horse and rider (Cup of Comfort).

1. I ordered this book because it contained an essay authored by a very dear blog buddy. I also thought it would make an excellent gift for my horse loving spouse. I am not particularly enamored with horses so my own expectations were measured.
   
   Today I received the book and hurriedly opened it to find my friend's contribution. I expected it to be excellent and it was. But the reward of reading that single chapter was even greater than I had hoped.
   
   I returned to the front and began to read from the beginning and was surprised to find myself more than half way through when I finally took a break.
   
   There are horses in this book just as there are people. But they all become individuals with personality and character and they collectively experience the entire spectrum of emotion. The wonderful writing certainly contributes. But it is the raw emotion that adds the vivid color. There is a genuineness in these stories only possible I think because they are so intensely personal and related from experience.
   
   Kudos to Colleen Sell for a wonderful compilation.

1 comments about Train Your Young Horse with Richard Maxwell.

1. I enjoyed this book, it tells you how to get your horse to obay you and not to be rank. Carefully written instructions on how to do each exercise is the key to getting your horse to preform each exercise properly.

5 comments about Album of horses.

1. I had owned this book when I was a kid. I loved it because it gave you so much information about the different breeds of horses and the pictures were wonderful for me to look at back then. I bought this book because I don't know what happened to the original and it made me sad. Out of nostalgia for the past experience I had when I had the book as a kid, as an adult, I wanted the book back. I was so thankful that it was possible to even get a copy because I know it is an older book. Even though the reading is not geared for an adult I still find the book heart-warming to own.



2. When I bought this book, it looked pretty good and since it had more than a hundred pages, i thought i would enjoy it but i didnt.
   This book starts of with a story of a horse, then goes into some boring history. You dont get very many good facts from this book, so if you are looking for a book that has a lot of facts about horses in it, dont buy this one!



3. I haven't read the new edition, but I have an old, 1960s hardcover from an antique store and it is beautiful! Henry's breed descriptions turn the history of a horse into a captivating story. Best of all, it is all factual! Dennis's amazing horse pictures illuminate the book and give it a charming touch. Being a devoted Appie lover and owner, I was particularly fond of the chapter on the Appaloosa! All the stories and accompanying artwork peices are spectacular, though, and it is my opinion that every junior rider worth her salt should have a copy of this book on their shelf.



4. This Book has alot of information to all kinds of breeds.The illustrator,however drawes really realistic pictures!I really like the book cause I learn alot from it,and the pictures are soooo beautiful!!Horse lovers will totally love it!!!The font is quite big,so your eyes don't hurt while reading.Over all,this is a good book and I highly recommened it.Thanks for reading my review,and hope you enjoy the book!!(If you have it.)



5. This is one of Henry's best horse books due to its incredible combination of facts and breathtaking paintings. Many of the top classical breeds of the world are showcased in this one-of-a-kind book. An excellent gift choice for any horse lover, young or old.

No comments about 2009 Cow Dogs Calendar.

5 comments about Imprint Training: A Swift, Effective Method for Permanently Shaping a Horse's behavior.

1. After owning horses for several years, I began breeding my mares last year. One was born on my farm and one was born at my trainer's farm. My friends who also breed mares told me that I needed to "imprint" my foals as soon as they were born. They vaguely explained the process, but I wanted to know exactly what to do step by step. I searched on amazon for help and found this title. IT IS EXCELLENT! TO ME IT IS A PRICELESS TOOL THAT EASILY SHOWS THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHS AND TELLS IN SHORT EASY TO UNDERSTAND DIRECTIONS EXACTLY WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR NEW FOAL TO IMPRINT THEM. My first colt was born on our farm and I imprinted him exactly as the book said. My first filly was 2 1/2 hours away and I did not get to imprint her. The difference in their personalities and handleability is so remarkable that I hired a teenage rider to babysit my mares in case either foaled while I was out of town. My 16 year old sitter imprinted the filly using the book with outstanding results! It is also a good reference to have on hand if you are an old pro at imprinting to make sure you don't forget any steps!



2. A friend of mine has a foal and asked me to help her with it. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to imprint the baby as soon as it was born, but with the help of this book, inside a few weeks, we were able to quickly socialize and bond with the filly. She is very friendly and confident around people. She comes when she's called and loves all the attention. It's a kind and gentle way to introduce all the concepts the baby will need to know to be a willing partner in any equestrian discipline. There are lots of photos and the instructions are very clear. The whole process has been very rewarding thanks to Dr. Miller's book.



3. This book took me step-by-step through the imprinting process. Very well written.



4. I love this book. Miller's indepth descriptions of the initial bonding, desensitization and sensitization of newborn foals is incredible. He describes in great detail how to teach a foal that humans are "the boss," how to desensitize a foal to stimuli that it will experience all its life (i.e., the farrier, the vet, etc.), and how to teach a foal early on to react to other stimuli positively thus learning to lead, back up, move laterally, and even load into a trailer before it is 2 weeks old. I have used these techniques for the past several years with great results and will be using it again this year. The foals are easy to handle, stand well for the farrier, and even accept the bit and saddle without incident once they are three. Bottom line: this technique creates horses that trust humans rather than fear them.



5. The name of the book suggests Robert Miller's distinct lack in the understanding of behaviour. True imprint training would involve the foal looking upon the human, which is carrying out the technique, as its mother.

   Miller writes that his technique is based on the foal being submissive to the human, by nature horses will challenge a dominant figure in order to progress up the pecking order- this could be very dangerous when the foal has grown if it starts to attack humans. Miller also recommends that the first part of the technique being carried out in the first 45 minutes of the foals life, before it has even stood up, which involves repeatedly (50 times is recommended) sticking fingers in the foals ears, nose, anus and rubbing hands and clippers all over the body. Within this time the foal should be finding its feet and the mares teats for its first feed of colostrum in order to give it immune protection.

   The video shows Miller entering the stable of a mare and her 12-day-old foal. The foal had been pushy for the past five days and Millers way of rectifying this was to kick the foal until it stopped reacting to the kicking. Are we really to assume that the foal will connect this beating administered while he was quite in the stable with his mum, with his bad behaviour in the past few days? I find this unlikely and am more inclined to think that the foal will associate humans coming in his stable with pain. Is this something we really want to achieve with our foals? Miller's explanation for this punishment is that, in the wild, stallions will kick pushy foals to put them in their place. This again demonstrates Miller's lack of understanding of equine behaviour as the mare is the one who puts the foal in its place and always immediately after the undesired behaviour has occurred, the stallion has little to do with the foals.

   Regular handling of foals and gradually introducing them to different stimuli is important in the creating of a well-rounded individual BUT consider the relationship you want to you want to create with your youngster and whether its to be based on a potentially dangerous dominant-submissive foundation or one of trust. Please think long and hard before further lining the pockets of this man who in my opinion is promoting animal abuse.

5 comments about Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life.

1. Here is the best book I've read on what it means to own or ride a horse. The author, Michael Korda has tried not to anthropomorphize horses, and as a result he sounds a bit detached from these noble creatures (I do attribute human characteristics to horses, but then I'm not a journalist). I'm left with the opinion that he could live without horses, but there are some people who couldn't, including his second wife, Margaret. "Horse People" is almost her biography.
   
   It is also an equestrian autobiography of Korda, himself. Here are the sometimes raffish, always respectful portraits of his mounts, including a "a dapper and rather flashy little Arab-Welsh pony cross that was just a little too small for me...and had, in fact, as it turned out, rather more character than was desirable." Mephisto was the pony's name and one of my favorite stories involves Mephisto's decision to back into the Serpentine, an artificial lake in London's Hyde Park. Korda has to be rescued by the regimental sergeant major of the Life Guards, aboard the regimental drum horse, Clarence "with hooves the size of dinner plates and thick, feathered fetlocks, a towering eighteen hands or more high and probably weighing over a ton..."
   
   Even though many of this book's stories are funny, and most are touching, this is not a collection for horse-loving children. It's a true-life amalgam of "American Beauty" and "National Velvet," with some of the sadness of Steinbeck's "The Red Pony" added to the mix. Horses go lame, suffer from narcolepsy, and have to be euthanized.
   
   Many of the chapters contain deft portraits of (mostly) East Coast equestrians--from Olympic medal winners to those folks, who are happiest at a slow ramble along Central Park's horse trails. President Reagan is featured (Korda wrote his biography in a separate book), as is Bill Steinkraus, who rode in five Olympic Games for the USA, and won the Individual Gold Medal aboard Snowbound at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games--he was the first American ever to win an individual equestrian gold medal. My favorite stories involve the not-so-famous eccentrics who dwell in the equestrian realm: the riding instructors, stable hands, and of course, the regimental sergeant major in "a khaki uniform with razor-sharp creases, and buttons, badges, leather, and cap peak so shiny that it hurt my eyes to look in his direction."
   
   If you are thinking of buying an old farm and keeping horses, then at the very least you should read the chapter, "The Grass Isn't Always Greener on the Other Side of the Fence." Korda takes a look at some of the myriad problems that beset horse owners, accompanied by "the steady, dismal noise of money going out" to farriers, vets, and electricians. Then there are the boarders "tramping through the living room of [the] great ramshackle house in muddy riding boots and spurs looking for a drink or a convenient sofa on which to nap." Included in the usual run of leaky roofs and sagging fences are automatic waterers that shock the horses every time they try to take a drink. This chapter would be extremely funny if it weren't true.
   
   Korda is a splendid raconteur, whether writing about horses, failed marriages, or equestrian presidents. "Horse People," a 'New York Times Notable Book' is perfect for those of us who grew up reading Walter Farley and Marguerite Henry.



2. I have always loved horses, but had only passing touches with them "in the flesh". But my cousin shows a lovely Arabian, and this book gave me a glimpse into her world. Even though I'm not in the horse show circuit, I could relate to Michael and his wife's love of their horses, and the tales of the good, bad, ugly and just plain odd points of each horse as they got to know it. I think the book would also help people who've lost a well-loved pet or companion animal, as throughout the author's lifetime, he had to say goodbye to several wonderful horses, and he shares his emotions in a way that allows you to remember and grieve well your own losses. It's also a step into another world to think of the big city and finding ways to ride within its confines, and I especially loved the pictures from this time period of glamour. I highly recommend it for other "horse people".



3. I found some of the hyper-critical reviews surprising, almost as if the reviewers weren't reading the same book. As someone who has renewed her riding after a 20-year hiatus (having been, in large part, turned off by Claremont and the rutted bridle paths of Central Park), I found this book absolutely charming. The tales of Korda's various horses were heart-warming - I loved the tale of Missouri who still finds purpose in his life at 29, I cried for Hustle, and found the final chapter extremely moving. Korda has great affection and admiration for his wife after over 20 years of marriage, and who can/should argue with that? He also has great affection for his horses, with all their quirks, which is as it should be. Much of what some of the reviewers interpreted as superiority is actually self-deprecating humor of the English variety but which I thoroughly enjoyed.



4. I had high hopes for this book, but was sadly disapointed in the quality of the story and writing. While the equine anecdotes were often interesting or "struck a chord" (the only reason I give this book 2 stars), the writing of the book was about at the level of a talented fifth grader. The stories are presented out of chronological order, which is irritating and confusing; you
   will find yourself reading episodes involving horses of whose death's Korda has gone into great detail about only a chapter or two before, which is a serious detriment to the flow of the story and has you contantly flipping back and forth. Not to mention that it's hard to believe Korda was ever employed as an editor, considering his flimsy grasp on the rules of punctuation and lack of common sense about the flow of a scentence. An entire paragraph may be one legnthy scentence, laden with commas (commas, along with the occasional period, seeming to be the only punctuation Korda is familiar with-- either that or the only two punctuation keys working on his computer). He also interjects "aside" comments into scentences with no regard for how confusing the jumbled information appears to the reader. Many (if not most) of his scentences are severly overburdened and would benefit from putting some information in parenthesis, using a hyphen or semi-colon, or simply making the scentence into two or three seperate scentences.
   
   I did not, however, notice him over-exaulting his wife, a common complaint in the reviews. Nonetheless, I did become irritated with his belief that his horses were all so much more special than and superior to everyone elses' horses-- even horses who (to the author's own admission) enjoy throwing their rider are exaulted and touted as better than all other horses, so long as they belonged to either Korda or his wife. Every one of the horses Korda has ever owned, he seems to believe, is the "best horse in the world". One eventually begins to wonder why Korda wote the book, as he continually critisizes fervent horse people and repeatedly admits that horses are but a hobby for him, not a true passion.
   Ultimately, I'd say read the book if you're very into horses and can get it free or cheap. Someone familiar with the horse world (especially Hunting or 3 Day Eventing) will certainly get a chuckle at some of the characters in the book, and as mentioned certain aspects of the anecdotes certainly strike a chord. However, be prepared for a frustrating, poorly written read as well as some general confusion due to the grammar and chronology of the book.



5. I found Horse People to be highly amusing, if a little too centered on the riding career of the author's wife and the world of eventing.
   
   I grew up in Southern California in the world of horses and I disagree with the author's analogy of "food stamps and old paint" in his description of Western horse owners. While I did know many people of modest means who owned high-dollar horses, I did not know any on the dole. Most of them were working class, as was my father. We had good horses of good breeding and we managed to take pretty good care of them--which was also true of most of the people we knew.
   
   I also knew real movers and shakers when I was coming up and, although some might criticize Korda's excessive attention to their world, he has them pretty well pegged, in my opinion. They're important, in my view--since it is they that help our cherished traditions continue--since only they can really afford to indulge themselves fully in this expensive endeavor. Also, it is they who provide employment for the countless trainers and other handlers, who are truly the unsung heroes of the equine industry.
   
   I do feel that he could have gone a little more into the details of horse rescue and retirement, which is carried on by people of relatively modest means all over the country. I also feel that he could have discussed the horse meat industry in a little more detail. For example, he might have mentioned the growing equine theft problem that it has given rise to, now that it is profitable for any petty criminal to steal a horse that might be convenient and sell him by the pound to the killers--something that happens frequently and almost happened to one of my horses about a year ago.
   
   Still, I highly recommend this to horse people and non-horse people. Above all, it is a fun read and maybe it will inspire more horse people, from other walks (or rides) of the "riding life" to tell their stories.