When I was learning to ride, the manuals were essentially rehearsed chivalric manuals: horses had to obey, and the rider’s job was to know how to give orders. that changed in the 1960s, when trainers who had never been in the cavalry began to pay attention to the behavior of the horses. for my first middle grade series, the oak valley ranch horses, i wanted to focus on that, so i set it in the mid 60’s and introduced trainers with new techniques.
my new book, riding lessons, is about ellen, a girl who loves horses but has to beg to be taught how to ride. she is what was once known as “contrary”: she wants to get her way and knows how to get it (sometimes subterfuge). I wasn’t her when I was a kid, but I would have loved to be her friend.
You are reading: Best books about horses
1. The British Society of Horses and Pony Club Riding ManualWhen I was a clumsy and ignorant 11 year old boy, a friend made me join the Pony Club and introduced me to this book – and the words “headstall”, “loose box”, “gymkhana” and “day rug” in the process. I learned that horses teach their riders to pay attention, be aware of their body, hold back, follow procedure, and observe others. Joan Wanklyn’s elegant illustrations gave the horses intentions and personality.
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2. black beauty by anna sewell not a children’s book that has become a children’s book, this story of an abused horse looking at other abused horses she has met was written by a woman who received just £40 for her efforts and died after a while. after its publication.
3. national velvet by enid bagnoldwhen i first read national velvet, i read it for the horse; now I read it for the representation of the eccentric velvet family. Of course, the Great Velvet National Victory arc is absolutely incredible, but his brothers, his parents, and I are people of his time and place, coping with his strange and murky circumstances. I love how outspoken bagnold is, but also how she turns amazing parts like the velvet race into vivid, believable details of the weather, chaos, and chance events.
4. The Kellys and the O’Kellys by Anthony Trolope Trolope’s second novel is about Ireland, women, money and family friction, but my favorite parts take place on the lawn. Dot Blake is one of the great horse racing characters in fiction, not because he’s so colorful but because he’s so smart. he gives good advice on careers and marriage, and uses many intemperate men without ever being himself. trollope knew his horses and his game: there’s a carefully choreographed hunting scene at his novel orley farm, and in sons of the duke, lord silverbridge is swindled out of what would now be £7 million by a racecourse scoundrel. /p>
5. Carrot for a Chestnut by Dick Francis I have read and enjoyed many of Francis’s novels, but this short story, originally published in Sports Illustrated, is his most brilliant work. It is about two brothers, sons of a coach. one brother is favored over the other and gets to ride the best horses; the other decides to poison his brother’s mount. I will stop there. the plot twist is excellent and the psychological insights are amazing.
6. Saratoga Fleshpot by Stephen Dobynsdobyns is best known for his poetry, but in the 1990s he wrote a series of humorous crime novels set in Saratoga, New York. I love them all, but this one, about the Saratoga Summer Horse Sales, a two-year-old who bites the butt cheeks of anyone near him, and the hilarious Victor Plotz, is hard to beat. dobyns is a master of the language and seems to know horse racing inside and out.
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7. the horse, the wheel, and language : how the bronze age horsemen of the eurasian steppes shaped the modern world by david wonthony one of my favorites may be a book i haven’t finished but dip into often and with pleasure? combines three of my greatest interests: horses, travel and philology. When Antony writes about Mycenae, I remember staring at the stone block of the city gate where chariot wheels left ruts in the cobblestones. when he talks about dead languages, i remember reading bede in my old english class. when he writes about breaking horses, I see a wide, rolling steppe that I have never visited. I love history books and this is one of my favorites.
8. slow horses, fast women by damon runyon the collection is out of print and hard to find. the main collection of printed runyon, boys and dolls and other writings, doesn’t contain a particular story that I love: all horse players die broke. however, runyon’s style is always different, fun and insightful. a woman is a “judy”, a gun is a “betsy”, and a head is a “pimple”, as in: “although only last night i’m standing in the same spot wondering where i can borrow a betsy to shoot myself with hit through the shin.”
9. talking to horses by henry blake i have read many “horse whisperers” books. Henry Blake was born in the 1920s, grew up with horses, and got into the business of turning rascals into useful animals. Blake had a natural touch: One day, he took five horses in a row out hunting foxes because the hunts kept coming across his property, and he saw it as an opportunity to pounce on them one by one, to give them something to do. Of all the proponents of human training methods, Blake is the funniest.
10. deborah butterfield by robert gordon i wrote an introduction to this book, but the book is just a gateway to photographs of the incredible artwork of deborah butterfield, sculptor and dressage rider. many of her cast bronze horses start out as branches and pieces of wood, which she transforms into horses (up to seven feet at the withers) and then turns them into bronze using the lost-wax casting method. how can these animals look so energetic and alive? I have no idea, but they do.
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