Summer Series: The Black Stallion Series Re-Read

I've wanted to do this for a while now, and if anyone would like to join in and make it a blog hop, I'd be delighted.

In short, on Fridays this summer, I'll be re-reading the books in Walter Farley's Black Stallion series. I'll try to match up what I read with my childhood memories, point out absurdities, revel in nostalgia, and raise some bigger picture questions.

So here's the list of the series according to Wikipedia:

1. The Black Stallion (1941)
2. The Black Stallion Returns (1945)
3. Son of the Black Stallion (1947)
4. The Island Stallion (1948)
5. The Black Stallion and Satan (1949)
6. The Blood Bay Colt (1951)
7. The Island Stallion's Fury (1951)
8. The Black Stallion's Filly (1952)
9. The Black Stallion Revolts (1953)
10. The Black Stallion's Sulky Colt (1954)
11. The Island Stallion Races (1955)
12. The Black Stallion's Courage (1956)
13. The Black Stallion Mystery (1957)
14. The Horse Tamer (1958)
15. The Black Stallion and Flame (1960)
16. Man o' War (1962)
17. The Black Stallion Challenged (1964)
18. The Black Stallion's Ghost (1969)
19. The Black Stallion and the Girl (1971)
20. The Black Stallion Legend (1983)

They span 42 years of publishing; Walter Farley wrote the first book while still in high school, which explains a lot. There are some real highs (no joke, I still get choked up thinking about the end of The Black Stallion and Satan) and oh boy, are there some lows that I bet we've all repressed together. I'll get to them all. Obviously, this will take me past the summer and into the fall - I'll decide in September or so whether I want to keep going or save the second half of them for next summer.

Next week, I start with The Black Stallion itself, the OG. I started reading it earlier this week and my most pressing question so far is what exactly does it mean when a horse whistles? Can someone help me puzzle this out? It's clearly not a high pitched screaming whinny, because the Black also screams CONSTANTLY. But he announces every.single.thing. he does with a whistle and it's making me crazy.

Book Review: Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs: The Life of Velma Johnston

Wild Horse Annie and the Last of the Mustangs: The Life of Velma Johnston
by David Cruise & Alison Griffiths

If you've read Marguerite Henry's Mustang: Wild Spirit of the West, then you have some passing familiarity with the story of the American mustangs and with Velma Johnston, the Nevadan housewife who made it her personal crusade to save them.

If that's all you've read about the preservation battle behind the mustang, then you've only got a quarter of the story. This book is a superb way to get the rest of it.

Velma Johnston was born in small-town Reno, Nevada. Stricken with polio at an early age, she grew up solitary, smart, and driven. She spent her entire life in pain from post-polio syndrome and facing a world that judged her harshly for the hunched back and misshapen face that polio left behind.

One of the biggest strengths of this book is its unflinching, compassionate look into Velma's life, achieved through a deep dive into her personal papers - tens of thousands of pages of letters, primarily. The Velma you get to know through this book would have initially said she was happiest as a successful executive secretary to the owner of a real estate business and a ranch wife.

The trajectory of her life changed when she followed a truck dripping blood to discover that it was full of badly injured and dying mustangs. She and her husband Charlie were gradually drawn into a life of activism as they started finding and releasing mustangs that had been rounded up for dog food, then networking to stop roundups before they started. Soon, Velma was the central figure in a widening campaign to ban mustang roundups by airplane.

The book doesn't shy away from the cruelties inflicted on mustangs, and it does a good job of dispassionately presenting the various arguments for and against the mustang. It's perhaps a bit light on the history of the mustangs (a little more time spent on parsing the difference between "wild" and "feral," and the different emotional weights to each, would have given context to one of the main points of disagreement between mustang activists and cattle men), but gives a pretty decent overview of the ecological challenges of the Western ranges.

As someone who knew the broad outlines of the story, I found this telling of it to be superb. It was tightly and engagingly written, well-researched, and had a strong narrative and tight focus on Velma herself. Nor did it shy away from Velma's failings and character flaws, particularly in her dealings with photographer Gus Bundy and then in her relationship with Marguerite Henry (which began warmly but grew overly emotional and difficult). The section dealing with Henry was actually one of the best in the book, since it allowed both for a grounding of the broader story and for a reflection on Velma's life and character.

While it presents both sides fairly, the book can probably be said to have a point of view that is pro-mustang. The Bureau of Land Management doesn't come off terribly well, though all of the most damning material is simple statements of fact and quotes from BLM officials. (The authors acknowledge this in a note at the end.)

University of Reno - Nevada, Special Collections

Ultimately, the last chapter after Velma's death is the most unsatisfying; she passed away just in the midst of the architecture of wild horse management as we know it today, with its inherent contradictions and fatal flaws. It's especially depressing because she fought for a comprehensive scientific range management from the start, and never saw that urgently needed piece of the puzzle realized. Without thoughtful, objective study, it was inevitable that we get to the place we are now, where no one can even agree on the number of mustangs in the West, much less how they actually use the range and how to effectively balance the needs of the flora and fauna.

In that last chapter, Cruise & Griffiths bring the fight quickly up to date and touch on the process of adoption and the regular Congressional attempts to round up mustangs for slaughter again. They also point out how deeply unsatisfying Velma herself would've found the holding pen system, in which thousands of mustangs are rounded up and simply transferred from the range and pastured on private land, paid for by tax dollars.

Despite its muddy ending, this is a really terrific book. I'm very picky about my narrative nonfiction: the writing has to be good, the interpretation deft, and the research solid. This ticks all of those boxes. I generally have even less patients for topics I already have a background in, but this holds up to that test as well. I genuinely couldn't put it down.

If you're looking for a thoughtful read about horses and history, I strongly recommend this. If you want to understand more about mustangs and how we've reached this point in our national discourse about them, it's essential reading.

Giveaway: Stablekeeping by Cherry Hill

If you're not familiar with Cherry Hill's work, you really ought to be. She and her husband, Richard Klimesh, have co-authored some of the most useful and informative books out there for horse owners. I own probably 10 or 12 of their books, and each one has terrific information, well-organized, well-illustrated, and sensible.

There's a school of horsekeeping thought that is all about the Ideal and the Perfect and then there's a school that has well-thought out reasons for everything, takes workarounds into consideration, and gives you things to consider you never realized would factor in. Cherry Hill's books are in that latter category. I have learned something every time I've picked up one of her books.

In unpacking my books into the new house, I discovered that I own two copies of one of her best books, Stablekeeping. Here's the book summary:

Learn to design and maintain a high-quality barn with this complete stablekeeping reference. Expert Cherry Hill draws on decades of horsekeeping experience to help you provide a safe, efficient, healthy living environment for your horse. Instructive text and more than 250 photographs cover topics such as stalls, tack rooms, work and storage areas, sanitation and pest control, feeding practices, safety, emergencies, and more.

Even if you just board your horse, there's something here for you to help your horse. And who hasn't spent hours and hours designing their dream farm? Get more imagination fodder here.

SO! I'm going to give away my extra copy of the book to a blog reader. You can enter via the Rafflecopter below. The giveaway will end on Friday, November 20. There are a bunch of ways you can enter the giveaway; pick just one or all of them. The easiest is to leave a comment on this blog sharing your best organizing tip for around the barn, in the spirit of the book. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Readalong Blog Hop & Book Review: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

Welcome to the Marguerite Henry Readalong Blog Hop! Here's my review of King of the Wind, and you'll find the blog hop code at the bottom of the post. I'm excited to read everyone else's thoughts. :)

King of the Wind
by Marguerite Henry

I'm glad this was the book we voted on for this blog hop, because in some objective ways it's the best of Henry's work. It has everything that's typical of her books - boy + horse, hardship, loving homes after a lifetime of difficulty, a truly special horse, Wesley Dennis illustrations, and quirky animals - and add to that some really compelling history.

If you haven't read it, here's the gist: a slave boy named Agba raises an orphaned colt, named Sham, in the stables of the sultan of Morocco. That colt grows to a stallion who is sent to France, and then to England, encountering hardships along the way. Agba stays with Sham throughout his life and eventually sees him become the pride of the Earl of Godolphin's stables, passing on his speed to his offspring and becoming a founding sire of the Thoroughbred breed.

I do love this book. Reading it is an intensely nostalgic experience, and I can almost remember all the many places I read and re-read it as a child when I am in the midst of my favorite scenes. It's an intensely sensory book: I'll never forget the breaking of the fast of Ramadan in the opening scene.

There are some really fantastic things about this book, and one thing I noticed on this re-read was how well Henry portrays a Muslim culture. It's dated, yes, and has a bit too much "mystery of the East" going on (see also, Orientalism, but honestly it was written in 1949 so for its time it's pretty grat), but it's a sensitive, forthright portrayal of a hero who is a) a person of color and b) a devout Muslim. The world needs more of that!

The cast of secondary characters are also really wonderful, and support the main narrative in note-perfect ways, from the French court to the streets of London. One character that stood out in particular was Jethro Coke, the Quaker who rescues Sham and Agba from Paris, but who caves to his daughter's demands and gets rid of Sham after his son-in-law turns out to be a foppish, useless idiot who can't ride. That's so human - so often in stories like this people are wholly good or wholly bad, and the people in this book are often mixed up and acting in unexpectedly disappointing ways.

That said, there are a few things I really don't like about this book. First and foremost, it plays way too much into the "specialest horse of all" trope. If I were presented with a horse who behaved as Sham does throughout this book, I would not think he was a magical horse. I would think he was an utter shit who needed to lose his testicles pronto. (Seriously, though, how did he make it to the end of the book ungelded? HOW?) He only answers to Agba. He routinely misbehaves. To be fair - no one actually takes the time to train him (including Agba...) so it is not entirely his fault but the book would also have us believe that he behaves when he wants to, and he doesn't when he doesn't, and that's part of his charm, amirite? (NO.)

There's also some of the usual stretching of equine physiology: are you telling me that someone thought it would be a good idea to have horses fast for Ramadan? No one colicked? In the desert? (I wonder how historically accurate that is?) All the crazy things that Sham has to do and put up with. The fact that a series of experienced horsemen look at Sham and think he's not a quality horse, when any half-decent horseperson can look even at a starved horse and get an idea for its quality. Yes, it's harder; no, it's not impossible.

All in all, though, this is a wonderful book. I read it in one big gulp, and have easily read it two dozen times over the years. It's nearly a perfect horse story, and it certainly hits all its emotional moments squarely on the head. Henry knows her horses, and the horse behavior is - naughtiness notwithstanding - compellingly described. Anyone could sympathize with Agba's plight and his devotion to his horse. I love it. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good horse book to read, and especially to kids who are ready to get sucked into the horse world.

An InLinkz Link-up

Marguerite Henry Readalong Blog Hop: Poll Results!

The results are in!

We'll read King of the Wind, Henry's Newberry Award-winning story about the origins of the Godolphin Arabian, one of the founding stallions of the Thoroughbred breed.

You can buy it new here on Amazon, used here on Half.com, or check it out from your local library.

Start reading! I'll post here on Friday, November 7 with my review, and the blog hop link code. 

Poll: Which Marguerite Henry Book Should We Read First?

I got enough positive responses to my poll about a Marguerite Henry readalong that I'm going to go ahead and do it. So, here's a poll about which book we should read! Again, the idea is that everyone reads the book and publishes their review as part of the blog hop, on or around the same date. We'll do this a few times for different books if it works out.



Here's my proposed timeline:

October 22: Poll closes
October 23: Announcement of winner, start reading!
November 7: Blog hop post here with my review

Book Review: The Black Stallion's Sulky Colt

The Black Stallion's Sulky Colt
Walter Farley

Oh, boy. I bought this for $2 at a used book store because of the cover: I couldn't resist. Hands-down my favorite cover era for the Black Stallion books. I had vaguely positive memories of The Blood Bay Colt and Jimmy and Tom and ever-so-vague memories of this book, so this would be good, right?

Wrong. Oh, it wasn't bad, in the way of that Island Stallion book with the aliens (YES REALLY), but nor was it a Black Stallion and Satan, or The Black Stallion's Filly, either.

Let me summarize this book for you.

Tom is an asshole.
Alec is an asshole.
Henry is an asshole.
Jimmy is an asshole.
Bonfire puts up with them all.

So let me back up. This book picks up after the storyline of The Blood Bay Colt. Bonfire, the second son of the Black (out of a harness mare named Volo Queen, because why not breed your nutjob mystery stallion to a Standardbred) has moved from the county fair circuit to the big time, and is prepping for the Hambletonian. One night, Alec Ramsay decides to go see Bonfire race; it just so happens that during the race he watches, Bonfire gets into a bad wreck. Thereafter, Bonfire is nervous and jumpy and seemingly ruined for harness racing.

If you'e ever read a single Black Stallion book, you don't need me to tell you what happens next. If you haven't, know that Alec takes over the reins and mysteriously a) is instantly an expert sulky driver and b) gets his driving license by magic after Tom is injured. Despite unexplained and bizarre prejudices against harness racing, Henry Dailey arrives on scene to save the day. Alec and Henry help Bonfire overcome his (um, totally justified) fear, thanks to a clever mechanical hood & blinker arrangement, and then win the Hambletonian. Shocking, right? (Yeah, no.)

Things that annoyed me about this book:
- all the characters who were not horses
- Henry's bizarro prejudices
- the way Alec and Henry came into the harness racing world and never asked anyone to explain their training techniques, simply forged ahead with their own and were of course miraculously succesful
- the deification of Alec and Henry
- how poor Tom was basically turned into a demon for plot purposes
- how horrible everyone was to the horses, while outwardly talking about being gentle and easing them along and blah blah

Things that I really liked about this book:
- Walter Farley writes a racing scene second to none; all of Bonfire's races were genuinely exciting and tense
- quirky horse antics! I never get tired of quirky horse antics in these books
- it was a short, straightforward story told relatively well

Anyone else read this one? Thoughts?

Blog Hop Idea: Marguerite Henry Readalong

I was happy to see how many people liked my review of Black Gold, and had fond memories of reading Marguerite Henry books. I've been looking over my collection of horse books for the last few days, thinking how many other great books she wrote.

I thought it might be fun to host a blog hop readalong of Marguerite Henry books. She wrote, apparently, 16 of them, which actually seems like a small number now that I see it in print!

I have one question - well two questions.

First, would anyone actually participate?

Second, should I do it so that you pick whatever Marguerite Henry book you want and then say 2 weeks later post a review?

Or should we all vote on a particular book to read, and do that 3 or 4 times?

So, a poll. Comment and let me know if you'd be interested in doing these, and vote in the poll to tell me how you think we should run it.

Book Review: Black Gold by Marguerite Henry

Black Gold
by Marguerite Henry

Otherwise known as, god damn you anyway, I wasn't doing anything with that heart, you go ahead and shatter it into a million pieces.

So for various reasons that I will talk about in a little while, I found myself at the town library seeking out Marguerite Henry books. I had zero intention of re-reading Black Gold, but there it was on the shelf, in the big hardcover edition, with Wesley Dennis illustrations. I couldn't not. (There oughta be a law about publishing Marguerite Henry books without Wesley Dennis illustrations: I'm looking at you, current crappy paperback editions.)

Black Gold is one of Henry's YA re-tellings of a true historical story, which actually sums up most of her canon, now that I think about it. It has the requisite boy who falls in love with the young horse, clever personalities, quirky details, and really wonderful writing. The real Black Gold was maybe not so mythical or personable, but in many essentials, the story is the same.

In summary: Black Gold is the son of the sprint mare U-See-It, owned by Al and Rosa Hoots and trained by Hanley Webb. U-See-It was banned from the track after Hoots refused to give her up in a claiming race, and so the decision was made to breed her to Black Toney.

Black Gold proved to be an excellent racer himself, and won the 1924 Kentucky Derby, among other stakes races. He was groomed and ridden by J.D. Mooney, who went on to be a celebrated jockey on other horses. Black Gold was retired for soundness issues, but proved to be a dud in the breeder's shed, so he went back to the track at age six. He broke down in a race in New Orleans: "on three legs and a heart, he finished the race."

Of all the things I had forgotten about Marguerite Henry - and it's been quite a while since I re-read her books - her writing was what surprised me the most on this re-read. It's not an easy story; while there is charm and sweetness in the early pages, the last third of the book is a heartwrenching story as Jaydee (Henry tells the story primarily through the lens of a young J.D. Mooney) recognizes Black Gold's soundness issues and has to make the painfully adult decision of stepping away from the horse. Hanley Webb is determined to race him and Jaydee can only watch as the horse is basically run into the ground.

In many ways, the final chapters of this book are incredibly adult for the audience. Hanley Webb's very real weaknesses and foibles take center stage and Black Gold's story becomes, clearly, a canvas for human frailty. His is not the story of the superhorse who retired to pasture, but rather the hard campaigner who tried and tried until he finally couldn't. In a softer story, Jaydee would have gotten through to Webb, and Black Gold would not have run that final race. Henry certainly pulls her punches in other historical stories (Justin Morgan Had a Horse stands out in particular) but not this one. The horse dies as a direct result of obviously poor decisions by people who should've been looking out for him.

As I said: not an easy read. But a really, really beautiful one. For example, here's Jaydee thinking about going back for Black Gold at the end of the book:

His eyes were set far off. He was thinking that all he'd be able to do for Black Gold would not be enough. He could sit bird-light on the little horse's neck. he could cluck to him with heart and soul. He could threaten him with the whip. But two things he knew - it would not be enough and it would not be fair.

In short: recommended, but have tissues handy.

Book Sale Find

Last night, I dropped a book I'd finished off at the library (Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay, which I'd thought would be more about horses given they are the catalyst for the whole plot, but...nope)

I glanced over the book sale cart because I am helpless in the face of books. And I made a GREAT find, for $1:

It is in gorgeous condition, and matches my copy of The Black Stallion perfectly (except my copy is kind of in pieces).

At one point I had dared Hannah to do a re-read of all the Black Stallion books. Maybe starting that will be a way to pretend that it will be summer again someday?

Book Review: Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West

Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West
by Deanne Stillman
(available on Amazon)

First things first: this was not the book I thought it was. I picked it up out of curiosity - it had quite a few accolades on the cover, was by a talented writer, and in all honesty I began it with a sinking heart. For some years now, I have had in mind the project of researching and writing a book about the place the mustang holds in the American imagination.

This was not that book. This was not even close to that book. In fact? This was not really a book about mustangs at all, save for perhaps the last 1/4 of it.

That's not to say it was a bad book, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, it was quite a good book: well-written, thoughtful, far-ranging, and a good read. Here was my biggest problem: this book made no attempt to define or distinguish the "mustang," which is to say the distinctly wild (or feral) horse that lives without human interaction or mediation in the American west.

Stillman's title and subtitle imply that she will write a history of those horses. That's not what she did. Instead, this book is more accurately a history of the horse in general in the American west. Which is fine! She does a nice light nonfiction job of that, telling stories about the horses belonging to early conquistadors, about cavalry horses, about cow ponies and cattle drives, about the horses in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, about movie horses. She clearly (despite her personal history) doesn't know a whole lot about horses, but she does know a whole lot about people, and does a really nice job in telling her stories.

So while I spent the first 3/4 of the book annoyed at her lack of distinction (mustang != any horse out west != free-roaming stock horses != any horse that she has decided fits a certain physical type), when I forced myself to step back and think "this is really about horses as companions in creating the history of the west" I liked the book much much better.

And then when she spends the last 1/4 actually talking about mustangs, actually parsing out the history of the wild/feral horses in the west in the mid to latter part of the 20th century? She does a really good job. Instead of an enjoyable but not gripping read it became a gripping and depressing and involved read. I couldn't put down the last 80 pages. It took me 2 weeks to read the first 240.

And in the end? I'm glad she didn't write the book I wanted to write, because that means it's still out there for me to tackle.

Book Review: Great Riding Schools of the World

I am an historian by training and by profession, which means that whenever I get the chance to buy an historic horse book I snap it up. Older editions of fictional favorites, old vet manuals, you name it.

When I spied this book on the shelf at a library book sale recently for the bargain price of $1 it was a no-brainer, and I snapped it right up.

It even had someone's horsey bookplate still in it! <3

The introduction starts by saying that at a certain FEI meeting in the 1970s, it was decided that equestrian sport was on the rise, and some bright soul had the idea to bring more public awareness to the "official" schools of countries around the world as an attempt to highlight where people could receive professional training.

It ends up being a picture-heavy, information-heavy romp through some really terrific horsemanship, some gorgeous facilities, and the inevitable conclusion that most of these schools are not really for the general public - they're more like finishing schools for pre-selected riders. Which I think everyone knew at the outset, but I am not complaining - this is a gorgeous book!

There are a LOT more riding schools than I had ever heard of, too. For instance, despite living with one of the proudest Swedish-Americans in the lower 48, I had no idea that Sweden had a national riding school!

All the Swedes! Each school is introduced by a two-page spread with their facilities and often their horses and riders. Then that's followed by as many as 20 pages of picture-heavy text about the facilities, the program of instruction, and what each school specializes in.

Switzerland (I know, right?) apparently specializes in insane cross-country jumps. Eeeeek.

The Cadre Noir in France, they would like you to know, are able to do all their haute ecole movements in unison. Click on that picture and zoom in if you will. It's kind of insane.

SPEAKING OF INSANE CROSS COUNTRY WHAT THE HELL.

England still drags its rings with a draft horse team!

This photo demonstrates something I wish would happen more often these days. It's a team of RSPCA inspectors getting a workshop and demonstration on carriage horses: proper handling, proper care, and how to evaluate what a healthy horse looks like generally. Isn't that a great idea?

Aaaand we're back to the nutso cross-country riding. England again. Please note the utter lack of helmet.

On close examination of this photograph, I believe that Michael Page and Grasshopper are jumping concrete drainage pipes. Lengthwise. I am not kidding.

George Morris, of course.

There are many, many other similar, gorgeous photos, and fascinating accompanying text. Some of it is very dated, but overall it's a great window into its time. I'm thrilled to have found it to ad to my collection.

Scorpio Races - On Sale!

Heads up!

Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races is on sale for the Kindle today - $1.99!

This is a not-horse book, but it is not a pegasus, unicorn, or other not-horse book. These are water horses: strange, carnivorous Capail Uisce, who can be captured from the surf and half-tamed. Each year, they are raced along the beach, and each year, many of their jockeys die.

I read this...oh, over a year ago, and I was particularly struck by how nicely Stiefvater crafted her water horses, and how unexpected the book was as a whole. Even the storylines you think will be cliches duck the obvious. (Some of the pro reviews compare it to The Hunger Games; it is not much like that, except in that both are excellent reads and involve danger and young people.)

Definitely worth $1.99 and a read!

The Eighty Dollar Champion

Heads up: this is a GREAT book, and it's on sale this month for $1.99 for the Kindle edition.

The Eighty Dollar Champion: Snowman, the horse that inspired a nation by Elizabeth Letts

I read it last summer after a recommendation by my boyfriend's mother of all people, who is lovely but not horsey at all. It lived up to her recommendation - it's an engaging read and a good telling of a good story. It gets a bit repetitive in spots, but that's really its only flaw. Go, read!

Book Review: The Horse Boy

The Horse Boy: A Father's Quest to Heal His Son
by Rupert Isaacson

I've had this book on the shelf for ages, having been keenly interested in the subject matter. The first barn I ever rode at was also a therapeutic riding center, and I've heard about the incredible strides that autistic children are sometimes able to make on horseback.

I gather from the many thousands of reviews on GoodReads that this was a hugely controversial book. I don't know enough about autism to really analyze the book from that perspective. Was Rowan "healed"? Is it even fair to say that an autistic child can or should be cured? Were the shamanic experiences that Isaacson sought part of Rowan's incredible gains, or is that simply correlation without cause? Certainly the way Isaacson structures the narrative and tells the story means that he wants us to believe, as he believes, that this journey is what helped his son. I gave my copy of the book to a friend who is currently doing graduate work in special education and has a wealth of experience with severely autistic children; I'll be interested to hear his opinion if/when he gets around to reading it.

What I can comment on with some knowledge are the horse bits in the book, and they are...not good. Isaacson first discovers that his son, Rowan, responds to horses when Rowan escapes and sprints between the legs of a neighbor's mare, Betsy. Rowan sprints up to a lot of horses during this book, and Isaacson's theory is that there is some instinctive communication going on between the autistic boy and the horses. Specifically, he describes the horses' reactions as submissive. Here's a typical passage:

And there it was again, the horse's head going down, the licking and chewing, the voluntary submission. At least Rowan would be safe with the horse. (Chapter 9: Fits and Starts)

Okay: to my knowledge, no equine behavior expert has yet pinned down the licking and chewing reflex specifically to submission. It is displayed in tandem with other submissive behavior, yes. That doesn't necessarily directly mean anything. I've observed it in other distinctly non-submissive situations. My best understanding of it is that it means the horse is thinking about something and processing. I do tend to interpret it as a positive signal when I'm working with a horse on the ground, but the pure submissive/dominant interpretation of horse relationships frustrates me.

Isaacson claims a wealth of equestrian experiences - foxhunting, dude ranching, and he seems to have the basics of dressage down - but he often talks about horses in a way that make him sound like a complete idiot. Case in point:

Even so, when I did have enough money, it was only enough to buy something cheap. The horse had to be athletic enough to hunt and do shows, but at the meager price I could afford the only such horse would be a failed racehorse off the track. And these, as all horse people know, come with one fatal flaw - they are complete lunatics. (Chapter 5: The Adventure Begins)

No they aren't, jackass.  I'm not even going to bother to deconstruct this one. He's flat-out wrong, that's all.

Isaacson displays questionable horsemanship in several other situations - riding Betsy into a "lather" repeatedly by galloping her endlessly just to please his son, for example. He never once, in the entire book, mentions wearing a helmet. For that matter, since his journey with Rowan, he has started a therapeutic riding center for autistic children, and in one photograph that accompanies the book, has three kids piled bareback on a saintly-looking bay gelding that he's using a dressage whip to...do what, exactly? Encourage into some kind of Spanish walk? The kids aren't wearing helmets. One of them is wearing Crocs. In short, it's a photo right out of an illiterate Craigslist ad.

Not all the horse stuff is bad. Some of it is just there, in the background. For every horse person there are at least two opinions on the right way to do something, and there were plenty of things that I didn't agree with but weren't disastrous. Overall, it really was a good, thought-provoking and occasionally touching read, and I actually would recommend it - just so long as you turn a blind eye to his horsemanship from time to time.

Book Review: Chosen By a Horse

Chosen By a Horse: How a Broken Horse Fixed a Broken Heart
by Susan Richards


My mother lent this to me a very long time ago, and now that I am no longer in graduate school, I've been working through my backlog of loaned and long-ago-purchased books. I picked this up to head off to a long weekend at a house in the White Mountains, and it suited lazy hammock reading nicely.

Richards has a very straightforward, simple writing style. Probably about half the time it worked for me, and the other half I felt frustrated that she was clearly describing things far too plainly. I can tell there's a good, knowledgeable horsewoman in there, but several times I spotted her dumbing down her descriptions or analyses for a broader audience.

The story of Lay Me Down really was touching, and well-told. The mare sounds like she was utterly wonderful, with loads of personality. I'm not sure she "fixed" Richards; as another reviewer pointed out, the battles with alcoholism and abandonment were in Richards' past by the time she adopted the mare. If there was some more profound connection between the mare's story and Richards moving to a new phase of her life - I didn't get it.

The only parts that truly annoyed me were some of Richards' horsekeeping decisions. More than anything else, her decision to enclose her barn inside her pasture and then...leave the stalls open all day, let the horses wander in and out of stalls seemingly at will, and feed them wherever they hung out, sometimes in the aisle, really, REALLY grated on me. I'm not sure what she expected would happen with an alpha mare and a small enclosed space. That's an accident that should NEVER have happened, and from descriptions later in the book she really had no intention of fixing the problem.

Anyway. Those reservations aside, this was a pleasant enough read. It didn't change my life, but I also found it quite readable and read to the end - something of a feat for me and books recently.