I got one horse out of action with ulcers and the other has ongoing soundness issues… so does anyone have any good book recommendations geared towards eventing? I’d like to keep improving somehow even if I can’t do much riding
“Practical Eventing” by Sally O’Conner, “Training The 3 Day Event Horse and Rider” by James C. Wofford, or anything else he has written, and “The Complete Horse Riding Manuel” by William Micklem are some of my favorite.
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Give Your Horse a Chance by d’Endrody (sp?)
and Jimmy Wofford’s book(s)
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I’m not sure how much practical advice it’s going to provide, but I’m enjoying Jack Le Goff’s new biography. (Reportedly there is some in it.)
Also Denny Emerson’s ‘How Good Riders Get Good’.
Everything from Wofford.
I’ve read all of the above and still find Phillip Dutton’s Modern Eventing book to be absolutely the best on horsemanship required by this sport today. It’s got more detail and more actual advice than any of the others. By the way, listen to the great speech Boyd Martin gave at the USEA convention, too - it’s on the USEA podcast now I think. It’s about an hour long and it’s a good listen!
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I’m currently reading Training the Sport Horse by Christopher Bartle. I’m sure some of his success with the German team was due to his team approach (with other personnel) - but no harm in seeing how he trains horses, either.
The Event Groom’s Handbook has a lot of stable management advice - some of it dated as it’s geared towards the old ABCD long format.
You might want to try a sports psychology book while you are out of the saddle. A few suggestions: In Pursuit of Excellence (Terry Orlick); The Thinking Rider (Robert Schinke - former ULR).
Also, I liked The Rider’s Fitness book.
I like reading biographies in the off-season too. There are many to choose from. Lucinda Prior-Palmer’s (now Green) first book, Up, Up and Away is about her first horse Be Fair. It’s nice to read about how naughty he was when she got him, and how they climbed the levels together.
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Not about eventing, but very basic and very good–Training Hunters, Jumpers, and Hacks by General Harry D. Chamberlin, the father of the modern American Forward seat and author of the last Cavalry Manual. The Cavalry Manual itself is a truly great work on riding and training and many other things as well. Anything by Littauer is also worth reading.
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