I have a few favorites but I am looking for suggestions.
Memoirs, how-to, horse care, specific discipline riding instructions? Biographies?
What’s good?
Life in the Galloping Lane
In Service to the Horse: Chronicles of a Labor of Love
Not by a Long Shot : A Season at a Hard Luck Horse Track
Enjoyed all of these. My next read will be Headless Horsemen: A Tale of Chemical Colts, Subprime Sales Agents, and the Last Kentucky Derby on Steroids. We shall see
Agree with Odie on In Service to the Horse. The author also has a book called Kentucky Derby Dreams that follows the breeding and sales of the 2009 crop of TBs. Very interesting.
An eventing memoir: Finding My Distance by Julia Wendell. She’s also a poet, and I thought the writing and narrative were good. She rides as an amateur, so I could very much appreciate the ups and downs of trying to compete at the upper levels without being a BNT.
Renegade Champion: The Unlikely Rise of Fitzrada by Richard Rust. Amazing bio of one of the first women to break the glass ceiling of show jumping in the 1940s, with a former cavalry horse that was known as an outlaw.
I like Jane Savoie’s books about riding psychology and visualization.
Jim Wofford’s Training the Three-Day Event Horse and Rider.
How Good Riders Get Good by Denny Emerson. Great survey of top Riders in many disciplines, what habits or skills they have cultivated that helped them succeed, and a thought-provoking look at ways to assess your goals realistically.
I grew up reading pretty old books, so my choices may seem odd:
Alois Podhajsky - any of his books about the Spanish Riding School
William Steinkraus’ books on riding and jumping - so well-written and practical.
Jane Savoie - especially That Winning Feeling
Littauer’s Common Sense Horsemanship was written in the early 1900s, but is still great - I have a first edition, not sure if it’s still in print.
2 Likes
My all time favorite horse memoir is My Horses, My Teachers by Podhajsky.
Renegade Champion was a great read. Warts and all, that was an amazing woman.
Another one of my faves is Forward Motion by Holly Menino. She profiles three riders from three disciplines: eventing, dressage, and show jumping. She really gets the riders to open up about their philosophy of riding. It’s not a long book but goes very deep.
I also loved Horse People by Michael Korda.
I’ll have to check out In Service to and the Wendell books.
Thanks and keep them coming!
[QUOTE=Bristol Bay;8218142]
My all time favorite horse memoir is My Horses, My Teachers by Podhajsky.
Renegade Champion was a great read. Warts and all, that was an amazing woman.
Another one of my faves is Forward Motion by Holly Menino. She profiles three riders from three disciplines: eventing, dressage, and show jumping. She really gets the riders to open up about their philosophy of riding. It’s not a long book but goes very deep.
I also loved Horse People by Michael Korda.
I’ll have to check out In Service to and the Wendell books.
Thanks and keep them coming![/QUOTE]
Thanks for the heads up on the Menino book. I’ll keep an eye out for it.
Some of mine are pretty old too, but I love them.
Form Over Fences – Jane Marshall Dillon
School for Young Riders – "
The Art of Show Jumping – A. Talbot-Ponsonby
Light Horsekeeping – Helen Mather
Any horse book by Margaret Cabell Self
My Horses, My Teachers – Alois Podhajsky
Horses Are Made to Be Horses – Franz Mairinger
The Bit and the Reins – Friderike Butler
Heads Up, Heels Down – C.W. Anderson
Winning Your Spurs – Elaine Therese Moore and Paul Brown? (not sure about the authors; Amazon lists them with a book of this title so maybe it’s the same one I remember)
Pony to Jump – Dorian Williams(?)
The Hunt Country of America – Kitty Slater
Foxhunting: A Celebration in Photographs – Trevor Meeks, Kate Green
The Fox in the Cupboard – Jane Shilling
Man o’ War: A Legend Like Lightning – Dorothy Ours
The Kingmaker: How Northern Dancer Founded a Racing Dynasty – Avalyn Hunter
The Grand National – Reg Green
I haven’t read this one but came across it when author-checking some of my favorites and it sounds really interesting:
The Great Hound Match of 1905 – Martha Wolfe
Another couple of gems:
The English and Their Horses by Libby Purves. Out of print but available used on Amazon. She interviewed people from all walks of life who ride all kinds of horses. Gemina Goldsmith Kahn is profiled as a dressage-crazy preteen. Major Ferguson is in it with the Queen’s horses. The actor Anthony Andrews rides his jumper through a forest. Also Irish tinkers and working draft breeds. It’s just a cool slice of equestrian life in the 1980’s.
Cities of Gold by Douglas Preston (the best selling mystery writer) which chronicles his attempt to follow in the footsteps and hoof steps of the first explorer of the Southwest. It’s a great history of the area as well as being funny as heck.
Seabiscuit (Laura Hillenbrand): Loved the way she interwove the human stories with Seabiscuit’s story.
Riding and Jumping (William Steinkraus): A classic–one of the first horse books I read as a young rider way back when.
A Horse of Your Own (M.A. Stoneridge): An oldie but goodie about basic horse care. I have no idea if any of it is still relevant, but I read it cover-to-cover when I got it as a kid.
The Equestrian World (Keith Money): Mostly photos of many of the top riders from 50s and 60s (including a very young GM). Few color photos, but lots of fantastic shots of famous early riders and horses.
Ruffian - Burning from the Start by Jane Schwartz
Secretariat - The Making of a Champion by William Nack
Sea Biscuit - Laura Hillenbrand
Eighty Dollar Champion by Elisabeth Letts
Sgt. Reckless - America’s War Horse by Robin Hutton
Go the Distance by Nancy Loving, DVM
Adams and Stashak’s Lameness in Horses
A Horse Called Dragon - Lynn Hall
Phar Lap by Geoff Armstrong
Drum Runnin Fool by Donna Alverson
“Crazy Good” by Charles Leerhsen. It’s the story of the great Dan Patch.
Memoirs of a Longshot
Rascals and Racehorses
2 books by Cot Campbell — stories about his life on the racetrack. Funny and true insiders stories.
A Tale of Two Horses by Tschiffley. A travelogue of a trip from Buenos Aires to Washington, DC using two horses. A wonderful book.
A few of my favorites, oldies but goodies:
The Queen Rides by Judith Campbell (back when Princess Anne was doing Pony Club!)
Ride a White Horse by William Holt (the story of a man who rode his horse Trigger through England and down across the European continent)
The Horse America Made: The Story of the American Saddle Horse, by Louis Taylor
What are your favorites, Bristol Bay?
Talking of Horses by Monica Dickens, grand-daughter of Charles Dickens
by far my favourite.
[QUOTE=Rackonteur;8219287]
A few of my favorites, oldies but goodies:
The Queen Rides by Judith Campbell (back when Princess Anne was doing Pony Club!)
Ride a White Horse by William Holt (the story of a man who rode his horse Trigger through England and down across the European continent)
The Horse America Made: The Story of the American Saddle Horse, by Louis Taylor
What are your favorites, Bristol Bay?[/QUOTE]
I’ve mentioned the ones I could reread anytime. Especially The English and Their Horses. If I’m ever really down or sick, I reach for that one. Many of the stories are inspirational.
As far as horse care goes, How to be Your Own Vet (Sometimes) is never far away.
It turns out I have that Littauer book, Common Sense Horsemanship. it was on my nightstand.
One more book I have read several times and could reread tomorrow is Not By Accident by Samantha Dunn. It’s a memoir of when her leg was almost severed by her horse stepping on her. It took her a very long time to heal, so it’s the story of that journey, but also an examination of why she had all her life been accident prone. I met the author a few years ago at a library function and she not only signed her book for me, she did a little tap dance to show how healed she is. 
My Amazon cart is pretty full right now, by the way.
1 Like
And miles to go…true story of Arabian stallion wietz ii during WWII
1 Like
Understanding Equitation by Jean Saint-Fort Paillard. He has exceptional insight into the non-physical aspects of riding and communicates it well.
Damn, someone already mentioned “not by a long shot” - I really enjoyed that one
Guess I’ll just give that one another vote
