cold cold cold books cold
Jan. 26th, 2009 09:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancing_crowyah, I will go riding.
'm just waiting till the temp tops 15F, because that is just my own stupid mental limit to exactly how cold it can be and I stillhave to get to ride. It was 0F (-17C) early this morning, and it is still cooooold.
I finished a strange little book yesterday. It was like the person had read all the stable intrigue/horse show/girl&pony stories, and reproduced them all together in one lumpy book, without actually understanding how any of it works: how to keep a horse sound, what judges look for in a hunter class or an equitation class, how to train a horse to jump, what a jumping class looks like, the work that actually happens when a horse is shod or worked, or put away. I found it very frustrating, and kind of funny.
On the other hand, Monica Dickens has a perfect grip on what it takes to keep horses. I have House at Land's End which I've read repeatedly and love, and Follyfoot which I haven't read, and looks like it was part of a series, even perhaps part of a series that the BBC made a kid's TV show out of. I started Follyfoot and it made me laugh twice in the first chapter, from the correctness of the descriptions of the people and the horses. She is the author of one of the other adult riding books, called Talking of Horses. I recommend it highly, just for the happy descriptions of rides she has taken and horses she has loved.
The last adult book is an extremely hard to find object called A Breed of Horses. Moyra Williams, the woman who wrote it, found a two year old she liked the looks of, bought her, and then bred her and took amazing notes on the growing up and training of the resulting horses. She even has a giant table in the back of characteristics of the different offspring at key points in their careers. There are used copies around, which is good, because for years it was unfindable, and well worth the read. While she looks at breeding and training, she is also trying to tease apart some feeling for inherited and taught traits in horses. I like the tone of the writing as much as anything she says, and there are some descriptions of horses' responses to things (pasture mates, new experiences, object) that crack me up.
'm just waiting till the temp tops 15F, because that is just my own stupid mental limit to exactly how cold it can be and I still
I finished a strange little book yesterday. It was like the person had read all the stable intrigue/horse show/girl&pony stories, and reproduced them all together in one lumpy book, without actually understanding how any of it works: how to keep a horse sound, what judges look for in a hunter class or an equitation class, how to train a horse to jump, what a jumping class looks like, the work that actually happens when a horse is shod or worked, or put away. I found it very frustrating, and kind of funny.
On the other hand, Monica Dickens has a perfect grip on what it takes to keep horses. I have House at Land's End which I've read repeatedly and love, and Follyfoot which I haven't read, and looks like it was part of a series, even perhaps part of a series that the BBC made a kid's TV show out of. I started Follyfoot and it made me laugh twice in the first chapter, from the correctness of the descriptions of the people and the horses. She is the author of one of the other adult riding books, called Talking of Horses. I recommend it highly, just for the happy descriptions of rides she has taken and horses she has loved.
The last adult book is an extremely hard to find object called A Breed of Horses. Moyra Williams, the woman who wrote it, found a two year old she liked the looks of, bought her, and then bred her and took amazing notes on the growing up and training of the resulting horses. She even has a giant table in the back of characteristics of the different offspring at key points in their careers. There are used copies around, which is good, because for years it was unfindable, and well worth the read. While she looks at breeding and training, she is also trying to tease apart some feeling for inherited and taught traits in horses. I like the tone of the writing as much as anything she says, and there are some descriptions of horses' responses to things (pasture mates, new experiences, object) that crack me up.
