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Conference noted::equitation

Title:Equine Notes Conference
Notice:Topics List=4, Horses 4Sale/Wanted=150, Equip 4Sale/Wanted=151
Moderator:MTADMS::COBURNIO
Created:Tue Feb 11 1986
Last Modified:Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:2080
Total number of notes:22383

1695.0. "Your Top 5 books?" by DECWET::JDADDAMIO (When in doubt, cop out!) Tue Dec 29 1992 14:50

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that Robin Bledsoe had sent out a new catalog.
In it she had a customer survey that I filled out. One of her questions gave 
me an idea for what I THINK may be an interesting topic. 

What are your 5 all-time favorite horse books? Any categories at all. Beloved 
children's books. Books that have influenced your life with horses or your
dreams about horses in anyway. Personally, I found it VERY difficult to limit
my selection to just 5 books. I had to discard another 5-10 that were/are
very important to me. 

Judging by the diversity of interests among our noters, I doubt that we'll 
get anything like a "Top 10" or even "Top 20" but I thought it would be fun.

Here are my 5(Well, six actually! I couldn't decide between 2 of Seunig's 
books):
1. The Black Stallion, Walter Farley
2. Horsemastership, Margaret Cabell Self - I grew up reading this in the 50's.
                    It was my introduction to the finer points of riding,etc.
                    I must have read it 10-15 times! That was a library book
                    so I bought a copy when it was reprinted a few years ago.
3. Walder Seunig's "Horsemanship" and/or "Essence of Horsemanship" - If pushed
                    I'd probably pick "Horsemanship" because he discusses 
                    the theory behind his techniques. But, it's so big and 
                    hard to find what you're looking for that I use "Essence" 
                    more frequently.
4. The Complete Training of Horse and Rider, Alois Podhajsky
5. Riding Toward the Light, Paul Belasik - Not a technical dressage book but 
                    it helped me gain more insight into a few things that 
                    had puzzled me.
T.RTitleUserPersonal
Name		DateLines
1695.1DECWET::DADDAMIODesign Twice, Code OnceThu Dec 31 1992 13:2813
    I had a hard time limiting my selections to 5 also, but here they are:
    
    National Velvet - Enid Bagnold
    The Black Stallion - Walter Farley
    Making the Most of Your Horse - Jan Dickerson
    The Complete Training of Horse and Rider - Alois Podhajsky
    Misconceptions and Simple Truths in Dressage - Dr. HLM van Schaik
    
    I grew up reading the first 2 (actually the whole Black Stallion/Island
    Stallion series), the next 2 started my interest in dressage, and the
    last reenforced all that I learned from lessons with Dr. van Schaik.
    
    						Jan
1695.2Reader survey resultsDECWET::JDADDAMIOSeattle Rain Festival: 1/1-12/31Mon May 16 1994 20:2243
The results of the book dealer's survey from last year... I've been
meaning to post this for a couple months but.... 

"A big thank you to all of you who returned the customer questionnaire...

Who are you and what kind of horses do you like? well, you live in every 
state and over 15 countries. About two-thirds of you own one or more 
horses, and another one-fifth ride other people's horses. You use your 
horses chiefly for dressage, driving, jumping and trail riding---and in
literally dozens of other ways. Almost half of you show or compete and 
about one-third work or volunteer in the horse industry. You're involved 
with over 30 different breeds, but the overwhelming favorite is the 
Thoroughbred(one-third of you) followed closely by the Quarter Horse 
and Arabian, then by the Appaloosa, Andalusian and Saddlebred.

What are your favorite horse books? This was a bit of a surprise. Based on
the titles people ask for over and over, we expected clusters of favorite 
books - and indeed there are some. But after the most popular ten or so 
titles, you listed over 150 different books. Clearly every author has 
something to say that speaks to someone somewhere!

The winner going away was The Black Stallion series, named by one-fifth of 
you. Next come Black Beauty, books by Marguerite Henry(especially King of 
the Wind, Album of Horses and Black Gold), and Smoky. Tied in fifth place 
are Centered Riding by Sally Swift, Horses Are Made To Be Horses by Franz
Mairinger, various Dick Francis novels, and My Friend Flicka.

"My Christmas fantasy book would be a dressage murder mystery by Dick Francis 
and illustrated by Paul Brown," wrote one reader...

Sincerely,
Robin Bledsoe"

    
    So, there you have it. Franz Mairinger's Horses Are Made To Be Horses
    was one of the books I had a tough time leaving out. Another was Jan
    Dickerson's Make the Most of Your Horse.
    
    I was a little surprised by the favorite breeds, especially after that 
    list of most popular activities! My guess is that her clients are not 
    typical of the horse world in general...

John