SHADOWOOD’S GUIDE to ESSENTIAL HORSE BOOKS
Horse Training and Riding Books
See Also: Horse Care and Stable Management Books
Shadowood is pleased to offer a selection of recommended equestrian books, carefully chosen for their quality and value. These titles cover a range of topics for horse enthusiasts, from care and training to equestrian history and culture.
These selections are by the distinguished animal trainer, Linda Tellington-Jones. They combine her extraordinarily successful experiences performing the Tellington TTouch with solid how-to advice that anyone can use to release the pain, fear, and tension so many animals suffer. Tellington-Jones’ technique combines the advantages of veterinary medicine with therapeutic bodywork.
An Introduction to the Tellington-Jones Equine Awareness Method: The T.E.A.M. Approach to Problem-Free Training
Getting in Touch: Understand and Influence Your Horse’s Personality
Let’s Ride!: With Linda Tellington-Jones: Fun and Teamwork With Your Horse or Pony
The following three books are authored by Mary Wanless, a widely known and respected trainer committed to riding with and for the horse rather than just on top of him.
For the Good of the Horse
The Natural Rider: A Right-Brain Approach to Riding
Ride With Your Mind: An Illustrated Masterclass in Right Brain Riding
Finally, someone actually explains how to ride. This book finally allowed me to understand what my riding instructors were actually asking me to do. Mary Wanless explains, in detail, with plenty of actual photographs, how exactly anyone can achieve that perfect, balanced seat. (Description provided by an anonymous reader).
Don’t Shoot the Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training
by Karen Pryor
I would lean towards saying that no one can be a real trainer until they have read this book or one like it. Although not geared completely towards horses, this book provides invaluable information about training everything from dogs to dolphins to husbands. This book gave me a fresh look at training and opened my eyes to the importance of such issues as timing, positive and negative reinforcement, and why punishment is a generally ineffective training method. I really enjoyed the charts throughout the book, which list undesirable behaviors and how each method can be used to correct the behavior. This is the perfect book for anyone with the desire to train a horse, or for the college student in need of, ahem, adjusting their roommate. (Description provided by Karen Rust)
The Behaviour of Horses: In Relation to Management and Training
by Marthe Kiley-Worthington
This title is out of print. Although it is no longer available from the publisher, Amazon.com will query their network of used bookstores for you and send an update within one to two weeks.
Educating the Young Horse: The Thinking Trainer’s Guide
by Julian Westall
The Art of Long Reining
by Sylvia Stanier
Centered Riding
by Sally Swift, Jean McFarland, Mike Noble
A must-have text for riders in any discipline. Sally Swift’s book asks riders to visualize their way to a balanced, fluid, and confident riding style through targeted exercises that are easy to follow and bring immediate results. … I use Swift’s methods to help me ride beginning dressage, hunt seat, and western reining horses, and my form has improved greatly in all three. Get into the zen of riding, and get this book! (Description provided by Claire Thompson)
Hunter Seat Equitation
by George H. Morris, Conrad Homfeld
A classic by a world-renowned teacher and master equestrian–the definitive work on the art of teaching and riding the hunter seat, now updated to include refinements in Morris’s insightful program of riding instruction. B & W photographs throughout. (Description provided by the publisher)
Reflections on Riding and Jumping: Winning Techniques for Serious Riders
by William Steinkraus
Common Sense Dressage
by Sally O’Connor
O’Connor describes in detail exercises that build upon one another to strengthen and balance the dressage horse. She also explains many of the movements, what they should look and feel like, and what true balance and self-carriage are. The book is full of illustrations and photos to help explain the exercises. (Description provided by Karen Rust)
Saddle Seat Equitation
by Helen K. Crabtree
This is the definitive text on saddle seat riding by the world’s premier saddle seat trainer/instructor. This book covers every aspect of saddle seat equitation and competition, starting with the selection of the horse and ending with chapters on specific breed classes, including Saddlebred, Morgan, Arabian, and Tennessee Walking Horse. If you have an interest in this very stylized manner of riding, you must own this book!
This title is out of print. Although it is no longer available from the publisher, Amazon.com will query their network of used bookstores for you and send an update within one to two weeks.
Show Ring Success: A Rider’s Guide to Winning Strategies
by Kathleen Obenland
The United States Pony Club Manuals of Horsemanship
by Susan E. Harris, Ruth Ring Harvie
These are the manuals utilized by the U.S. Pony Club organization to prepare children to move from one level to the next. The information in these manuals is inherently correct, and though written for children, will prove invaluable to adult equestrians as well.
Western Horsemanship
by Richard Shrake
Horse Gaits, Balance and Movement
by Susan E. Harris, Francois L. De Ruffieu, Francois Lemaire De Ruffieu
Offers advice to horsemen who are concerned with helping the horse achieve the best movement it is capable of. Includes 300 drawings that demonstrate the kind of nuance and detail photographs do not permit. Topics include: basic structure and anatomy, the cycle of movement, gaits and transitions, balance and movement, poor movement, flexion, bending and lateral movement, conformation and movement, shoeing and movement, and how a rider affects movement. (review provided by Booknews, Inc.)
