The October Horses


Genevieve Mckay - 2020
    But, somehow, that's exactly what she got.When a fateful encounter at the hospital introduces her to the world of horses, Bree is determined to make them a part of her new life. Things quickly spiral out of control when she becomes the caretaker to a pair of misfit thoroughbreds who also need a second chance.Will her strength and willpower be enough to beat the overwhelming odds that are stacked against them all?

Making It Happen: The Autobiography


Carl Hester - 2014
    In these memoirs, he tells the story of the passion for horse-riding which revolutionised his life and made him the champion he is today. Carl grew up on the remote Channel Island of Sark, moving to the UK mainland at the age of 16 to work with horses, mainly as a way to leave home. He could never have predicted what a great affinity he would have for dressage. Carl's career enjoyed a stratospheric rise as he progressed from working as a groom/rider to riding international dressage horses full time for renowned owners Dr and Mrs Bechtolsheimer, to training his own horses, and other top riders, to international success. Carl's early career revealed someone capable of monumental achievements. He provides a rare insight into both the people and the horses that drove him to victory.

Loxwood


Grace Wilkinson - 2016
    Counting down the days until she can leave school and work towards making her dream of riding round Badminton a reality, Georgia James spends her mornings exercising Thoroughbreds at the track. The rest of her time is spent at event rider Rose Holloway's yard, and thinking about Loxwood, whose future as a racehorse is uncertain. Always on the sidelines, is Georgia's hard work and patience about to pay off?

Dancing with Horses: The Art of Body Language


Klaus Ferdinand Hempfling - 1996
    A book on developing trust and harmony between horses and humans through the use of an innovative visual language.

Saddled: How a Spirited Horse Reined Me in and Set Me Free


Susan Richards - 2010
    She wrote it down in her journal, struck by the fact that it had taken nine years of waking up hung-over to name her illness. What had changed? Susan had a new horse, a spirited Morgan named Georgia, and, as she says: ""It had something to do with Georgia. It had something to do with making a commitment as enormous as caring for a horse that might live as my companion for the next forty years. It had something to do with love."" Every day begins with a morning ride. Every day Susan lives a little more and thinks about her mistakes a little less. Every day she learns a little more from Georgia, the kind of horse who doesn't go in for indecision, who doesn't apologize for her opinions, and who isn't afraid to be herself. In Georgia, Susan finds something to draw her back to herself, but also something to keep her steady and focused, to teach her about stepping carefully in unknown territory, to help her learn again about balance. This is a memoir about the power of animals to carry us through the toughest times of our lives--about the importance of constancy, the beauty of quiet, steadfast love, the way loving a good (and sometimes bad!) animal can keep you going. It's a wonderful story for Susan's (and Georgia's) fans, and for anyone who has ever loved an animal enough to keep on living.

Eclipse: The Horse That Changed Racing History Forever


Nicholas Clee - 2009
    An adventurer and rogue who has made his money through gambling, Dennis O'Kelly is also companion to the madam of a notorious London brothel.While O'Kelly is destined to remain an outcast to the racing establishment, his horse will go on to become the undisputed, undefeated champion of his sport. Eclipse's male-line descendants include Secretariat, Barbaro, and all but three of the Kentucky Derby winners of the past fifty years.

Canterwood Crest


Jessica Burkhart - 2009
    Just ask them; they'll be happy to tell you.But every girl knows that there can only be one "best."Can Sasha keep the girls from turning the arena into a war zone and still snag a spot on the coveted Youth Equestrian National Team?

Show Barn Blues


Natalie Keller Reinert - 2015
    It's been a good life, too -- she mounts her wealthy students on European warmbloods, competes her horses on Florida's rigorous A-circuit, and runs the nicest barn in the neighborhood. Then, suddenly, it's the only barn in the neighborhood. As Grace's country town becomes a sun-drenched playground of pools and golf courses, she vows that no bulldozer will ever touch her farm. With her neighbors selling their farms and moving to more isolated corners of Florida, she finds herself fighting off land-hungry developers alone -- until Kennedy comes along. Kennedy is everything Grace doesn't want around her bustling show barn -- a pleasure rider who would rather wander in the woods than tackle a show-jumping course. Kennedy might make for an unlikely sidekick, but she's just the inspiration Grace needs to fight back against the developers who want to bulldoze her corner of Floridian wilderness -- and, eventually, against the wilderness itself.

The Girl on the Dancing Horse: Charlotte Dujardin and Valegro


Charlotte Dujardin - 2018
    The world was captivated by the young woman with the dazzling smile and her dancing horse. The YouTube clip of their Freestyle performance has since had over 1.7 million views, and Dujardin is considered the dominant dressage rider of her era. When Valegro (affectionately called "Blueberry") retired from competition at the end of 2016, his farewell performance at the Olympia Grand Hall sold out and the dark bay gelding received a standing ovation.Dujardin began riding horses at the age of two, but dressage was the domain of the rich–not the life a girl from a middleclass family was born into. Her parents sacrificed to give her as many opportunities as they could, and she left school at 16 to focus on equestrian competition. It was at 22, when she was invited to be a groom for British Olympian Carl Hester, that she met the equine partner that would change her fortune.This is the story of an outsider, an unconventional horse, and the incredible bond that took them to the top.

Equus: The Creation of a Horse


Robert Vavra - 1977
    A quotation for every picture is also included taken from Virgil, Shakespeare, Herman Melville, D.H. Lawrence, Eugene Delacroix and others.

Last of the Saddle Tramps: One Woman's Seven Thousand Mile Equestrian Odyssey


Messanie Wilkins - 2001
    Some are adventurers seeking danger from the back of their horses. Others are travelers discovering the beauties of the countryside they slowly ride through. A few are searching for inner truths while cantering across desolate parts of the planet. Then there is Messanie Wilkins. She was acting on orders from the Lord! In 1954, at the age of 63, Wilkins had plenty to worry about. A destitute spinster in ill health, Wilkins had been told she had less than two years left to live, provided she spent them quietly. With no family ties, no money, and no future in her native Maine, Wilkins decided to take a daring step. Using the money she had made from selling homemade pickles, Wilkins bought a tired summer camp horse and made preparations to ride from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific Ocean. Yet before leaving she flipped a coin, asking God to direct her to go or not. When the coin came up heads several times in a row, one of America's most unlikely equestrian heroines set off. What followed was one of the twentieth century's most remarkable equestrian journeys. Accompanied by her faithful horse, Tarzan, Wilkins suffered through a host of obstacles including blistering deserts and freezing snow storms, yet never lost faith that she would complete her 7,000 mile odyssey. "Last of the Saddle Tramps" is thus the warm and humorous story of a humble American heroine bound for adventure and the Pacific Ocean. The classic tale is amply illustrated with photographs.

Joe: the Horse Nobody Loved


Vicky Kaseorg - 2015
    And no one trusts him. Until Vicky. This is the story of a troubled horse, and the little girl who loved him. Based on the true adventures of her childhood fifty years ago, the author's horse, Joe, teaches the lesson that sometimes beauty is not skin-deep, but heart deep, and that the unloved have much to show us about the true nature of love.

The Eighty-Dollar Champion: Snowman, the Horse That Inspired a Nation


Elizabeth Letts - 2011
    Into the rarefied atmosphere of wealth and tradition comes the most unlikely of horses—a drab white former plow horse named Snowman—and his rider, Harry de Leyer. They were the longest of all longshots—and their win was the stuff of legend. Harry de Leyer first saw the horse he would name Snowman on a bleak winter afternoon between the slats of a rickety truck bound for the slaughterhouse. He recognized the spark in the eye of the beaten-up horse and bought him for eighty dollars. On Harry’s modest farm on Long Island, the horse thrived. But the recent Dutch immigrant and his growing family needed money, and Harry was always on the lookout for the perfect thoroughbred to train for the show-jumping circuit—so he reluctantly sold Snowman to a farm a few miles down the road. But Snowman had other ideas about what Harry needed. When he turned up back at Harry’s barn, dragging an old tire and a broken fence board, Harry knew that he had misjudged the horse. And so he set about teaching this shaggy, easygoing horse how to fly. One show at a time, against extraordinary odds and some of the most expensive thoroughbreds alive, the pair climbed to the very top of the sport of show jumping. Here is the dramatic and inspiring rise to stardom of an unlikely duo, based on the insight and recollections of “the Flying Dutchman” himself. Their story captured the heart of Cold War–era America—a story of unstoppable hope, inconceivable dreams, and the chance to have it all. Elizabeth Letts’s message is simple: Never give up, even when the obstacles seem sky-high. There is something extraordinary in all of us.

Eventer's Dream


Caroline Akrill - 1981
    A job in a private yard or livery stable seems a logical step but numerous unsuccessful interviews leave her feeling desperate. As a stopgap she accepts a position with the impecunious and eccentric Fane sisters, caring for their stable of pathetic, unsound, aged and often downright dangerous horses at their once grand but now ruinously dilapidated manor house in High Suffolk. But when the perfect job opportunity presents itself can she actually free herself from the Fane sisters? And can she bear to leave the stable of hopelessly endearing equines to their fate? Is this job really the first step towards achieving her ambition? Or is it the end, the absolute finish, of an eventer's dream?

Funny Cide


Funny Cide Team - 2004
    They were up against million-dollar horses owned by patricians, oilmen, Arab sheiks, and Hollywood producers. They were ten regular guys, and all they wanted was to win a race. Instead, they won the hearts of America.In 2003, a three-year-old with the unlikely name of Funny Cide became "the people's horse," the unheralded New York-bred gelding who-in a time of war and economic jitters-inspired a nation by knocking off the champions and their millionaire owners and sweeping to the brink of the Triple Crown.Trained by a journeyman who'd spent over 30 years looking for "the one," ridden by a jockey fighting to come back after years of injuries and hard knocks, and owned by a band of high school buddies from Sackets Harbor, N.Y., Funny Cide became a hero and media sensation.Now, Sally Jenkins, award-winning co-author of Lance Armstrong's #1 bestseller It's Not About the Bike, tells the inside story of the Funny Cide team's ups and downs against overwhelming odds, illness, and even scandal, to capture the imagination of millions. It's a new American classic for the underdog in all of us.