Books I am glad I found 

Books I am glad I found!! Those who know me know I am an insatiable reader. I read the cereal packet at breakfast. As soon as I could read I believed the answers to life the universe and everything had been written- we just had to go and find the answers. A lot of crap has been written too, and I’ve read most of that also!

Books I am glad I found. The road from quirky unhappy horse with terrible feet to barefoot supremo, Schoolmaster and now herd leader wasn’t easy for me or Paddy so the books I am glad I found were a comfort, a guide, a textbook and an inspiration.

So what are the books I am glad I found?

buy Feet First here

The first book I read about barefoot performance horses and still my go to text for simple logical explanations. Mine, Sarah’s and I’m sure Nic’s,  knowledge of nutrition and training has moved on immensely since this book but it still stands as a great starting point to your barefoot journey.

buy Paddock Paradise here

The next logical step in the pursuit of barefoot understanding.

Simple truth- horses are absolute, emotionally congruent and live in the moment. You can’t fool a horse. What you are receiving is what you asked for, always. That truth is too much for some. Once we allow it it to be the truth, riding and training becomes a martial art, with the Centaur as the goal.

buy Barefoot Horsekeeping here

Our understanding evolves as we learn and study. For me now keeping a horse barefoot is just keeping it healthy. If it’s not right without shoes it won’t be right with shoes. Anni’s beautiful book is scientifically referenced and is bang up to date. She writes about the whole horse-husbandry, trim and training correct biomechanics for barefoot success.

The first book I read about classical dressage. Beautifully written and illustrated, with a good dose of Zen too, it opened my mind to the possibility of a horse made more beautiful and more magnificent by correct and sympathetic training. No subjugation or coercion.

buy Dressage for the 21st Century here

Then the opposite. Anyone who thinks a bit BTV or a bit of LDR is OK should read this book. I did it to Paddy, ignorantly, on the instruction of trainers who didn’t know better, who wanted a nice pretty correct outline for that dressage test. I’m sure we didn’t know the physical damage we were doing then. But I know how, I have the arthritic horse to prove it. And we should all know, the evidence is out there for all to read and see with their own eyes. Totilas being the most famous example.

buy Tug of War here

These books are the antidote to the ugliness of modern dressage. We should all feast our eyes on these pictures, blaze on our brains what correct training and free swinging backs and natural movement looks like and the never look at photos in H&H or BD magazine again lest our eyes be polluted or seduced by the overbent toe flinging marionettes doomed to lameness in their teens.

It can’t all be about flatwork!! I love eventing so jumping has to feature, although I have learned that a horse “doing dressage” correctly should be able to jump a four foot fence at any point in the test…  Reine Klimke is possibly the best remembered of the old style competitors  who won with classically trained horses. His victory lap of one handed changes is another piece of eye training and recalibration I treat myself to regularly.

Watch the victory lap here

And the most important of the books I am glad I found, or even the most important author and inspiration I am glad I found. Charles writes clearly, simply, succinctly. If I memorised every word of the 3 books and applied the wisdom, I would have beautiful, fit, willing, and magnificent horses, with all the moves and all the athleticism one could ask for.

Patrice quotes CDK as her most important mentor, I hear his words in her voice when I read the books. He comes to the U.K. To teach twice a year still and we should make the most of that- he is getting on a bit and won’t travel for ever!! I have 4 days of spectating booked for the March visit and dream of having my “peasant pony” advanced enough to present to him for a ridden lesson.

So there you have it, the books I am glad I found. If you only read one, then please read Charles.

buy Charles here

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