Ultimate Horse Barns

by Randy Leffingwell

The love of horses often finds its expression in the horse barn-in the grandeur of the architecture, the extravagance of the detail, and the extent of the comforts that owners lavish on their favorite creatures. The masterpieces of equine architecture featured in this book attest to that devotion. With luxuries such as mahogany stalls, Spanish-tiled floors, and the latest in horse technology and training, these are not your average barns; rather, they attest to the extremes of elegant simplicity and outrageous glamour that convey a horse owners devotion, ambition, and style.

From prestigious and well-known horse barns such as Churchill Downs to private stables nestled in the Colorado mountains, Ultimate Horse Barns comprises a wide variety of barns certain to pique any horse owners fancy. Twenty North American barns in all, each one of a kind, they all have one thing in common-the love, appreciation, and awe of the horses they house. 

Genres: Horses

192 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2006

About the author

Photographer and writer, Randy Leffingwell, has more than 35 books in print, primarily on Americana subjects. These cover interests and areas as diverse as the American barn and Harley-Davidson motorcycles, California’s wine country and John Deere farm tractors. His awareness of and attraction to moving things goes back as far as he can remember, to the first Dinky Toys and Match Box cars his father and mother gave him. His practical introduction to real sports cars came several years later when his uncle took him to watch a weekend of racing events at Meadowdale International Raceway in suburban Chicago.

Throughout all this time, however, he imagined himself becoming an architect and his life-long admiration of buildings and design began with frequent trips to downtown Chicago. While in undergraduate studies at Kansas University in the architectural engineering sequence, he discovered photography, journalism, and reawakened an earlier passion for writing. He scarcely looked back as he shifted his major studies from architecture, through English, Art History, psychology, and finally to the William Allen White school of Journalism for a BS in photojournalism.

Following graduation from KU, Randy began a successful career as a photojournalist first at the Kansas City TIMES, then joining the staff of the Chicago SUN-TIMES where he remained for nine years. He then worked as associate editor at AutoWeek magazine in Detroit, before being hired by the Los Angeles TIMES as a writer/photographer. He worked for the TIMES for 11 years, covering everything from news stories to personality profiles to food features throughout Italy, film festivals in France and Utah, and live theater in London. It was, he says, a great job and a great place to work.

His latest project is a large history of Harley-Davidson for them. During this project, he photographed 193 motorcycles from the Harley-Davidson Archives Collection and he completed the corresponding text for the book in early April 2007. Release of this 432 page book tentatively is scheduled for early 2008.

Reviews

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Randy Leffingwell, Ultimate Horse Barns (Voyageur, 2006)

Funny how things work out. I had originally planned on Ultimate Horse Barns being among the first books I read in 2008; it turns out it's the first book I finished in 2009. Still, it doesn't matter when you read this book, only that, if you're interested in architecture and that sort of thing, that you do.

Leffingwell profiles fourteen of America's institutions' horse barns, ranging from the stately and classical (George Vanderbilt's Biltmore, in North Carolina) to the ultra-modern (California's Lucky Dog Ranch, whose barn wins architecture and design awards). Not just a book of photographs, this (which I have to admit is what I expected); Leffingwell offers us 8-10 pages of mixed photographs and text, giving us a quick overview of the barn's history, quotes from the people presently working there, a look at life in a working horse barn. And each one is different, which the reader might not expect.

But really, it's Randy Leffingwell. You're here for the pictures, and a fine lot they are. Leffingwell spent some quality time at each of the institutions, and it's obvious in the wide range of shots on display here. This is gorgeous work, and well worth browsing on a rainy afternoon. I do wish the book had been a bit wider-ranging; fourteen barns seems a bit small a number to really give an idea of the breadth of what's out there. But what's here is excellent, and deserves your attention. ****

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fabulous book. These barns are jaw-dropping gorgeous, and Randy did an amazing job of capturing them. The profiles give us a glimpse of the history of the barn and owner and the common thread through all of the barns is that the owners absolutely love their horses. Yes, I'm a bit biased since I edited the book, but it's a wonderful concept and beautifully photographed and written.

[treehugger]

the pictures make the book worth it - it's basically drool-fodder for any wanna-be horsewealthy individual :)