This comprehensive guide provides a commonsense approach to keeping a horse healthy, sound, and happy by encouraging horse owners to center horse-keeping practices around the horse's needs.
Heather Smith Thomas grew up on a ranch near Salmon, Idaho. She is the author of 20 books and thousands of articles on animal health care. She began writing stories for children’s magazines while still in high school and wrote articles for horse and farm publications to help pay her way through college. She wrote her first book, "A Horse in Your Life: A Guide for the New Owner," during the summer between her sophomore and junior year of college. She and her husband Lynn Thomas have been raising beef cattle and a few horses on their ranch in central Idaho since 1967. Most of her books and articles deal with horse or cattle health care, breeding, or handling. Her goal has been to learn all she can about the care of horses and cattle, and to share this with her readers. One of her books, however, discusses an entirely different subject. "Beyond the Flames" tells about her daughter’s severe burn injury and how this changed their lives.