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Conversations with a Prince: A Year of Riding at East Hill Farm
When after many years Helen Husher returned to horseback riding, she discovered that her perceptions of the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of the sport had in some ways changed, but in other ways had become enhanced. Horses of Instruction is an account of her first year back in the saddle, her trials and triumphs under the instructors and on the horses that inhabited the small Vermont barn that became the author’s daily destination and haven.
We get to know the people who frequent East Hill trainers with differing views on the nature of riding and horse care, and fellow boarders and students whose goals and idiosyncrasies will strike an identifiably familiar chord in every reader-rider. But most vividly and lovingly drawn are the horses Dr. Denton, the Thoroughbred “who displays his heritage by objecting to everything”; Railund, the “self-possessed and schoolmasterly” Dutch warmblood; Reba, “whose responsiveness has a moral dimension, a desire for order, certainty and knowledge”; and especially Prince, “unglamorous but agreeably transparent, playing his life for laughs.”
No detail escapes Husher’s perceptiveness. “One of the sayings in the horse world is that a clean horse is a happy horse, but in my experience this is not really true--horses like dirt, and go to considerable trouble to burrow around in as much of it as they can find. But what horses do like is to be tended, and I think this is what this old saw points to--being touched and noticed and having their parts inspected and admired puts them in a good mood.”
More than just a horse book, Horses of Instruction transcends the genre through the author’s keen eye, infectious humor, and deft style. With it, Helen Husher joins the ranks of Jane Smiley, Michael Korda, and Thomas McGuane as one of America’s finest equestrian writers.
We get to know the people who frequent East Hill trainers with differing views on the nature of riding and horse care, and fellow boarders and students whose goals and idiosyncrasies will strike an identifiably familiar chord in every reader-rider. But most vividly and lovingly drawn are the horses Dr. Denton, the Thoroughbred “who displays his heritage by objecting to everything”; Railund, the “self-possessed and schoolmasterly” Dutch warmblood; Reba, “whose responsiveness has a moral dimension, a desire for order, certainty and knowledge”; and especially Prince, “unglamorous but agreeably transparent, playing his life for laughs.”
No detail escapes Husher’s perceptiveness. “One of the sayings in the horse world is that a clean horse is a happy horse, but in my experience this is not really true--horses like dirt, and go to considerable trouble to burrow around in as much of it as they can find. But what horses do like is to be tended, and I think this is what this old saw points to--being touched and noticed and having their parts inspected and admired puts them in a good mood.”
More than just a horse book, Horses of Instruction transcends the genre through the author’s keen eye, infectious humor, and deft style. With it, Helen Husher joins the ranks of Jane Smiley, Michael Korda, and Thomas McGuane as one of America’s finest equestrian writers.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published May 1, 2005
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 29, 2013
Wow. Husher's power of description is humbling, her deep and compassionate understanding of horses is both instructive for those who ride and enlightening for those who don't. This book is about time and growth and power and empathy and adulthood and mortality and horses. It is a long poem of astonishing sensitivity, insight, humor, and talent.
January 20, 2014
This book was recommended to me because my aunt knows the author and because I ride. I enjoyed every single page of this book because it is so very true to riding and the whole experience of a barn with a lot of boarders and their horses. One of my favorite scenes depicts Prince, who upon first meeting looks and acts nothing like a prince, as a teenage boy making fun of her as she enters the paddock. I have certainly had my share of feeling the same way when going out to collect a horse to groom and ride. She captures the thoughts of a horse so well and holds nothing back when describing her own weaknesses in riding and how she worked through them.
This book inspired me to pursue riding when I was in the throes of being very frustrated with my progress and what seemed like a lack of skills that I would never gain. Another scene I love is when she is so frustrated with her position on the horse that she drops her stirrups and finds the right position and then thinks it would be good to just throw the stirrups away and forget about proper riding form. Go the natural way. Oh, how many times I have I wanted to throw everything away and just ride bareback into the sunset!
The writing is honest, entertaining and brings you right to the barn and onto the horse with her.
I am not one to read every book there is about horses, but this one isn't fiction and it hit me right where I was in the course of learning to ride.
Highly recommended for anyone who loves or has ever loved horses.
This book inspired me to pursue riding when I was in the throes of being very frustrated with my progress and what seemed like a lack of skills that I would never gain. Another scene I love is when she is so frustrated with her position on the horse that she drops her stirrups and finds the right position and then thinks it would be good to just throw the stirrups away and forget about proper riding form. Go the natural way. Oh, how many times I have I wanted to throw everything away and just ride bareback into the sunset!
The writing is honest, entertaining and brings you right to the barn and onto the horse with her.
I am not one to read every book there is about horses, but this one isn't fiction and it hit me right where I was in the course of learning to ride.
Highly recommended for anyone who loves or has ever loved horses.
August 11, 2009
I didn't enjoy this book as much as her others. There are so many theories and opinions regarding horseback riding that it can be difficult to read an opinion or theory that you don't agree with.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews