The Other Side Of Horsemanship: My Journey of Unlearning Cruelty & Healing Trauma

by Shelby Dennis

The Other Side of Horsemanship is a poignant look at the connection between horse trauma and human trauma and how it influences normalized harshness in horse training. Bitten by the horse bug at a young age, Shelby was an avid horse lover from the time she could walk. She wanted nothing more than to be around horses. From the time she started riding at just age 4, she was taught to handle the horses harshly in her lessons, and for years had no idea the impact these punishing techniques had on the beloved horses around her. With horses as a constant, Shelby experienced a number of traumatic events throughout her childhood, the barn being the one place of safety she could cling to. This is Shelby's story of how she found herself with the help of horses and began to learn how to heal from her own trauma as she embarked on the journey of learning how to understand horses better by developing a more empathetic approach to training.

340 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 8, 2022

Reviews

[Alba Aranga · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been following Shelby's journey with horses for quite some time now and this book is the perfect summarization of what I've seen happen in real time with her training and her way to work with horses.
This book is a necessary and bold reflection about how easy it is to fail to meet horse's needs, and how difficult is to unlearn. We need more loud voices to reshape an industry that continues to be so unfair to horses and clearly neglects horse welfare at so many levels.
I do share Shelby's firm believe that change will happen. There is redemption for everyone willing to take themselves accountable for their mistakes.
There are better, fairer and kinder ways to connect with the animals we preach to love.

[Wytske · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shelby nicely combines her personal story with and without horses and science on horse welfare and training. I would have liked the scientific part to be more elaborate and refer to specific studies.

[Emma Carbone · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book I’ve ever read!!! A MUST read for every equestrian. The book covers Shelby’s equestrian journey (which was incredibly relatable) and finishes off with a few chapters of equine science input. I cannot wait for the next one!

[Andrea Balsa · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who enjoys reading, I’ve been subject to multiple emotions while scanning through paragraphs; both positive and negative; and I can’t say I’ve ever closed a book without getting something from it – whether it be inspiration, a sense of peace, or the need to punch something. However, I’ve never related to a writer as much as I related to Shelby Dennis while reading 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙊𝙛 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥. Though my experiences with horses are not identical to hers, I felt a piece of my soul flash across her words as I finished each chapter. The guilt and the pain, the love and fascination, the anger and frustration. This book is so much more than just one person’s story. It’s a light at the end of the tunnel. A northern star that helps restore faith. A lengthy letter that firmly says “you’re not alone”. I strongly believe that 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙊𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙎𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙊𝙛 𝙃𝙤𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙥 is a *must read* for everyone – not just equestrians. The strength in admitting mistakes, holding oneself accountable and striving to do better is something we can all learn to do, and it applies to anything you do in life. I’d like to give a huge 𝙏𝙃𝘼𝙉𝙆𝙎 to Shelby for having the courage to share her story with us; I know how difficult it can be to share a part of yourself with the world, especially when you’re a part of a minority fighting wrong – it’s something I pray to be able to do someday. If you haven’t already, treat yourself to a wonderfully written and insightful book. You’ll come out of it a better person!

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been on my "to-read" list ever since I read about it on Instagram. I had never heard of Shelby Dennis until then, but as someone who has been around horses my entire life and as someone who holds a degree in Human Development and Psychology... I was enamored by the concept of this book. I found myself resonating with Shelby's life story. While I don't share all of her experiences, I share in many of them. I found myself reflecting on so many of my own life experiences and how they have made me into the person I am today. And as an equestrian, I found myself remembering my childhood with them. I have always loved horses, everything about them. A lot of the training methods I have grown up with I learned simply because that was the information we had access to at the time. As I've gotten older, and I have been able to explore other methods, I've found myself growing and becoming a more understanding horsewoman. I've been able to understand the "why's" of a horse's behavior. My only "critique" of this book is that I wish it had been longer, and had explored more of Shelby's training methods, the "how's". But as an equestrian, I suppose it's my job to find the methods that work for my horse and me.

[Kaila Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shelby has written this from the heart and her passion for all things horses comes through very clearly in this text. She has taken lessons from her own experiences and shows a lot of insight into her own psychology and the psychology of horses.

For me, the strongest part of this was the section on equine behaviour and training techniques towards the end. While I enjoyed the former parts, I felt that they needed a good edit and could have been crafted a little more. However, Shelby is clearly a good writer and her personal voice still emanates strongly.

[Gabriel Vayo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'll start this off by saying I'm a big fan of Shelby Dennis and her work, and I was thrilled when she announced this book.

Unfortunately, that excitement soon wore off when I received my copy and noticed a typo on the back cover in the author description. Not a huge deal, it's independently published and sometimes little mistakes can slip by unnoticed, especially when a professional editor is not used.

As I began to read these small mistakes began to add up. Spelling errors, poor punctuation, and just plain bad grammar was difficult to ignore. Just running this book through grammar ly would've done wonders. Hell, just pasting it into a word document and fixing all the underlined words.

As for the content of the writing itself, it felt very redundant and, dare I say, frivolous. The pacing was bad, suddenly jumping from one point in time to another, making it difficult to follow along and understand the order of events. I felt it was severely lacking in the science aspect which was frustrating and disappointing.

TLDR: This book would benefit immensely from professional editing or even just a beta reader and editing software. If it was anyone else I would've dnfed but I stuck it out and was let down. I feel as if the point was poorly articulated. Overall, Shelby Dennis is a very accomplished person, but clearly not a writer.