Horse Lovers Central discussion

Here is the link to our current Challenge.
https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/...

We are reading books about stable management in fact or fiction.
Post your suggested book titles in this thread.

Sign up to the challenge, which is shown at the top of the discussions on the Group Home Page.
If you don't see the latest active challenge click the link Challenges or use the link above this paragraph.

You will be asked which shelf the books to read are on. If you say horse and you do not have a horse bookshelf, Goodreads will put one in to your personal list of shelves.
When you complete a read you have placed on that shelf, Goodreads sees the progress.

Now the challenge registers that you have read some of the books.

Authors are allowed to mention their own suitable books, as they could read their own books for this challenge.
Series are allowed too.
Have fun!

I have just read Bold which fits excellently.

Some non-fic titles.
Stable Management for the Owner-Groom
Keeping your horse healthy: The prevention and cure of illness
BHS Complete Manual of Stable Management
The fun of raising a colt

Lots of older pony books included info on keeping your ponies and horses, because there was a strong expectation that people would have horses and be caring for them personally.

This Pony Club story has been recommended in another thread, it sounds like great fun. I love mysteries.
Anna Wells and the Mystery of the Dusty Duchess: An Animal Justice Club Mystery

This story contains advice on how to keep a stable while in quarantine, to stop any disease spreading. I have not seen this in any other story, maybe somebody else has.
The Black Stallion and Satan

I've read this book in the past and highly recommend it! It's fiction, but based on a now-defunct, but once-very-real riding school in England called the Porlock Vale Equestrian Centre. (There's a video of the real school on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzreD...)

The Horsemasters


The book definitely gets into the stable management side of things, you could learn about giving a colic drench, or just how much work is involved in keeping a horse fit and happy and a stable clean. The book is hard to find. But if you have a copy, well worth a re-read!

And just so I don't recommend a rare book and then leave you hanging with a book you can't find: The Horsemasters was also made into a 1961 Disney movie starring Annette Funicello (a Mouseketeer!) and can be found to watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flle8...

Thank for a great rec, Penny! I have not seen that one yet.

Clare wrote: "Thank for a great rec, Penny! I have not seen that one yet."

It's quite good. It definitely ties into the stable management thing, as fiction books go, you get a whole lot of nitty gritty on things like mucking out, grooming, keeping the yard clean, and other non-riding elements, that you don't see as much of in other fiction books.

From Chapter One:

“There is, y’know!” Peanuts agreed with feeling and ran a hand through her mop of auburn curls. “If I’d had any idea how much personal service the tyrannical things demand every single day, I’d’ve pestered Father for a car instead of a show-jumper. A nice, quiet, uncomplaining little car that would just sit quietly in the garage until you wanted to use it, never mussing up its stall or dirtying its tack or having to be fed and watered three times a day, not to mention having its bedpan emptied….

and this is followed by:

Dinah lowered Corny P.’s last clean foot to the floor and slipped past him to toss her hoof pick back into the grooming kit and pick up her hay wisp. Laughing at Peanut’s mournful expression, she agreed, “Bee Bye was counting it up last night in the Blue Room; I don’t know where you were. It adds up to over three hours a day we spend on stable work and grooming, not counting cleaning tack or yards and brasses or anything like that. And it has to be spread over thirteen hours between morning feed and night watering, which makes it kind of confining, to say the least. And we only ride two hours a day…. Jiggers, Mercy!”

The author had a daughter, one wonders if she was horse-crazy and her dad was trying to give her some of the reality of horse ownership, LOL!

Open Library has it if you don't mind reading PDF. I don't recommend their epubs, as those aren't proofread and often have sections of utter gibberish. There may be restrictions on borrowing it these days, I don't know.

https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15142...

Thank you!

There's a good deal of stable management in these books.
A racing stable on Dartmoor.


A horse sanctuary.

I'm reading HORSE RIDING SUCCESS for Teens and Adults: Horse Care, Riding Skills, and AVOIDING FIRST HORSE MISTAKES by Debbie Burgermeister

Coming to the middle of this month, time to get a read in!

I added The Byerley Turk: The Incredible Story of the World's First Thoroughbred by Jeremy James

Nearly time up!
I will need a few new topics for the next quarter's poll, suggestions welcome.