Holiday Reading

NEWSLETTER Volume 3, Number 12, December 2006

Lida (our web designer) recently commented to me that I must live in Siberia given the amount of snow we have at our ranch. Well, she should talk, now we both look as if we live in Siberia! We’ve had about two feet of snow in the past week, with drifts that have buried driveways and disguised roads beneath a white blanket. My horses are hunkered in for the winter ­ except Shadow who simply loves this kind of weather and plays in it any opportunity he gets. And I too am hunkered in more than usual. I’m usually outdoors whenever I get the chance or excuse, but it has been way too cold for much play-time outside. All of this means that as we move toward the Solstice, ‘tis the season for reading or watching DVDs. I don’t take the time to do much leisure reading during the summer and fall, but now I always have a book or two going.

As you’ll see on our homepage, Lida has set up a new “store.” We’ve compiled a number of books I hope you will enjoy, or at least find provocative, as I did. Each book has a brief set of comments based on my impressions as I read it ­ and stay tuned for more as I get further into this season of cold and dark!

My favorite books and DVDs for this year are:

Mary Wanless’ For the Good of the Horse, one of the most comprehensive and carefully researched books on horse care there is.

Horses and the Mystical Path: The Celtic Way of Expanding the Human Soul, which is a challenging book that would make perfect reading for the “holiday” season (by Adele von Rust McCormick, Marlena Deborah McCormick, and Thomas McCormick).

A lovely memoir by Nancy Marie Brown, A Good Horse Has No Color: Searching Iceland for the Perfect Horse, is another excellent book that will make you smile if you already know an Iceland horse, or make you want to meet one if you don’t!

And, if you want to work on your riding technique over the winter, read Wendy Murdock’s Simplify Your Riding and play with some of her exercises on the balance ball.

As for DVDs, I haven’t seen them yet, but I hear from several reliable sources that the new Parelli collection on Horse Behavior is their best yet ­ fascinating and informative.

So, check out our new “store” and reviews, and please let us know if you have books to recommend ­ post your comments on our bulletin board.
Happy holidays from Anna and Lida

Anna Banks, Editor womentalkhorses.com
editor@womentalkhorses.com
Moon Hill Ranch, Idaho