Gosh I love "The Horseman's Bible."

[RedTahoe]

I picked it up at the Goodwill for a whopping $0.10!

I especially love this line, and my DF laughed when I read it, too:

"By far the majority of American horsemen and horsewomen ride rented mounts...but there may come a time when a rider has progressed to a point where he feels that a rented mount can no longer give him satisfaction, feels the urge to own a horse of his own. In many (probably most) cases this urge should be firmly suppressed." :lol:

So I guess most of us failed to suppress our "urge."

[goodhors]

I always liked that book, wore my first copy out as a kid. There were other subtle quips to be found as you read it, to make you smile.

Lots of down-to-earth information as well, common to horse books of that era. Stuff I used back then and still use, in handling animals safely. Good photos. Not popular anymore without some "Name" to endorse it. Was a GREAT bargin book, new for $1.95, back then.

[RedTahoe]

This copy had $4.95 printed on the cover of it :) I personally love the photo in the back of the stationwagon pulling a two horse trailer :)

[HuntJumpSC]

LOL! I have a copy of it somewhere. We had it in the house wayyy before I got a horse when I was little. Don't know why we even had a copy, since my family wasn't horsey until I came along. I wore that thing out looking at the pics! :)

[3horsemom]

count me as another fan. they just don't write 'em that way anymore.

[Chief2]

My father bought me a copy when I was ten years old. It was my bible for many years after that. This thread brought me back to a nice blast from the past. Thanks! :)

[RedTahoe]

I'll post some other snippets when I get home later. They're just too good!

I love the drawing of a horse with poor conformation with the note, "You'll never see a horse like this in real life, but..." Then I went onto Craigslist, and I saw the horse that we'd "never see in real life" :lol:

(parrot mouth, small eye, low tail....)

I was always a fan of A Very Young Rider that my dad bought me when I was little. I do, however, remember getting spanked by my mother who caught me drawing "riders" on all of the riderless horses in the book when I was 5 or so. (riders being a circle with two "Ls" for legs.)

[Everythingbutwings]

The copy we have in the tack room has an illustration of how to hang haynets. Tied to a board fence, filled net at just the right height for a pawing foot to get tangled.

Sadly, we frequently see a line of just that at some local shows. You can tell when a particular barn is attending, horses tied to the fence, each with their own leg hold trap and not a human around. :no:

[betsyk]

I got that book from my 4H leader when I was about 12 - still have it!

[chai]

Wow, does that bring back memories! My copy was dog eared and I still have it somewhere.

[HuntJumpSC]

Soooo...who still has their copy of "Happy Horsemanship"??? :D

[Kneigh]

:D Oh Happy Horsemanship by Dorothy Pinch.

That one brings back lots of memories. I had a used copy my mom bought at a library book sale, and I am ashamed to say I made it a lot more used 'cause of innumerable times I looked at it.

[Melelio]

Oh I LOVED "Happy Horsemanship"!!! We found it in a store called Liberty House, in HAWAII of all places (that's where I was born and grew up) when I was 9! I was horse crazy out of the womb, and this book was the essence for me!

I loved trying to draw the Thelwellian pics like they were in the book, and anything written in it was gospel for me!

I finally 'loaned' it to a daughter of one of my mom's friends, when I was 19 or so, having already acquired several horses since acquiring that book....

I can still see the mischievous looking eyeballs on those horse drawings LOL :lol:

[snbess]

Awww, that was one of my first horse care books and I think it's still sitting on my shelf. :)

[subk]

The Horseman's Bible was my very first horsey instructional book.

There were versions for a multitude of hobbies. It is was the "Horses for Dummies" book of the 60s!

[foundationmare]

OP, that quote from the book is a corker but, you know what, not entirely off the mark (I say as I observe the mountain of receipts from the feed store alone). I can remember similar words when my then 12 y.o. daughter started to take riding lessons. Talk about a run-away train!

I was an unrequited horse lover as a kid and absolutely swooned over a book called "Cavalcade of American Horses" (I think. Don't recall the author well either). Just lots and lots of pics of lovely horses of many breeds and I fell in love with the Thoroughbred then. I never could have imagined at that tender age that there would be many, many TBs in my later years.

[thatmoody]

I had Happy Horsemanship and the Pony Club Manual of Horsemanship, which I adored even though I rode Western. I suppose that now I'm just fulfilling my PC fantasies...

[RedTahoe]

Some more funny quotes...

"Few people, men especially, care to admit that they are not capable of tackling anything on four legs..."

"...a thousand-pound horse being ridden five or six hours a day, four days a week, be given a morning ration of five pounds of crushed oats, one-half pound of bran and six pounds of mixed timothy and clover. At noon, when the horses are being worked, they get two to three ears of corn, and, in the evening, five pounds of crushed oats, four pounds of steamed barley, one-half pound of bran, and another six pounds of timothy-clover mixture."
(Aren't you glad there are more feeds available now?)

"The majority of riders use a double bridle, and so shall we in the following instructions."

Regarding trailers...

"Prices range from about $500 for half-topped two-horse economy models to deluxe models at $1800. Standard two-horse jobs run around $850, while a three-horse trailer may run from $1700 on up."

[dbtoo]

I always remember the quote about buying a horse that goes something like "fellow horseman will criticize it to death and friends will think you're crazy" . :)

[janedoe726]

I'm pretty sure my mom purchased the Horseman's Bible for herself the same day she bought Happy Horsemanship for me. Don't know where hers is now (probably somewhere around the house), but despite 3 colleges and probably 10 moves, Happy Horsemanship still has a home on my bookshelf. In fact, I think it was the first "real" book I ever read from start to finish- many times!!

[Kneigh]

I too remember Cavalcade of American Horses by Crowell, Pers. That one was in our local library, which didn't have many horse books so I ended up checking out the same ones out over and over....

And hey Foundationmare, if you are feeling nostalgic there are several copies for sale on Ebay. :cool: