Lead Ropes Don't Lead Horses: And 49 Other Thoughts for Horse Lovers, by Lisa Wysocky , Cat Enright

 

I've got to admit, while this definitely spoke to the still horse crazy girl in me, I was also curious how one writes with their fictional character as co-author. Lisa Wysocky makes it not only work, however, but work well. Put this one on your must have list, horse lovers.

Not only does Wysocky and, okay, Enright use humor effectively, making you grin while absorbing the solid, usable information shared, but it's easily understandable, probably even to those who didn't grow up inhaling anything horse. For those who work on the theory that a picture is worth a thousand words, there are also photos of the horses you'll meet upfront to demonstrate. I definitely liked that the horses were introduced upfront, including personalities and quirks. That made their use as "examples" throughout all the more personal. As I noted to a friend earlier today, the sheer fact we were talking about. among others, Lex (the cover horse, btw) the worrier who likes to annoy his pasture-mates, or Quincy who is low man on the totem pole, makes the reading far more personal. I mean, wouldn't you rather talk about a horse by name than simply as "the horse" or "the brown horse"? In other words, I felt like I was talking to the author, not just reading words. And, to be honest, it didn't take me long to forget whether it was fictional Cat or real life author Lisa that I was "talking" to. It flowed nicely. 

Since I'm well past my horse crazy girl years, it's been ages since I've been astride a horse, but much of the information brought back fond memories. Oh, okay, some of it made me cringe as I remembered how I'd wronged or under/overestimated my horses. I hope they forgave me. I won't detail all the topics covered but found myself more intrigued with the sections dealing with understanding horse instincts and what I'll call our communication with the horse than on the actual riding section, go figure. Active riders/horse owners will benefit greatly from the total, surely learning something new. You'll also learn both the instinctual and possible physical or even mental reasons for various horse behaviors/patterns. That, to me, was what set this book apart from most others. A behavior wasn't just described, it explains probable causes, right down to discussing vision, for instance, usually utilizing the horses we met early on in the book as examples. More importantly for me, it was all handled with humor and love.

Bottom line, if you love horses, you need this book. If you know a horse lover, make sure they know about this book or, hint-hint, it'd make a lovely gift. Thanks so much to #NetGalley and #CoolTitles for letting me indulge my ol' horse crazy girl self a bit while learning new things. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and loved meeting the horses, not to mention the fictional characters (that I have to admit to having never read.... yet.