Showing titles in Equestrian & Animal Sports

More and more, riders are looking for effective mental strategies to improve their enjoyment and success in the saddle. This is a highly practical guide detailing techniques that are invaluable whilst unmounted and whilst mounted. In fact, there is a whole chapter devoted to methods to use whilst you are riding.

It was a cold and foggy February night in 1983 when a group of armed thieves crept onto Ballymany Stud, near The Curragh in County Kildare, Ireland, to steal Shergar, one of the thoroughbred industry's most renowned stallions. The thieves demanded a hefty ransom for the safe return of one of the most valuable Thoroughbreds in the world, but the ransom was never paid and Shergar's remains have never been found.

One evening late in his life, veteran sportswriter Mike Sullivan was asked by his son what he remembered best from his three decades in the press box. The answer came as a surprise. "I was at Secretariat's Derby, in '73. That was...just beauty, you know?" John Jeremiah Sullivan didn't know, not really - but he spent two years finding out, journeying from prehistoric caves to the Kentucky Derby in pursuit of what Edwin Muir called "our long-lost archaic companionship" with the horse.

If you love horses, you know that the connection between you and your horse can be one of the most meaningful and fulfilling connections of your life. And you might have been told that to deepen the connection with your horse, you need to deepen the connection with yourself. But how do you do that? Riding with the Chakras lays out a trail map of insights along with guided exercises to illuminate your inner wisdom and assist you in connecting more fully to yourself, your horse, and the world around you.

Lissa Bachner was born with a passion for horses and won her first blue ribbon at age five. Other awards would follow as a young rider, and for years Lissa trained with jumpers, tackling more difficult leaps, and working to perfect her ride. When blindness struck in her teens, it appeared her passion for riding would come to an end. How could she jump hurdles when she could barely navigate through her own home? But success, trust, and love came to Lissa when her trainer convinced her to buy a "diamond in the rough" from Germany.

Every year the Grand National produces very different stories from jockeys and horses alike; uplifting scenes from a victor and heartbreak when a mere inch divides the loser from the winner at the end of nearly four-and-a-half miles and 30 challenging fences. The race has evolved over the years, but there is one constant: luck, or the lack of it. How fitting, then, that in 1839 the first winner was named Lottery.

If you've always dreamed of starting a young horse under saddle but are uncomfortable with traditional horse breaking or horse training techniques that assume all horses are the same, this short book is for you. If you're a seasoned equestrian looking for a better way, you'll enjoy trying some of the ideas here too. There are some easy ways you can set up for success with your horseback riding project to keep both you and your horse happy and wanting to learn more together.

Do you have a foal on the way? Maybe you've got a weanling who's growing like a weed but in need of training and possibly getting dangerous? Do you know what training is essential for baby horses, how to approach the work - and how much is too much? You have years till you can ride your colt or filly - but there's a lot of training that needs to be done in the meantime.

Fifty-six million years ago, the earliest equid walked the earth-and beginning with the first-known horse-keepers of the Copper Age, the horse has played an integral part in human history. Combining fascinating anthropological detail and incisive personal anecdotes, Susanna Forrest draws from an immense range of archival documents as well as literature and art to illustrate how our evolution has coincided with that of horses.

"Strike a Long Trot" chronicles the distinguished early career of Linda Tellington-Jones, ranging from the 100-mile Tevis Cup Ride to Hunter Trials at Pebble Beach. As a brilliant educator at her Pacific Coast Equestrian Research Farm and School of Horsemanship, Linda shined. A destiny in Linda's early life was fulfilled when she was sought by a wealthy Hungarian countess to promote her Hungarian horses, once revered as the finest warhorses in Europe.

Confessions of a Timid Rider is a memoir detailing one woman's insights into being an anxiety-ridden but passionate equestrian. After returning to riding as a mother, she is determined to follow her dreams despite the fear she is somehow lacking in talent or ability. An in-depth look into the heart and head of a returning adult equestrian and mother, this message is not limited only to those with horse experience.

Tie-down roping is a tough competitive sport that is thrilling to watch and compete in. Learning the ropes as a beginner can be challenging, so we are going to lay it all out for you. There is information in this book for everyone, from professionals all the way to the very beginner just starting the process of learning the ropes. We cover everything about the sport of tie-down roping, from learning how to rope, the sanctioning bodies, a brief history of the event, and the tools of the trade you will need to learn and succeed.

Frankel was born on 11th February 2008, with four white socks and a blaze, from impressive equine lines on both his parents’ sides. Simon Cooper revisits the whole of the horse’s life, giving listeners an inside tour of the calm oasis that is life on a stud farm, where a foal will live with his mother for the first year of his life. Next, the atmosphere of heady possibility that marks the early days of training. Roadwork. Gallops. Trials. Turning raw potential into something more. Frankel begins to set himself apart.

Broken: Tales of a Titanium Cowgirl shares the journey of Michelle Scully’s calamitous riding accident and devastating injury. It also provides a panorama of her path of deep personal discovery as she unexpectedly finds herself in a joyful journey of recovery. Love of horses commingles with a personal quest to improve her horsemanship to spur on her healing.

History was made at the 2015 Belmont Stakes when American Pharoah won the Triple Crown, the first since Affirmed in 1978. As magnificent as the champion is, the team behind him has been all too human while on the road to immortality. Written by an award-winning New York Times sportswriter, American Pharoah is the definitive account not only of how the ethereal colt won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes, but how he changed lives. Through extensive interviews, Drape explores the making of an exceptional racehorse, chronicling key events en route to history.

When asked in an interview what he most liked about rodeo, three-time world champion saddle-bronc rider “Cody” Bill Smith said simply, “Horses that buck.” Smith redefined the image of America’s iconic cowboy. Determined as a boy to escape a miner’s life in Montana, he fantasized a life in rodeo and went on to earn thirteen trips to the national finals, becoming one of the greatest of all riders.

Courtney Maum is thirty-seven years old when she finds herself in an indoor arena in Connecticut, moments away from stepping back into the saddle. For her, this is not just a riding lesson, but a last-ditch attempt to pull herself back from the brink even though riding is a relic from the past she walked away from. She hasn’t been on or near a horse in over thirty years.

Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Kareem thought he and his siblings would always be stuck in “The Bottom”, a community and neighborhood devastated by poverty and violence. Riding their bicycles through Philly’s Fairmount Park, Kareem’s brothers discover a barn full of horses. Noticing the brothers’ fascination with her misfit animals, Lezlie Hiner, founder of The Work to Ride stables, offers them their escape: an after school job in exchange for riding lessons. What starts as an accidental discovery turns into a love for horseback riding.

When Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori arrived on British shores in 1985, aged just 14, he couldn’t speak a word of English. Having left school just a year earlier, he was eager to become a stable boy and apprentice jockey, following in the footsteps of his father. This was his first, but certainly not his last, leap of faith. Despite his slight size, Frankie’s impact upon the British racing scene was immediate and significant.

Of all the things that a nation, or even an individual, need to survive a crisis, none is perhaps as necessary as hope. That feeling that somehow one can survive, win even, though the odds are stacked against them and the outlook is grim. Throughout its history, the United States has been blessed, often when most needed, with hope from a strange place.