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Thursday, April 23, 2009

"War Horse" Book update

While wasting time on the internet today I came across the following link....and it made my day.

In January I started reading a book called "War Horse". Based on that book I posted a article comparing modern endurance riding to the cavalry techniches of the 1880's. A modified version of that post also appeared in the Cannon's Mouth, a monthly publication of CHAS.

Apparently the author of the book found my post comparing the endurance riding to the cavalry and thought it interesting enough to post a link on his blog. This is one of the biggest compliments I have ever received!

I had planned on doing a more extensive review of his book, however 6 weeks have passed since I have finished so I am running out of time. It is sufficient to say that I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the history of the horse, military riding, and military tack. I must admit that my interest diminished once the book reached the WW1 period, but I was absolutely enthralled with the rest of the book. Aside from one comment that a battle was lost in part to horses not being able to see in the dark.....(I asked the author about this, so if he clarifies I will let you know - SEE UPDATE BELOW), I found the book to accurate according to my very limited knowledge and experience with historical military tack and practices. I thoroughly enjoyed the read. This book will also appeal to the "non-horsey world" if my non-horsey sister is any indication.

I know there are some people who read this blog who are only interested in the civil war part of what I do and not necessarily the endurance and day-to-day stuff. If that describes you, please utilize the "tag" list on the bottom right hand side. By selecting "civil war", it will filter the posts, showing you only those posts related to my civil war doings. This is true with any of the tags. Try it and see!

UPDATE: DiMarco responded by e-mail to my question regarding the horses' night vision and its impact on the battle. (It was so COOL! To have the author of an authoritative book actually RESPOND to my comment!!!!) Apparently what he meant and what he meant to write wasn't quite the same. Which means we can continue to ride our horses at night and trust that they aren't going to take us off a cliff into black oblivion (and if they do we can conclude it was a choice and not because they were blind! LOL). He also said that several other endurance riders had pointed that particular passage out. I'm sure Jeff Wahl was one, but I wonder who the others were? This book would definately make for some lively camp fire discussions.

4 comments:

  1. The book sounds very interesting! Love that the author answered your email. Good luck on your 100 in Sept.

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  2. ...please where can I buy a unicorn?

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  3. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  4. i want to buy a good quality saddle .i saw many ad site on internet like Free online horse ad which provide information on products and horses , do they provide good quality.

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