Jaime lent me, and requested that I review one of her favorite training books, Fit to Ride by Mary Bromiley.
My hope is to some day produce a website of equestrian book reviews. In the meantime, all the reviews can be found in my sidebar, along with what reviews are in progress. If you would like to lend me a book or recommend a book for me to review, please contact me!
Upon first glance, I expected the glossy paged Fit to Ride to be an elementary guide to conditioning horses, suited for those who are no longer beginners to horses, but may be beginners to getting a horse really fit for a sport such as eventing. I was wrong wrong wrong! If you chose to add this book to your library, expect to refer to it many times and in small chunks. The information is very in depth and it is suitable to read the book in sections or chapters, rather than straight through if your time is limited.
This book provides a historical context for equine fitness, the physicological/anatomical basis for the fitness, and the intricacies of the human/equine interface. She cautions again transposing fitness plans for man to horse and expecting them all to work. What works for a marathoner won't necessarily translate to the long distance equine athlete due to vast differences in their physical anatomy and physiology. Bromiley focuses on the development of horse and rider as a long-term learning curve with no quick fixes.
Although the book is extremely focused on conditioning the equine Bromiley touches on philosophy in horse keeping and management, as well as explaining the why's behind her recommendations. One phrase that jumped off the page during my first skimming was "...Equus, has no need to learn,...homo sapiens, cannot survive without learning."
This is the book for the equestrian who must know the why behind every facet of their horses conditioning program. For example, when discussing rider position, she supplies photos of the skeletal human pelvis in different positions so that the reader can better visualize what is happening.
Next: Judging a book
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Yeah! You finally got it up! Its a great book huh? I thought about getting another one for Christmas and giving you that one, but yikes its expensive, on amazon at least.
ReplyDeleteI have read that book both cover to cover and gone in for something specific so many times I can't even tell you!
Mary Bromily has a great way of explaining things in a straight forward mannor.
But excuse me, your doing this book review! Hehe!
(now we need to schedule a ride so I can get it back)
and our next ride together is going to be a long long long.....time away. Hahaha! just kidding. If I don't see you by the end of February, I'll mail it to you. Along with a special little fuzzy friend :)
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