This book was written to provide information to writers about horses to use correct information with writing. It is also a good guide on horses. Great book for writersto have available for reference material. ( )

I received a copy of this book through the LibraryThing early reviewers program.

Written with a great sense of humour and mostly intended as a guide for writers of speculative fiction who have no previous knowledge of horses, this is also a great read for anyone who doesn't plan to write horsey stories but wants to learn some basics about equines. For any horse people whose first language is not English, it's a friendly introduction to the specific terms in that language and how they are applied (because there's enough explanation about each tool and term to figure out how they correspond to your own language). It also provides many useful tips for further research for anyone writing a novel in a historical setting, such as what kind of equipment was used by different ancient cultures. The author also offers various ideas for how to use horses as plot elements and not just as transport devices. And yes, it does make an interesting or at least entertaining read for a horse person as well. All in all, the content is an excellent read for many purposes.

This is the first book I've read that is clearly written to be an ebook, and an ebook only. Hyperlinks (and there's a great variety of them, from photo albums to video clips and studies among more general related websites) within the text add to the experience but can also be a bit distracting - you know how easy it is to get lost clicking around once you've opened that site. I progressed much more rapidly on my second try at reading the book because Internet wasn't available so there was no point clicking the links. :P

That being said, what was disappointing was that the formatting didn't work too well (I was reading with the iBooks app). Most of the photos within the book got thrown around with big gaps in the text between and this was often followed with random blank pages between chapters or chapter titles and the text. It gives a very poor impression of the book (as does the lowercase spelling of the author's name repeated in the header of every page and some other very obvious typographical errors). And speaking of the photos, while they added to the text in both informative and illustrative ways, they were disappointingly low-res and I often would have wanted to see more detail.

A lot of essential point are covered, starting from how horses differ from humans and dogs, the basic terminology that is so often misused by ignorant writers and the basics of everyday life with and around horses. Most of the book handles topics such as caring for riding horses and different riding disciplines although draught horses and carriages do get mentioned. If you're looking for more detailed information about those topics, you'll need to search elsewhere. The book is also slightly biased towards American horses with the notable exception of the Lipizzaners, the latter being better justified as that breed really makes an excellent model for a typical fantasy horse as is explained in the text in detail. One chapter that I would have expected to see included but is missing is horses in mythology - they do get a brief mention here and there, but would really have deserved more introduction, especially considering much of the book is geared towards the fantasy writer who could use the information for either getting the tradition right or avoiding the worst cliches.

And one final minor gripe: the writer gets her facts about Tolkien wrong: he might not be _known_ as a horseman, but he actually was - his job in the military before WWI was to break young horses for the cavalry. So it's not a coincidence that he wrote horses so well. ( )

I already knew a lot of the information in this books, but it is presented in a fun way, with some lovely pictures of the author's horses. For a writer who knows nothing about horses, this would be a great resource. Even if you are familiar with horses, it is a good refresher or spot check when writing or going through your manuscript. ( )

If you ever need to know horse terminology this is the best place to start. I have read a lot of horse stories and never saw such an all inclusive resource to learn about horses. From body type to color to parts it makes it an easy resource to use. ( )

Well thought out, comprehensive look at horses for the writer. Essential so you don't make the common mistakes that non-horsemen make when writing. Recommended! ( )