Book It

Equine topics to add to your summer reading list

If you are planning a vacation, but won’t be able to keep your mind from thinking about horses, here are a few fun horse-related book selections to satisfy your senses while you relax.

The Great Sweepstakes of 1877

A True Story of Southern Grit, Gilded Age Tycoons, and a Race That Galvanized the Nation By Mark Shrager Paperback • 352 pages • Lyons Press

“One of the greatest horse races of all time was held at Pimlico Race Track in Baltimore at a time when the nation officially ended the Era of Reconstruction. The story of that race—billed as East against West but clearly pitting North against South— and its historical context is beautifully told in Mark Shrager’s The Great Sweepstakes of 1877.” –Robert K. Sutton, Chief Historian of the National Park Service

In 1877, members of the United States Senate postponed all business for the day so they might attend a horse race—the iconic, polarizing post-Civil War event at the center of this story. The nation, still recovering from the depredations of the Civil War and the reconstruction that followed, recognized it as a north vs. south encounter, pitting New York’s powerful Thoroughbred Tom Ochiltree and New Jersey’s Parole—owned by the ostentatious Northern tycoons Pierre and George Lorrilard—against the already legendary “Kentucky crack,” Ten Broeck—owned by the teetotaling, plain-living Frank Harper and ridden by black jockey and former slave William Walker—representing a former slave state and its Southern values. The race and the colorful cast of characters involved reflected the still-seething America during one of the nation’s most difficult and divisive periods. Shrager presents a fascinating and heart-pounding piece of history exposing the racial and economic tensions following the Civil War that culminated in one final race to the end.

Great American Cowboy Stories:

Lyons Press Classics Edited by Michael McCoy Paperback •296 pages • Lyons Press

sitting out a winter storm in a cave—adventures like these were all part of everyday life for the cowboy. They’re depicted here in stories that have stood the test of time, by writers whose words are just as funny and wise today as they were 100 years ago.

Covering all corners of the great Western expanse—from Montana to Mexico, California to the Mississippi—the stories in this collection represent not just the Anglo male perspective but also that of the blacks, Mexicans and women who made their lives on the range. It features works by Owen Wister, Theodore Roosevelt, Frederic Remington, Isabella L. Bird, Nat Love, Bill Nye, Charlie Siringo, Zane Grey, Andy Adams, Mark Twain, E. Mulford, O. Henry (creator of the Cisco Kid) and many others, including some surprises by little-known authors.

Believe

A Horseman’s Journey, revised edition By Buck Brannaman and William Reynolds Paperback •224 pages • Lyons Press

“Others have falsely claimed to be the inspiration for Tom Booker in The Horse Whisperer. The one who truly inspired me was Buck Brannaman. His skill, understanding and his gentle, loving heart have parted the clouds for countless troubled creatures. Buck is the Zen master of the horse world.” –Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer

Master horseman Buck Brannaman, the real-life Horse Whisperer, continues the chronicle of his life as trainer and mentor in Believe, where we meet 13 remarkable people whose lives he has affected. Through their accounts of help and healing and through Brannaman’s own introductions, the reader is inspired by the hope and confidence that he instilled in these individuals. This updated edition includes a new foreword, introduction and account by one of Brannaman’s longtime observers.

If improving your riding is of more interest to you, there are other good options:

Ride Big

The Ultimate Guide to Building Equestrian Confidence By John Haime Paperback • 216 pages • Trafalgar Square Books/HorseandRiderBooks.com

Haime, a former tournament professional golfer, left his life as a professional athlete to first produce workplace learning programs for Fortune 500 organizations and eventually blend his areas of experience and knowledge into an innovative system of performance coaching. His company, New Edge Performance, has generated breakthrough results for clients in major professional sports leagues, including

the NFL, NHL, NBA and MLS, and Haime has counseled athletes in a variety of other sports—golf, tennis and equestrian.

In Ride Big, the focus is on building equestrian confidence. Several top professional athletes from an array of equestrian disciplines are featured, including Gold Medalist jumpers Beezie Madden and McLain Ward, Olympic Gold Medalist eventer Michael Jung, Gold Medalist dressage rider Laura Tomlinson, professional reiner Casey Deary and professional polo players Fred Mannix and Jared Zenni.

Haime offers an easy-to-implement system proven to grow rider confidence and unlock your performance potential.

What follows is an excerpt from Ride Big:

Prep Up! I wish I could tell you there is a magic system to help you be as prepared as you need to be to maximize all of your abilities, but the truth is, there really isn’t. Preparation is the state of being ready for something that will happen or the actions you take to become ready. Having the privilege of assisting the world’s best athletes and helping them prepare to be their best, I have come to one conclusion: There are so many different ways and approaches to get ready. You must develop the one that works best for you. Each equestrian prepares in his or her own unique way. For example, some equestrian athletes love to get to the barn early before a competition and take in all of the atmosphere. They might sip on a beverage, talk to the grooms, get their tack ready, and just generally spend time around the barn.

Other equestrian athletes get to the barn just in time to get their tasks done to get ready for the day. Some like to talk a lot; others like to quietly listen to music. Some like to spend time around the competitive environment and take it all in, watching others and taking lots of time to warm up. Some want to arrive shortly before the competition and don’t spend a lot of time warming up.

So, what is the lesson for you in all of this?

Preparation is highly personal.

You may have thought there might be one way that is better than the others—something a worldclass rider might do that others should do. But all equestrians are different and need to pay careful attention to what helps them perform their best.

I have seen lots of great equestrians take completely different approaches to preparation. The right approach for the right rider will contribute to knowing you’re ready. Confidence and Riding Big are the result. This is again where you turn things back to Self-Discovery. Know exactly what works for you and own it.

Jared Knows What Works for Him

Jared Zenni is a top, developing high-goal professional polo and Team USPA player. He is a great example of an equestrian athlete with a very personal preparation routine who understands what works for him. Each time Jared plays, he works his way through the same routine to give himself the best opportunity to be ready.

“For me, if we are playing earlier in the day, I start about four hours before,” he says. “I have a very specific routine that I have modified over time, and I know it works for me.”

Jared says he follows specific steps over the same time period each time: • A light workout—some activation to wake up the body. • Meditation practice for about 30 minutes to get his mind ready and center himself. • Have a meal and relax. • Arrive at the field about 90 minutes early. • Go to the trailer to see his teammates and horses. • Finalize his list of horses and the way he wants to play them that day. • Get to the tent about 70 minutes before game time. • A light jog or stretch about 10 minutes before he jumps on a horse.

• Once on the horse, a stick-and-ball routine, walking the full length of the field and focusing on making good contact with the ball. • Start picking up a canter, picking up the pace and working on some shots. • Finally, just before he plays, he puts on his helmet, and takes a few deep breaths.

Jared summarizes his thoughts on his routine: “I am always trying to find what works best and what will help me play my best. For example, I’ve added some meditation practice this year, and I’m getting to the field a little earlier than previous years to relax and get centered before I play.”

How Do You Prepare?

Your job now is to think about what routine works best for you. Remember that a routine is your particular sequence of actions that you follow regularly. Here are a few general questions about your own preparation routine: 1. What is the preparation approach that gets you most excited to show your skills in competition? 2. What do you need to do before a competition to help you perform your best? 3. What recent routine (if you remember) allowed you to perform at a high level? 4. What puts you in a joyful mood and fosters the right level of focus to help you compete well? 5. What could distract you in your preparation from performing your best in competition?

As a part of thinking about your preparation, I would like you to write down exactly the steps you might take from the time you leave your residence to arrival at the barn, until the competition starts. What is your optimal sequence of events for you to go into competition with a confident mindset?

Overcoming The Fear of Riding

By Theresa J. Jordan and Peter E. De Michele Hard cover • 200 pages • Breakthrough Publications

In order to fully enjoy the sport of polo, you must ride with ability and confidence. While riding skills can be mastered over time, one of the most important aspects of mounting up is overcoming the fear of riding. However, fear is not just for beginners. Almost all of the top professional riders in any equestrian discipline will admit they’ve dealt with fear at some point. Fear can take many forms such as fear of failure, poor performance or injury from falling. While fear can be related to a rider’s skill level, it can also come after a riding accident or scary experience.

In Overcoming the Fear of Riding, sports psychologists Jordan and De Michele interviewed over a dozen successful Olympian and world champion equestrians, including Bruce Davidson, Robert Dover, Martha Josey, Greg Best, Carol Lavell and Rodney Jenkins about overcoming fear, stress and anxiety. These interviews reveal insights to help deal effectively with many different symptoms of fear relating to riding horses, especially in highperformance, high-stress situations.

Chapters are interspersed with thoughts, guidance and observations from the equestrians, covering topics such as understanding nervous energy of both horse and rider; the nature of the challenge and risk of riding; sizing up good risk versus bad risk; rational versus irrational thinking; ways to defeat irrational thinking; determining your motivation to ride and be around horses; establishing self-goals and expectations; cultivating trust; understanding the horse-rider relationship; tips for safer rides and taking personal responsibility for your experiences.

A key point is that fear and stress are learned behavior and can be unlearned if the rider is willing to put in the time and effort. The last line reminds the reader, “fear and excitement are two horns of the same bull.”

The book includes 18 personal case studies of riders who have experienced fear. Each case gives an example of what the rider was fearful of and ways to overcome that fear. •