Karen Leigh Davis - The Everything Horse Book: Buying, riding, and caring for your equine companion

Dear Reader,

I don't remember a time when I wasn't horse crazy. My friends and I played horses, pretending we were in horse shows or running free as wild horses. But every time I asked my parents for a horse, the answer was always the same: When you grow up and get a job, you can buy one for yourself. My family always indulged my obsession with gifts of horse statues (of which I now have an enormous collection), horse jewelry, and horse books, but alas, never a real horse.

When I was thirty years old and out on my own I bought my first horse, a deadbroke, trustworthy Morgan mare named Dolly. I learned to ride on her and various other school horses, taking up saddle seat equitation before moving on to hunt seat.

My real yearning, however, was to learn dressage, having grown up with Walt Disney's The Miracle of the White Stallions, the story of General Patton's rescue of the Lipizzaner stallions in Vienna during World War II. Before I reached junior high school, I already knew what piaffe and passage were. Unfortunately, there weren't any dressage instructors in my neck of the woods, at least not until about a decade or so after I started riding.

That's when I met Holly Veloso and Judy Westenhoefer, who taught me the classical principles of horsemanship. Although dressage isn't the only style of riding to choose from, I'm now convinced it's the best place to begin. Once you learn the basic principles of dressage, you can apply them to any horse and any riding discipline and realize improvement in yourself as well as in the horse.

I wish you all the best in your equine endeavors. Above all, stay safe, enjoy your horse, and may your trails and those of your equine companions be lined with good footing and capped with cloudless blue skies.

Sincerely,