3+ Best Books For Horse Owners (2022 Updated)

Knowing deeper and deeper about horses even makes you feel more loved toward your horse. These are the books you must read to be a better owner.

Women Are From Venus And So Are Their Horses – A Grown Man’s Musings On The Opposite Sex In The Saddle, By Menno Kalman

A Valentine For Men Who Love Women Who Love Horses:

He may be a knight in slightly rusting armor, but that’s only because he’s spent so many spring shows calling your dressage test while standing in the rain. He still doesn’t use the laundry hamper, but the clothes on the floor all smell of saddle soap, tractor oil, and the hazelnut-vanilla half-caf soy latte (with a dash of cinnamon) that he brings for you to sip between early-morning rides. And, to be honest, he does melt your heart every time he says those three little words: I’ll do stalls.

He’s a man who loves a woman who loves horses, and in Menno Kalman’s Women Are From Venus and so Are Their Horses: A Grown Man’s Musings on the Opposite Sex in the Saddle, he finally begins to get his due. In 34 essays, Kalman describes the world of horses from the perspective of a groom – that is, the kind who gets married – turned groom – the kind who gets married to a dressage rider. Stationed outside the riding arena, stuck under the horse trailer, and somehow always much too close to snapping teeth and striking hooves, he ponders the questions that have baffled husbands, sweethearts, brothers, and fathers since the first little girl threw her arms around a pony’s neck in an unbreakable headlock – ahem, a tiny hug:

“‘What on earth are you doing?’ I hear a voice behind me say. My wife got home. She can’t find her mare and I trudge around the stables trying to explain what happened. She has just finished a lightning inspection run. “Don’t tell me you brought in the gelding on that rusty old chain!” she bellows. And as she inspects the chin of the horse uttering soft comforting words, I run the sloshing wheelbarrow up the ramp to the manure heap. The sheer weight makes me capsize and I end up stretched out in horse [manure], the wheelbarrow slowly emptying itself over me as I lie there.
     “My wife hugs one of the horses and says: ‘Now what is that silly man up to this time?'”

Whiplash is accurate and so mercilessly funny that even when you recognize yourself among the pages, you’ll want to share the book with everyone you know, Kalman’s Women Are from Venus and So Are Their Horses also reveals one tender truth: there’s a reason why the word “crazy” describes both people who love horses and people who are simply in love.

Do you know a man who loves a woman who loves horses? What do you love about him?

This Is Not The Story You Think It Is: A Season Of Unlikely Happiness, By Laura Munson

Did Cupid Miss His Mark?

“[It’s like my Morgan] senses that I need calm. When I am on my horse, the rest of the world falls away except for the exact place where his feet touch the ground. It’s the most religious practice I’ve known; it’s where the prayers don’t beg. They surrender and receive. It’s that place of true nature I’ve been seeking all my life. Freedom. I find myself chanting “Thank you” with each of his steps, hoof to the forest floor.”
     – from This Is Not the Story You Think It Is: A Season of Unlikely Happiness, by Laura Munson

Sometimes Cupid misses his mark. The arrow flies hopelessly wide, or it nicks you as it passes. What might be the cruelest shot of all, though, is when that arrow pierces your heart and tears right through it, as it did when Laura Munson’s husband said to her, after fifteen years of marriage, “I don’t love you anymore. I don’t think I ever did.”

Luckily, Munson kept her eye on her target: a happy family and a relationship that endures. “I don’t buy it,” she replied. Her words launched her and her husband on the one journey they never expected, that of coming back to each other by taking care of themselves, of rediscovering shared happiness by taking responsibility for their individual joy.

It’s an astonishing story. Challenging, too.  Yet whether or not you agree with Munson’s approach, no horse-lover can argue with her method. When those arrows fail to carry us to the heights of love and living, horses can carry us into deeper places of clarity, renewal, and peace.

Ready to have a few words with Cupid? Read Munson’s original article, Those Aren’t Fighting Words, Dear, in the New York Times Modern Love collection, check out the book, and visit one of her events, which this month include a workshop and book signing amid the spectacular Grand Prix show-jumping events in Wellington, Florida.

The Mindfulness Revolution – Leading Psychologists, Scientists, Artists, And Meditation Teachers On The Power Of Mindfulness In Everyday Life, Edited By Barry Boyce, With A Quote By Dr. George Washington Carver

The Secrets Of Horses:

Reading The Mindfulness Revolution this morning, I came across my new favorite equestrian quote:

Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough.

The quote isn’t by an equestrian: it’s by Dr. George Washington Carver, an African American scientist, inventor, and humanitarian. The book isn’t specifically for equestrians either. A collection of essays about compassionate awareness, The Mindfulness Revolution: Leading Psychologists, Scientists, Artists, and Meditation Teachers on the Power of Mindfulness in Everyday Life shows how simply being present – that is, paying attention and being kind –  can change your life for the better, no matter what your circumstances and goals are.

Even though neither the quote nor the book was especially meant for equestrians, I think both apply. I’ve found that the more I’ve loved my horse – and I don’t mean in the kisses and cookies sense, but in the sense of doing my best to listen to him and follow through on what he needs – I’ve come to understand him better, and I’ve become a better friend to him. Surprisingly – or, considering Dr. Carver’s words and the essays’ conclusions, perhaps not surprisingly – while I was busy (or, actually, not busy) being present, becoming a better horsewoman and a better rider seemed to happen all by itself.

Every horse has secrets. Some of the secrets are wonderful – a hidden talent, a hero’s grit – and some of them are terrible. Either way, our horses can never speak a word of their secrets to us. But I’m going to tape Dr. Carver’s quote to the inside of my tack box, and maybe if I love my horse enough, I’ll learn more of the truth hidden in his heart. Even if I don’t, maybe I’ll just manage to love him a little better, and maybe that is part of the truth that matters most.

Has a horse ever told you his or her secrets? What mattered most?

Learn more from the best horse website for book lovers!

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