The Horseless Rider

Rating:
Summary: Packed with invaluable, practical ideas
Review: Barbara Burn's The Horseless Rider provides a guide to riding, showing and enjoying other people's horses. From analyzing a stable's qualities to taking different approaches with different horses, this is packed with invaluable, practical ideas.

Rating:
Summary: Fun and Lively!
Review: Being an experienced (but currently horseless) rider I loved this book! It's a wonderful celebration of everything that a horseless rider has gone through or dealt with. The author's stories of investigating a potential stable had me laughing from experience; the author seems to have found that not all barns with stunning white fencing are always worth their price.

I personally wouldn't really recommend this to a person who has ridden for less than five years because some of its advice will probably cause problems with other riders or stables. From my perspective the book was too quick to recommend readers to report to the ASPCA any stables with a horse that appeared to be thin. Some horses are "hard keepers" and will tend to look like that, they aren't always being neglected or abused. Additionally, the recommendations to "train" other people's horses for them while riding them will quite possibly not be appreciated by the owners if the horseless rider has not undergone extensive (and good) riding instruction themselves. My point is, unless you've been riding for a while, you wouldn't know any differently and might get yourself into some interpersonal relationship trouble.

Regardless, I loved this book and the wonderful way of writing that the author had and would not hesitate to read it again and celebrate memories of being a "horseless" rider.

Rating:
Summary: Inspiring for the horseless
Review: This book nourished me through many dark days of horselessness, and helped me even see it as an advantage. This is an outstanding book for new riders who want to know how far they can go without the committment of becoming an owner (as far as you want!), or for those who already know they want it all but do not have the resources to have a horse of their own.

Rating:
Summary: Horseless people, you MUST own if its the last one you get
Review: This is awesome. It tells about how to choose a good stable, how to be safe with other's horses, how to groom and care for horses, how to inspect tack, how to make you've got liability for borrowing a horse--plus humorous insights into the horseless. Adressed to the normal, horse-crazy public, this is a must have!