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Rating: Summary: Don't Travel without it! Review: I don't have the new one yet, (I am ordering it now) but I have an older one and I travel across the US on a regular basis, and I have found this book to be a life saver!!!! I don't haul my horses anywhere without it! I love this book!
Rating: Summary: Excellent source of information Review: We bought and used the 2001 edition to plan our round trip to Maine and back to Texas these past two years. We are ordering the latest 2002 as gifts for some of our traveling and trail riding horse friends. This guide is somewhat more comprehensive in numbers of listings than the Nationwide Overnight Stabling Directory, which we also bought and used. They each contain some listings that the other does not, but Jim's has more, and seemed to have fewer problems with out of date phone numbers (area code changes, usually) or folks no longer providing a service. Also, the Overnight guide does not list prices, nor include specific driving directions to the "horse hotel" (they want you to call first, not just show up - which is fine). It appears folks listing with Overnight pay for the privilege, whereas Jim's listings are free (hence more of them?).If you're doing some serious cross country horse traveling, buy both books, if not than this US Stabling Guide is the one to get you most anywhere with lots of good choices.
Rating: Summary: It's a good start Review: Well, I haul a lot of horses in the Western States and my one big complaint with this book is that it's not real good about truly covering the states in the West where we tend to be more spread out than in the East. For example, try to find a place to stay in Utah with a horse if you are not way up in the northern part or clear down in Saint George. Another big drawback is that the book doesn't have any emergency section--like names of horse vets along interstates or tack and feed stores or anything like that-- not even the phone numbers for the Stateline Tack Petsmarts. Hey, I know everyone has to make a buck, but how hard is it to get the people submitting listings (and I was in the book as a stable and it cost me a pretty penny, let me tell you!) to recommend good vets/feed stores/etc. across the state for emergencies? Or what about asking for referrals and giving credit on NEXT year's listings to get more people in a state? Oh, and then there's the accuracy issue. As a listing stable, I can tell you that mistakes are NOT corrected, no matter how critical, and they are perpetuated year after year despite sending in the correction form. We were able to deal with this as travelers because we didn't expect a year old guide to be up to date, but I recommend using the internet over buying this book. If you don't want to use the internet, then buy one of the other books that updates quarterly (they are in looseleaf format) and sell you the full year of updates for an annual price. In the long run, you'll get more for your dollar. Maybe with their books you won't find yourself broken down along a 600 mile stretch of main interstate with no veterinarian to call for your sick mare, and no place to keep your horses, foal or trailer while you seek help. Despite the advances in technology, there are still many places in the US where cell phones do not work. (Otherwise we wouldn't all laugh at the "Can you hear me now?" ad.)
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