Equine Nutrition and Feeding Review

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(More customer reviews)We are using this book for an equine nutrition class. This book is extremely hard book to follow and read and I do not recommend it for anyone who is looking for good practical information.

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Since the first edition of Equine Nutrition and Feeding was published in 1986, it has become the seminal work on the subject. It covers all the key topics that you need to know for your equine nutrition degree course. This comprehensive and clearly evidenced textbook covers how food is digested and nutrients are used in growing, working and breeding horses. It also explains the scientific basis for calculating nutrient and dietary requirements in an understandable manner, and shows you how to do these calculations. Special attention is also given to grassland and pasture, and to housing and diet-related diseases.
Additional, student-friendly features include:
References to the most up-to-date information, including "Nutrient Requirements of Horses", from the National Research Council (2007).
Case histories to provide practical examples.
Study questions at the end of each chapter to help you to revise.
A comprehensive glossary of terms and abbreviations.

Changes to this fourth edition:
Evidence base has been expanded, with 646 new research reports and papers being incorporated.
Extensively revised to make navigation easier.
A new section is dedicated to the weaning and growth of the foal.

This book is the essential text for any undergraduate and postgraduate student of equine nutrition, equine veterinary medicine, equine veterinary nursing or agricultural science. It is also used by equine nutritionists and horse owners.

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King of the Wind: The Story of the Godolphin Arabian Review

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(More customer reviews)Marguerite Henry took great license in telling the story of the Godolphin Arabian, but it's likely there were two reasons she did so; first, because she based the majority of her novel on heavily romanticised reports like that which appeared in Western Horseman in 1949; second, to illustrate to young children what could happen to perfectly good horses that were considered worthless because of prejudice or unwillingness to see what was there.
The real Sham was born in Tunis and given by the Bey of Tunis to King Louis XV with a group of other horses. But there's no evidence that he was reduced to pulling a cart in the Paris streets before rescue by Edward Coke. Coke probably got him from the Duke of Lorraine, who'd gotten him from the King.
A contemporary described Sham as "beautiful but half-starved", so the rough sea voyage with the greedy officers and crew is likely true, even if the cart-horse story is not. He also said that Sham (he spelled it Shami, and other accounts have "Scham") was temperamental and generally disliked by the stable hands. A vet who cared for Sham in his last years said he was built to sire champions: "his shoulders were deeper, and lay farther into his back, than those of any horse ever yet seen. Behind the shoulders, there was but a very small space ere the muscles of his loins rose exceedingly high, broad, and expanded, which were inserted into his hindquarters with greater strength and power than in any horse I believe ever yet seen of his dimensions, viz fifteen hands high."
Agba was real; there are portraits of the little horse with a handsome dark-skinned young man in flowing Arab dress and turban. Whether or not he was mute is debatable. Again, many of the later accounts have been greatly romanticised. But Grimalkin the stable cat was real too, according to early records which report his presence in the famous portrait.
There is no record of the apocalyptic battle with Hobgoblin. We can look at that, and Sham's subsequent exile to Wicken Fen, as symbolic of the prejudice felt by the complacent English toward this relatively small, strange-looking newcomer. The truth is that Sham did mate with Lady Roxane and sired Lath. He sired 116 others in his long lifetime.
With all the interest in Seabiscuit of late, one would like to point out that as a direct descendant of Man O'War, he was also a direct descendant of the Godolphin Arabian. Just another horse who seemed worthless, but was not, and came from behind to prove the superiority of Arabian blood.
Look up "Davenport Arabians" to learn more about this proud line.

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Horse Diaries #1: Elska Review

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(More customer reviews)In Iceland, around the year 1000 A.D., most Icelandic horses spend their summers roaming free and their winters on farms working for humans. This book is the story of one young Icelandic filly. She is born in the summer, and a few months later when fall arrives, she and part of her herd are brought to the farm of a human family. The family's young daughter, Amma, becomes very close to the filly, and names her Elska. The horse and the young girl develop a strong bond. However, Amma's father decides to trade Elska to a neighbor, confusing Elska and breaking Amma's heart. Will they ever be reunited again?
Told from the point of view of Elska, this was a cute story that is sure to appeal to young girls who love horses, particularly those who also enjoy historical fiction. The book teaches some interesting facts about life for both horses and humans in Iceland in this time period. The illustrations were very well done and were adorable. I would definitely recommend this book to the target audience.

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Iceland, circa AD 1000Elska is a silver dapple Icelandic filly. She spends summers frisking about the countryside and winters in the farmyard, where the girl human Amma takes special care of her. But when a powerful neighbor notices Elska, her contented life suddenly changes. Here is Elska's story . . . in her own words.

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Horse Diaries #4: Maestoso Petra Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a nice book about a beautiful horse from when it was born until it was an adult, safe from war and the Nazi Germans.

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Vienna, Austria, 1938Maestoso Petra is a world-famous Lipizzaner stallion. He has spent years in the Spanish Riding School, training to perform the complex airs above the ground that only Lipizzaner can accomplish. But when World War II breaks out in Europe, he learns to think less about performing and more about survival. Here is Maestoso Petra's story . . . in his own words.

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War Horse Review

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(More customer reviews)"War Horse" is a story of courage and endurance by horse and man, conveyed through the destruction that is war. Told from the viewpoint of the horse, the story can draw in the most reluctant reader, as children often feel more empathy for animals than people. Because of descriptions of grueling labor and unsound working conditions for the horses, the book is best directed toward fourth grade and up.
Joey, a gorgeous bay with four white stocking forelegs and a white cross on his forehead, is the War Horse. Albert is his 15-year-old human who trains and loves him. When his father sells the horse to the calvary for service in World War I, Albert swears to join when he is old enough and find Joey.
The insanity of matching a cavalry of horses and riders with sabers against soldiers with rifles and machine guns has to be one of the most insane moments in war history!! One-fourth of the horses are killed in the first battle. All but two die in the next battle this cavalry faces. Joey and his equal, Topthorn, a huge black Arabian, survive, only to be taken as prisoners by the Germans.
What Joey and Topthorn face as part of the team to pull the hospital cart to the battle front over and over is made right by kind treatment their German masters give to their wounds and injuries, and treat their fatigue at the end of day. Joey's worse experience comes when he and Topthorn and others must pull the artillery. Because these soldiers are dead tired themselves and also starving, they are not as attentive to the horses.
The most horrifying scene occurs when Joey is totally alone and runs and runs from the sound of cannons until he is trapped in No Man's Land, a barren area between the French and English on one side and the Germans on the other. Two rolls of barbed wire separate the land from the trenches. Joey finds himself in this area. What transpires is an incredible and beautiful moment in the midst of an insane war.
Of course, you must know that Albert is re-united with Joey. How that comes about is purely contrived, but welcome by a reader weary of the horrors of war for both man and horse.
Last week a fourth-grader asked me for a really good book to read. I showed him several. When he saw "War Horse," he wanted it at once. The next day he told me, "This is a great book." He was already half-way finished. So I went home and read my copy.
You will never look at a horse the same way again. Joey tells us about the people who tend him. Are they heavy-handed, hard, tender, kind, caring? What is it like with each type of person? What is it like to be a horse? But the best lesson is that horses are no longer used in battle (until a reader commented that horses are being used in Afghanistan! Barbarity in a barbaric place. What can one expect?)

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