Horse Gaits, Balance, and Movement: Revised Edition

… and I’ve read a lot of them! (I’ve been a horse owner for 25 years and the past few years have been studying equine anatomy and conformation as part of earning equine massage certifications.) In particular, I appreciate the clear, concise writing and the diagrams in this book. For example, the explanations and diagrams of travers, renvers, half pass, etc. helped me understand them in a deeper, more concrete way. I will note that there are a number of typos (e.g., “legal aid” instead of “leg aid”) in the diagram labels, some repetition in the text, and at least one paragraph that ends mid-sentence that I found distracting and disappointing. However, I’m not subtracting a star for these editorial problems… the rest of the material is *that* good.

I literally have a library on horse movement, anatomy, lameness, etc. This book is EXCELLENT. Just the first chapter on anatomy is a percise, easy to read distillation of $100+ anatomy books. The movement diagrams are excellent. The understanding of movement is outstanding. This is a must have book for anyone interested in how horses move!

I taught my Icelandic horse to tolt on a lose rein because of the book! I learned so much !

My book club is really enjoying this book. Lots of great illustrations, and detailed information. I would definitely recommend to riders and trainers of any level.

informative , easy read

a great book, the new edition adds color to a must have reference. The illustrations are clear and demonstrate movement very well. It is like having stop action movies.

awesome reference and reads well. Should be a staple at the stable. Wish there were laminated wall charts of some of the drawings.

I am a pre-vet student hoping to go into equine sports medicine, and I was SO excited to read this highly recommended book. Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to like it, I have to say I am a bit disappointed. There is a strong focus on English riding, and even an entire chapter written on the dressage pyramid of training. In one chapter she breaks down all of the different types of movement one would look for in a horse according to their job. She has separate sections for several English disciplines, like show jumping and eventing, but only ONE section for “western,” which really doesn’t make much sense when you look at how diverse the western disciplines are. It would have been nice to at least see separate sections for western pleasure and stock horses. As a western rider (reined cow horse), I felt like this book was not written for me.

Book has great line drawings and photos, and is perfect for studying for Pony Club testing!

Pony club