Societal views on animals are rapidly changing and have become more diversified: can we use them for our own pleasure, and how should we understand animal agency? These questions, asked both in theoretical discourses and different practices, are also relevant for our understanding of horses and the human–horse relation. Equine Cultures in Transition stands as the first volume to bring together ethical questions of the new field of human–horse studies. For instance: what sort of ethics should be developed in relation to the horse today: an egalitarian ethics or an ethics that builds upon asymmetrical relations? How can we understand the horse as a social actor and as someone who, just like the human being, becomes through interspecies relations? Through which methods can we give the horse a stronger voice and better understand its becoming? These questions are not addressed from a medical or ethological perspective focused on natural behaviour, but rather from human acknowledgement of the horse as a sensing, feeling, acting, and relational being; and as a part of interspecies societies and relations. Providing an introductory yet theoretically advanced and broad view of the field of post humanism and human animal studies, Equine Cultures in Transition will appeal to students and researchers interested in fields such as human–animal studies, political sociology, animals and ethics, animal behaviour, anthropology, and sociology of culture. It may also appeal to riders and other practitioners within different horse traditions.

Riding Home:The Power of Horses to Heal, Horse Nation's must read book of 2016, is the first and only book to scientifically and experientially explain why horses have the extraordinary ability to emotionally transform the lives of thousands of men, women and children, whether they are horse lovers, or suffering from deep psychological wounds. It is a book for anyone who wants to experience the joy, wonder, self-awareness and peace of mind that comes from creating a horse/human relationship, and it puts forth and clarifies the principles of today's Natural Horsemanship (or what was once referred to as "Horse Whispering") Everyone knows someone who needs help: a husband, a wife, a partner, a child, a friend, a troubled teenager, a war veteran with PTSD, someone with autism, an addiction, anyone in emotional pain or who has lost their way. Riding Home provides riveting examples of how Equine Therapy has become one of today's most effective cutting-edge methods of healing. Horses help us discover hidden parts of ourselves, whether we're seven or seventy. They model relationships that demonstrate acceptance, kindness, honesty, tolerance, patience, justice, compassion, and forgiveness. Horses cause all of us to become better people, better parents, better partners, and better friends. A horse can be our greatest teacher, for horses have no egos, they never lie, they're never wrong and they manifest unparalleled compassion. It is this amazing power of horses to heal and teach us about ourselves that is accessible to anyone and found in the pages of Tim Hayes's Riding Home. The information and lists of therapeutic and non-therapeutic equine programs, which are contained in the book, are also available at the book's website.

Since time eternal horses have walked beside us, helping to shape our destinies, taking us on journeys of the soul, and offering as a gift their power, mystique, and beauty. While it has taken some time, mental health professionals and educators alike have begun to formally acknowledge the emotional, mental and physical benefits that humans can receive by spending time with horses. In the U.S. alone, there are already more than 900 programs that offer therapeutic or educational programming provided in partnership with horses. Leif Hallberg has extensively researched the field of Equine Facilitated Mental Health and Educational Services, and this book reveals the many ways horses can help humans. Become familiar with: Key definitions Historical information about working with horses in therapeutic and educational settings Ethical considerations Practical applications Learn more about the healing power of horses and their rich history of working together with humans in Walking the Way of the Horse. For additional information about this book, and Leif Hallberg visit www.walkingthewayofthehorse.com

Can horses really teach us to be better human beings? In this groundbreaking work, you will discover that the answer is a resounding "Yes". While working with severely disturbed youths, therapists Adele and Deborah McCormick discovered the best healers were their herd of Peruvian Paso horses. Through their work with horses, the McCormicks' patients were initiated into the hidden world of animal energy and instinct, and found a safe and natural way to learn about their own dualistic natures. Patients learned to tap into their primal "animal" mind and energies and apply them toward more creative and responsible living. What took days or months to uncover in an office setting took onyl minutes when patients were on a horse. You will read case after fascinating case of people discarded by society and the psychiatric community whose lives were turned around by the intuitive guidance and friendship of their equine therapists. What People are saying... "This book got me. It is about personal growth and the cultivation of wisdom, and is one of the wisest contributions I have come across in years...Its implications for healing are utterly profound. Horse Sense and the Human Heartis a breakthrough work." --Larry Dossey, M.D. author Prayer is Good Medicine and Healing Words "Horse Sense and the Human Heart is an eye-opening and heartwarming adventure. In sharing their pioneering therapeutic discoveries, Adele and Deborag McCormick take us on a shamantic interspecies odyssey. They reveal a secret world governed by wise equine masters, availalbe to help heal our psyches, and guide the human spirit on its journey toward wholeness." --David Jay Brown, author, Brainchild and Mavericks of the Mind

Equine Behavioral Medicine provides an essential resource for those who work with, study, and provide care to horses. It provides critical knowledge to help users understand the complex aspects of their behavior in order to benefit the animal, observe safe practices, and advance research in this area. The book includes current information on normal horse behavior and problem behaviors, particularly those associated with medical conditions, changes in the nervous system, and the use of drug therapy. Readers will gain a comprehensive understanding of the differences of the sensory systems and the concepts of learning that are helpful for successful treatments and safety. With the use of psychopharmacology becoming increasingly common by veterinarians, including for abnormal behaviors, is important to understand the rationale for the use of these medications. Understanding the intimate relationship between behavior, physiology, and health is key to practitioners, students, professionals, and others who work with, or care for, horses. - Pulls together the current published science on equine behavior into chapters covering a variety of specific behavioral topics - Features discussion based on an extensive review of the literature - Includes a thorough reference list in each chapter for those who might be interested in further research

The horse- and rider-training handbook of an internationally renowned master horseman.

The soldier-horse relationship was nurtured by The British Army because it made the soldier and his horse into an effective fighting unit. Soldiers and their Horses explores a complex relationship forged between horses and humans in extreme conditions. As both a social history of Britain in the early twentieth century and a history of the British Army, Soldiers and their Horses reconciles the hard pragmatism of war with the imaginative and emotional. By carefully overlapping the civilian and the military, by juxtaposing "sense" and "sentimentality," and by considering institutional policy alongside individual experience, the soldier and his horse are re-instated as co-participators in The Great War. Soldiers and their Horses provides a valuable contribution to current thinking about the role of horses in history.

An eye-opening game-changer of a book that sheds new light on how horses learn, think, perceive, and perform, and explains how to work with the horse’s brain instead of against it. In this illuminating book, brain scientist and horsewoman Janet Jones describes human and equine brains working together. Using plain language, she explores the differences and similarities between equine and human ways of negotiating the world. Mental abilities—like seeing, learning, fearing, trusting, and focusing—are discussed from both human and horse perspectives. Throughout, true stories of horses and handlers attempting to understand each other—sometimes successfully, sometimes not—help to illustrate the principles. Horsemanship of every kind depends on mutual interaction between equine and human brains. When we understand the function of both, we can learn to communicate with horses on their terms instead of ours. By meeting horses halfway, we achieve many goals. We improve performance. We save valuable training time. We develop much deeper bonds with our horses. We handle them with insight and kindness instead of force or command. We comprehend their misbehavior in ways that allow solutions. We reduce the human mistakes we often make while working with them. Instead of working against the horse’s brain, expecting him to function in unnatural and counterproductive ways, this book provides the information needed to ride with the horse’s brain. Each principle is applied to real everyday issues in the arena or on the trail, often illustrated with true stories from the author’s horse training experience. Horse Brain, Human Brain offers revolutionary ideas that should be considered by anyone who works with horses.

Out of print for more than 20 years, this classic book on equitation introduces and explains the art of riding. Updated with all new color photography of contemporary riders and horses, it includes details on training the rider, schooling the horse, cross-country riding, dressage exercises, and jumping techniques. It expertly provides a wealth of practical knowledge and experience and concisely lays down rules and guidelines that are as applicable today as when the book was written more than 70 years ago. Beginners and experts alike will find the instructions easy to follow and will benefit from the essential theoretical background provided here but so often overlooked in modern riding.

A “superb” account of the enduring connection between humans and horses—“Full of the sort of details that get edited out of more traditional histories” (The Economist). Fifty-six million years ago, the earliest equid walked the earth—and beginning with the first-known horse-keepers of the Copper Age, the horse has played an integral part in human history. It has sustained us as a source of food, an industrial and agricultural machine, a comrade in arms, a symbol of wealth, power, and the wild. Combining fascinating anthropological detail and incisive personal anecdote, equestrian expert Susanna Forrest draws from an immense range of archival documents as well as literature and art to illustrate how our evolution has coincided with that of horses. In paintings and poems (such as Byron’s famous “Mazeppa”), in theater and classical music (including works by Liszt and Tchaikovsky), representations of the horse have changed over centuries, portraying the crucial impact that we’ve had on each other. Forrest combines this history with her own experience in the field, and travels the world to offer a comprehensive look at the horse in our lives today: from Mongolia where she observes the endangered takhi, to a show-horse performance at the Palace of Versailles; from a polo club in Beijing to Arlington, Virginia, where veterans with PTSD are rehabilitated through interaction with horses. “For the horse-addicted, a book can get no better than this . . . original, cerebral and from the heart.” —The Times (London)