United States Eventing Association

The Big Book of Hidden Horses: Puzzles, quizzes, trivia & more

Deborah Eve Rubin (Half Halt 2006)

The Little Book of Horse Poop: A Collection of Tips, Truths and Tributes

Becki Bell (Palfrey 2005)

Both books excel in their trivia sections. Bell: a horse takes an average of three weeks to produce its own weight in manure. Rubin: In Spokane, Washington, it’s illegal for a race horse to disrupt a religious meeting.

On the downside, Bell’s book is short and not all the entries are as interesting as how to make paper from horse manure. It would make a cute gift, but there is room for more scholarship, yes, scholarship. Why does manure get so hot that depression era jockeys used fermenting piles of horse manure as psuedo-saunas? Why does manure make a good base for papermaking? Perhaps this will be in the Big Book of Horse Poop. For information or to contribute trivia for the next edition goto palfreymedia.com.

Rubin’s Big Book has twice the number of pages and easily ten times the amount of trivia. Even the word lists for the word searches and the clues for the puzzles make for trivial reading. For example, a list of Horsey Places, including Horse Thief, Arizona. However, the puzzles would be more appropriate for kids than for adult puzzlers. My grandmother, who was New York Times level, wouldn’t have bothered to sharpen her pencil. Rubin has published two other puzzle books, a book of horse trivia, and a collection of proverbs, If Wishes Were Horses: Quotations and Proverbs for Horse People (1995, USCTA News July/August 1995).

Personal note II: I am biased about this author as well. Back in another life, I evented her 13.2-pony. I’m 5’8″. Best time I ever had cross-country.

101 Eventing Tips: Essentials for Combined Training and Horse Trials

by James C. Wofford (Lyons 2007)

This book is part of a series that includes tips for dressage, horsekeeping, and hunter/jumper. Wofford recommends the latter in his bibliography. I’m not clear on the proper audience for these books: too short to instruct beginners; too basic for advanced riders. I suspect they are mostly used as cute trainer’s gifts.

However, being a Wofford book, 101 Eventing Tips has its moments, both humorous and instructive. Tip 23: “If need be, get a significant other to groom for you. This has its hazards, but they already know you are horse-crazy, and if they can’t deal with that, they will not remain significant.” Tip 32 shows how an imaginary toy pistol can help get your reins right.

As regular readers can tell from my repeated references to Wofford’s Training The Three-Day Event Horse and Rider, I am fan of Wofford’s writing. If you have the chance, Wofford is equally qualified at public speaking. He can talk knowledgeably on the difference between the French “Saumur leg” and the Italian “Tor di Quinto” leg. He does an hysterical impression of a horse refusing to cooperate. Finally, despite his interest in riding theory, he’s the first to tell you that life doesn’t always look the way it the way it does in the illustrations. For more Wofford, www.jimwofford.com.