For more than 30 years, Lee Ziegler has been one of the foremost advocates of gaited horses in North America and Europe. Through her writing and in her clinics, she has introduced countless riders to the pleasures of riding a horse that is calm, obedient, relaxed, alert, sure-footed, easily maneuvered, and consistent in his gait.
Now, in "Easy-Gaited Horses," Ziegler offers a comprehensive guide to riding and training gaited pleasure horses. And unlike the old methods that called for manipulation of a horse's hooves or other gimmicks that could be cruel, Ziegler offers training methods that are gentle, humane, and produce a gaited horse that can be ridden in his gait barefoot, trimmed to his natural angles, with a mild bit, or even without one.
Ziegler begins by defining various types of gaits, explaining how they look to an observer and how they feel to the rider. Next, adopting a whole-body approach to training, she reveals the importance of understanding equine anatomy. She then discusses how to introduce the horse to a variety of gaits: the ordinary walk, the flat walk, the fox trot, the running walk, the saddle rack, and the canter. She explains how to ride a multi-gaited horse, how to handle gait problems, and even how to retrain an easy-gaited show horse for pleasure riding. Ziegler also discusses how to train gaited foals and colts and explains what preparation is necessary before taking the young horse on his first ride.
As riders grow older, comfort on horseback becomes more of an issue. That's where easy-gaited horses step in. Their unique, smooth gaits allow riders to enjoy time in the saddle with minimal physical exertion.

Chicago may seem a surprising choice for studying thoroughbred racing, especially since it was originally a famous harness racing town and did not get heavily into thoroughbred racing until the 1880s. However, Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was second only to New York as a center of both thoroughbred racing and off-track gambling. Horse Racing the Chicago Way shines a light on this fascinating, complicated history, exploring the role of political influence and class in the rise and fall of thoroughbred racing; the business of racing; the cultural and social significance of racing; and the impact widespread opposition to gambling in Illinois had on the sport. Riess also draws attention to the nexus that existed between horse racing, politics, and syndicate crime, as well as the emergence of neighborhood bookmaking, and the role of the national racing wire in Chicago. Taking readers from the grandstands of Chicago's finest tracks to the underworld of crime syndicates and downtown poolrooms, Riess brings to life this understudied era of sports history.

Chicago may seem a surprising choice for studying thoroughbred racing, especially since it was originally a famous harness racing town and did not get heavily into thoroughbred racing until the 1880s. However, Chicago in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was second only to New York as a center of both thoroughbred racing and off-track gambling. Horse Racing the Chicago Way shines a light on this fascinating, complicated history, exploring the role of political influence and class in the rise and fall of thoroughbred racing; the business of racing; the cultural and social significance of racing; and the impact widespread opposition to gambling in Illinois had on the sport. Riess also draws attention to the nexus that existed between horse racing, politics, and syndicate crime, as well as the emergence of neighborhood bookmaking, and the role of the national racing wire in Chicago. Taking readers from the grandstands of Chicago's finest tracks to the underworld of crime syndicates and downtown poolrooms, Riess brings to life this understudied era of sports history.

"What would rodeo look like if we took it as a record, not of human triumph and resilience, but of human imperfection and stubbornness?" asks animal historian Susan Nance. Against the backdrop of the larger histories of ranching, cattle, horses, and the environment in the West, this book explores how the evolution of rodeo has reflected rural western beliefs and assumptions about the natural world that have led to environmental crises and served the beef empire. By unearthing behind-the-scenes stories of rodeo animals as diverse individuals, this book lays bare contradictions within rodeo and the rural West. For almost 150 years, westerners have used rodeo to symbolically reenact their struggles with animals and the land as uniformly progressive and triumphant. Nance upends that view with accounts of individual animals that reveal how diligently rodeo people have worked to make livestock into surrogates for the trials of rural life in the West and the violence in its history. Western horses and cattle were more than just props. Rodeo reclaims their lived history through compelling stories of anonymous roping steers and calves who inspired reform of the sport, such as the famed but abused bucker Steamboat, and the many broncs and bulls, famous or not, who unknowingly built an industry. Rodeo is a dangerous sport that reveals many westerners as people proudly tolerant of risk and violence, and ready to impose these values on livestock. In Rodeo: An Animal History, Nance pushes past standard histories and the sport's publicity to show how rodeo was shot through with stubbornness and human failing as much as fortitude and community spirit.

A no-holds-barred story of what it takes to reach the top, and stay there, in the world's most dangerous sport - three day eventing. At the age of forty-seven Mary King won a Team Bronze at the Beijing Olympics. In the two 'Cavaliers' - 'Call Again Cavalier' and 'Imperial Cavalier' - she has two of the very best event horses in the world. Mary King's success in the world of eventing (now officially classed as the most dangerous sport in the world) has been hard won. She does not come from a privileged background - her father a verger and a long-term invalid so money was very tight. Her first pony was the ancient 'cast off' from the local vicar's children - and success with this pony gave her an iron will to succeed. And succeeded she has. To support herself in the early days she had a variety of unglamorous jobs (this included butcher delivery rounds and cleaning out toilets in the local campsite). Her talent was apparent from very early on and she first competed at Badminton in 1985, had her first win there on King William in 1992 and her second on Star Appeal in 2000. Just when everything seemed to be going well she suffered a terrible fall in 2001 and broke her neck but she was back competing at the very top level the following year. Fully updated for the paperback with the 2010 season, including Team GB's gold medal-winning performance at the World Equestrian Games, this is a fascinating account from inside the world's most dangerous sport.