Horse Crazy explores the meaning behind the love between girls and horses. Jean O'Malley Halley, a self-professed "horse girl," contends that this relationship and its cultural signifiers influence the manner in which young girls define their identity when it comes to gender. Halley examines how popular culture, including the "pony book" genre, uses horses to encourage conformity to gender norms but also insists that the loving relationship between a girl and a horse fundamentally challenges sexist and mainstream ideas of girlhood. Horse Crazy looks at the relationships between girls and horses through the frameworks of Michel Foucault's concepts of normalization and biopower, drawing conclusions about the way girls' agency is both normalized and resistant to normalization. Segments of Halley's own experiences with horses as a young girl, as well as experiences from the perspective of other girls, are sources for examination. "Horsey girls," as she calls them, are girls who find a way to defy the expectations given to them by society?thinness, obsession with makeup and beauty, frailty?and gain the possibility of freedom in the process. Drawing on Nicole Shukin's uses of animal capital theories, Halley also explores the varied treatment of horses themselves as an example of the biopolitical use of nonhuman animals and the manipulation and exploitation of horse life. In so doing she engages with common ways we think and feel about animals and with the technologies of speciesism.

An eastern European father, a Yorkshire childhood, 6th form at a boy's school, events officer for Young Farmers, student physiotherapist at Manchester Royal Infirmary during the Yorkshire Ripper years, intrepid pioneer of sidesaddle hunting, commander-in-chief to a notorious political husband - these are just some of the themes that make this new book so compelling. But what really makes this story so remarkable is the author herself, and the focus and determination with which she drew on her experiences to influence her unique and transformative career as one of the county's leading equine physiotherapy specialists. Mirroring the way Katie and her husband tackle life, this book challenges the `rules' to create something refreshingly new. Instead of taking the easy option of writing a book about the evolution of modern equine physiotherapy, Katie has found a bewitching way to envelop it within her own story - her autobiography - as an irresistible means for growing wider interest in this fascinating topic. So, Katie's readers will typically come from two camps - lovers of biography who will relish the page-turning way that she relates her escapades and life-forming experiences; and equestrians (professional and amateur alike) who will eagerly absorb every detail and colour as she describes her experience of breeding, showing, training, hunting and, of course, healing horses. Thus, whilst this is a `horsey' book, the ultimate test will be the number of readers from the biography camp who thoroughly enjoy their dip into the equine world with Katie as guide. And in this book that is a given. The book is so well thought out that by the time the horse novice reaches the treatment descriptions, they will feel that they have known horses all their life. There is a serious vein in the book too. As an expert in her field, Katie has seen the very best and the very worst of equine care. And being a true Yorkshire lass, she calls a spade a spade and may shock some people with some of her astute observations. The hope is that this will also inspire a more responsible and realistic approach to horse ownership and particularly to equine health and injuries. With some beautiful real-life equine photography and a never-before shared insight to a rare but invaluable mode of treatment, all explained in professional but accessible language, this book is a fantastic read for horse lovers and newbies alike. And as with all of the best biographies, by the end you will feel you have known Katie all of your life - and will celebrate that too!