Buying Your First Horse: A Guide to Preparing For, Finding, and Purchasing a Great Horse: Amazon.ca: Mary Guay: Books

Product Description

About the Author

Mary Guay is a writer in Atlanta, Georgia. She has collaborated with her sister, Donna Schlinkert on several equestrian publications, including Buying Your First Horse. Mary loves to hear from her readers (wpp@juno.com) and welcomes any equestrian related questions.

Donna Schlinkert is a lifelong professional equestrian with 20 years international experience as a broker, trainer, instructor, barn owner and manager. She has been active in the equestrian community in both the United States and Australia. She has collaborated with her sister, Mary Guay on several equestrian publications, including Buying Your First Horse. She now owns and manages a successful Hunter/Jumper barn in Dallas, Georgia. Donna loves to hear from her readers (wpp@juno.com) and welcomes any equestrian related questions.

Tag this product

(What's this?)

Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.

Customer Reviews

21 Reviews

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

3.1 out of 5 stars (21 customer reviews)

Share your thoughts with other customers:

Create your own review

Most helpful customer reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Good common sense information, Jan 22 2004

By

AvidReader "AvidReader" (Acworth, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buying Your First Horse: A Guide to Preparing For, Finding, and Purchasing a Great Horse (Paperback)

This book would be great for a preteen's first book about horse ownership, or for a first introduction to horse ownership. If you have already read anything else on the subject, you will probably find a lot of repeat information. There is good advice, but a lot of it is common sense.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

1.0 out of 5 stars Out of focus and poorly written., Oct 12 2003

By

NW Shopper (Washington, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buying Your First Horse: A Guide to Preparing For, Finding, and Purchasing a Great Horse (Paperback)

If this is the "Best book on the topic...", then it must be the only one! Luckily that is not the case, as there are many really good books available on this subject.

This rambling work just glosses over each subject that it attempts to address. It doesn't settle in on anything specific. The reader is never able to get a real idea of what they would be getting into when buying their first horse.

The writers should have made a few assumptions at the beginning, such as this book is for the average person buying their first horse, which will be relatively inexpensive and used for basic riding. Since they did not focus on anything specific, the book has no real direction or purpose. Reading it is like looking through someone else's glasses - after a few minutes your eyes kind of go blurry and start to water.

For example, there is a table that gives average costs per year of owning a horse, and under the heading "Tack" it gives annual costs from $500 - $10,000! Is this book trying to cover everyone from a 15-year old kid doing 4H to the King of Persia? Plus, don't horses eat? The table on what to expect to shell out in a year for horse costs doesn't even include the cost for feed. The total annual costs are listed as anywhere from $3520 to $25,800.

Is the average Joe, about to go out to buy their first horse, really going to budget $25,000 a year for a horse? I don't think so. Who is this book written for?

You start to almost get mad that you even wasted your time once you read this book. Then it gets kind of entertaining, because there are so many mistakes, that I found it hard to believe that I was reading a published work, and not a rough draft. There are sentences that start and then just end in the middle. One sentence had the word "so" when they meant to use "do". There are so many grammatical and typographical errors that it makes you wonder if the authors even read it!

The last section of the book is entitled "Buyer Beware!" I think that about sums it up. I'm just glad that we got it for free at the library.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse

4.0 out of 5 stars HORSE TRAINER, July 4 2003

By

SHANNON L. McKEE (WICHITA, KS. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Buying Your First Horse: A Guide to Preparing For, Finding, and Purchasing a Great Horse (Paperback)

THIS IS A GREAT BOOK FOR THE FIRST TIME HORSE OWNER. I HAND IT OUT TO ANY AND EVERYONE TO ASK ME ABOUT OWNING A HORSE.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Report abuse