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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Korda (Country Matters; Charmed Lives) recounts in his trademark affable style a growing involvement over decades with horses and the people who ride them. Beginning with his youth, and following with his reconnection to the horse world when he takes his son to lessons, Korda relates how horses changed his life: he met his current wife, Margaret, at New York City's Claremont Riding Academy, and eventually they purchased a home in Dutchess County with grounds to accommodate a growing number of horses. In one hilarious episode, Korda, the editor-in-chief at Simon & Schuster, visits an author in Middleburg, Va., and finds himself, unprepared, on a foxhunting horse jumping over walls and into backyards. He begins to analyze the symbolism of horses ("the horse stood... for social superiority, mobility, and not getting your feet wet and muddy like ordinary folk"), but this meditation is an exception, as Korda favors the anecdote and the caricature. There are rather too many "movers and shakers" for this book to live up to the diversity implied by its title, and while he briefly raises moral questions (about foxhunting, for example), he largely ignores the sociopolitical and emotional aspects of the horse-human relationship. He takes his reader on the occasional jaunt through less tony neighborhoods (with a veterinarian in Rhinebeck, N.Y.; to a rodeo in Archer City, Tex., with Larry McMurtry; and to a correctional facility's horse farm), but he tends to focus on places like Southlands, a privately owned facility in Dutchess County. While the book is more a series of vignettes than a full narrative, Korda's humor will be a delight to anyone who loves the world of riding.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
One mark of a good writer is to engage readers on a topic in which they have no inherent interest. This is what Korda, editor-in-chief at Simon & Schuster and author of several popular memoirs, does here with horses and horse riding. For, although the publicity copy that accompanies the book earnestly gives numbers on how many people ride, the fact remains that the horse world, primarily of New York, is not on most readers' radar screens. So Korda draws us in slowly with stories about the persnickety folks who populate that world and what it feels like to be astride so powerful an animal and what it feels like to fall off. That one of the earlier stories in the book is the one about how he began an affair with the woman who was to become his second wife doesn't hurt when it comes to keeping readers intrigued. But it is the horses who are the stars of the story; certainly they are more appealing than the many wealthy, oblivious people who dominate the horsey crowd. Korda wisely casts himself as an Everyman in this rarefied world, sharing an intense camaraderie with other riders but, nonetheless, more knowing than them and certainly friendlier. As in his previous book, Country Matters (2001), this is rather self-indulgently illustrated with Korda's pencil drawings. In fact, the whole book is a bit self-indulgent; the trick here is that you barely notice. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
THE Statistical Abstract of the United States, a bottomless compendium of useless facts, indicates that there are over 5 million households owning a horse or horses in America today, and that total horse population is, give or take a few horses, about 13.5 million. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
THE Statistical Abstract of the United States, a bottomless compendium of useless facts, indicates that there are over 5 million households owning a horse or horses in America today, and that total horse population is, give or take a few horses, about 13.5 million. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
My love of horses, and life with the horsey set.,
By
This review is from: Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life (Hardcover)
Mr. Korda is a witty and self-effacing writer. His horse antics in the shadow of his more dedicated spouse are told well with a keen ability to make the amusement, gravity, danger, embarrassment, or sadness of the situations become vividly alive for the reader. His story of his ride with the Middleburg Hunt, with him billed as "dare devil rider" in spite of his insistence to all to the contrary is hilarious. Numerous examples of his being caught in situations with the horse having the upper hoof are too resonant to be fiction. It is clear that horses have been an important part of his life because the tales told have elements that will resonate with any horse person, regardless of their riding style. His familiarity with a class of society that I am not familiar with was equally interesting and revealing. .I started riding in college in the 1960s in NJ, and excursions to some of the scenes in this book, such as to Millers and Kaufmans were eagerly anticipated and all too infrequent. Having some familiarity with the environment was certainly a plus for me. For the most part it is a good read, a book artfully written. The major fault I found however - dare I say it since Michael Korda is editor-in-chief of Simon and Schuster - is that there are sections that could have had a bit more editing to avoid repetition. That said I heartily recommend the book to those wishing to immerse themselves in the life of one person who loves horses, and in a finely woven picture of how the horse gradually takes up more space in his life. There are many gems in this delightfully written book.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Should have been called "Me and My Beautiful Second Wife",
By Kathryn (Wellington, FL) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life (Hardcover)
I found this book to be a bore - written by a man who, once he leaves his wife and child for another married woman, spends the entire book knocking every single person he comes into contact with, save for himself and said second wife. Even his "friends" aren't safe from catty remarks, all of which serve to promote his fabulous second wife, who appears thoughout the book in pictures riding her various horses. Anyone who knows how to ride can clearly see she ain't all that she's cracked up to be according to her doting, emascualted husband. In fact, she hasn't even competed in the "high levels" Korda claims - she competes at very low levels, presumably so she can get lots and lots of ribbons and beat the "snooty little girls that only have horses because their parents pay for it." The text is sloppy - he repeats himself so many times I began to compare his differing descriptions of the same activity to see which was more outlandish. The book makes about as much sense as the piture of his wife, in her underwear, in the pasture, with her horses. It's a little weird, though it does explain why she sticks with him - he must foot the horse bills so she can stick with her true loves! I would suggest that anyone reading this book might not want to take lessons from Mr. Korda - his morals, as well as his skills as a horseman, are much exaggerated.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A trip down memory lane,
By Vickie T. (Florida) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life (Hardcover)
Reading this book was like paging through an old scrapbook. It brought back a lot of fond memories. I used to know all of those horse people. Sure, my first riding instructor was a woman in the midwest, not a man in New York, but they were the same character. I never went on a fox hunt in Virginia, but I used to ride at a hunt club in the midwest, and it's all pretty much the same. And while I agree with some of the complaints about this book (yes, it really does need a little editorial "tightening-up"), I got more than enough pleasure from it to be willing to forgive its faults.I have to admit that I also enjoyed Korda's good-natured eye-rolling over the many foibles of the horsey set. I laughed out loud at his comment about the social ramifications of wearing a hunt cap with the bow turned down vs one with the bow turned up. I recall being lectured on that point of etiquette as a child, when I turned up with the "wrong" one. I see from the other reviews that there were a few non-horse people that enjoyed this book. I have to admit that I was surprised to see that. I'm part of an informal book-sharing circle, but I hadn't planned to pass this book along to anyone who isn't a horse person. For me, a big part of the appeal of this book was the comfortable familiarity of the subject matter. Absent that, I'm not sure I would have gotten much out of it. Want to see more reviews on this item?
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