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2.0 out of 5 stars
Psycho-babble, Jan 11 2003
My primary complaint about this book is that the authors are not familiar with the idea of "Show, Don't Tell". The book hops blithely from topic to "inspirational" topic, tossing in pseudo case studies at random. These case studies, or short stories about particular client/horse experiences, rarely last more than a page and would be just as easily summed up in a single sentence like "Joanne recognized her control issues after realizing that horses can't be controlled like humans can". In several cases, the stories would end just as I started to be curious enough to read more. In many other cases, the stories were so short or bland that I didn't care about them at all. The basic thrust of most of them, regardless of the chapter title (like "Our Connection with Animals", "Riding Horses to Health", and "The Genesis of Feelings") was that "the magic of horses fixes stuff". While people like "Joanne" are described as having these sudden revelations about their lives, there is nothing to follow up whether they took that lesson back and truly made a change in their life. The troubled youth who tried to straighten up from his jail cell so he could someday acheive the dream of owning a horse might just as well have been inspired by the dream of owning his own tattoo parlor. Don't TELL how much we can learn from the special and magical horses, SHOW me.Every horse in the authors' stable is an anthropomorphic Lassie. Their horses know just what lessons their clients need to learn, are sweet and loving to anyone who approaches with an pure and open heart, but collectively act crazy a la Black Beauty if someone is on drugs or just plain untrustworthy. One stallion trumpets and paws at the ground because he "knows" that there is a foal trapped under a fence several miles away. A horse tumbling off a cliff has terror in her eyes, not for herself, but for her rider. A mare's negative reaction to a student's tension and anger is because she "knew" that the student was ready for the lesson of being forced to take resposibility. Furthermore, the authors' intense focus on the traits of their beloved Peruvian Iberian breed (a fine breed, to be sure) ends up implying that there is something special and magical about the breed itself, rather than horsekind in general. I am an avid horse lover, and at no time did I feel that any equine in this book was a real living, breathing beast. Metaphysical abilities are attributed where none are necessary. A student realizes that the more she concentrates on staying away from flowerpots in the corner of the arena, the closer she and her mount get to them. The fact is, all beginning riders learn the lesson "look where you want to go". There are physical reasons for this that have more reasonable explanations than "vibrations" or "path of energy". I can't argue that any of this is false, because it isn't. However, the psychospiritual and metaphysical aspects of horsemanship as presented here are too syrupy for my own sensibilities. There is little that is presented in this book that I would challenge or disagree with, but the presentation was too nonsensical to have been inspiring to me, and in fact, I had a very difficult time trying to discover what the true message of the book is. If I'd never had experiences of my own with horses and were handed this book to convince me to back a new venture using horses in psychological therapy, I doubt I'd write a single check. Although I have the strong feeling that the authors are experienced horsewomen and competant psychiatrists, there was nothing in this book to truly convince me of this. The only reason I gave this book 2 rather than 1 star(s) is because it may have interest for psychotherapists with little exposure to horses.
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by Joe Camp
by Susan Richards
