Horse Housekeeping: Everything You Need to Know to Keep a Horse at Home

by Margaret Korda, Michael Korda

In Horse Housekeeping , Margaret and Michael Korda (she is a successful novice- and training-level eventer and he is the author of Horse People) provide everything you need to know to set up a barn of your own and care for your horse (or horses) at home. Authoritative, inspirational, highly accessible, full of common sense and down-to-earth advice, all of it based on twenty-five years of experience, the Kordas' book is a basic resource for anybody who wants to keep horses in a safe, content, healthy, and cost-effective way at home, from detailed lists of things you need to have on hand to the basic (and not so basic) dos and don'ts of horse care. Divided into such useful chapters as "Fencing and Paddocks," "The Barn Routine," "The Care of the Horse," "People," "Feeding and Caring for the Horse," "Tack," "Horse Clothing," "Equipment," and "Care for the Aging Horse," it is helpfully illustrated and written in a voice that is at once informative, supportive, and full of funny (and not so funny) stories about horse housekeeping. The Kordas offer a unique and reliable guide to horse care that not only will be invaluable to beginner and experienced horse owners alike, but also is astonishingly readable. They take you through the steps of deciding if having a horse barn is practical for you, including helpful suggestions on space-saving barn designs, creating pastures, building fences, sample exercise routines, the right feed, the basics of horse health care, and the equipment needed for both horse care and property maintenance. This detailed, user-friendly compendium of down-home wisdom, entertaining stories, and straightforward horse sense will help you to set up a barn the right way, so you will have time to actually ride your horse.

Genres: Horses, Animals

224 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2005

Reviews

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this and learning about their journey. However everything I read I took with a grain of salt, like they often repeated "this is just how we do it". I know people with horses who (it's still expensive, they're horses) but live with a lot less and their horses are healthy and happy. That is more the model I would follow if my dream of owning horses ever comes true!

[Torrey C · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not instructive, they’re a rich couple who hire someone else to do their work, fencing Ed, drainage, even the barn help. It’s essentially a book about how they consider themselves to be “common folk” but then brag about their multi million dollar barn. Only useful section was on horse first aid items, other than that a waste of time.

[Xoffelokin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel really bad for not finishing this book. To me, the format of it was what ruined it.

The two authors wrote it together, but instead of having it's narrative go seamlessly and easy to read, every time one author had something to say, they'd put the whole thing in quotes.

It just wasn't easy for me to follow.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

If this couple had written a book about having children I would never had kids. They stressed me out about horses and I don't even have any.

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really more of a personal account with some advice mixed in, not unlike the style of Gladys Taber's Especially Spaniels. Though the authors take pains to repeatedly say theirs is not the "only way," this way also seems to relate exclusively to upper-class people who can afford to participate in horse shows, run a semi-professional barn and live part time in New York City.

It's a fine peek into that sort of operation if you know what you're getting into, I just thought it was funny that after opening the book by talking about how as recently as 100 years ago, keeping a horse was like keeping a car; anyone with land could do it and only recently has it become seen as specialized knowledge...the book then launches into a world where you build barns from scratch, outfit your horses with a myriad of expensive tack, and hire multiple people to help manage your barn and grounds. Definitely not the experience I observed when my best friend had a horse growing up, which was what I initially hoped this book would reflect.

That said, I did greatly enjoy all the illustrations, especially the birds-eye view of their property when purchased in 1980 versus what it looked like by time of publication in 2005. If one knows who Michael Korda is (my mom did a double-take when she saw the name), I'd imagine it's even more interesting to have that personal account.

On a sadder note, I found out that Margaret Korda passed away on April 22nd, 2017, right as I was in the middle of the book. According to Zillow's sales records, they still own the property, so I will be interested to keep tabs on Stonegate Farms' future.