Give Your Horse a Chance: A Classic Work on the Training of Horse and Rider

by A.L. D'Endrody

Many masters of horsemanship have studied horses and riding over the last centuries, but few have given the subject greater consideration than Agoston d'Endrdy. In preparing this book, he gave considerable thought to the practical principles of riding and to the process of becoming a good rider. And he explains why horses perform more or less successfully according to whether they are mounted by a talented rider or by one of limited natural abilities. In Give Your Horse a Chance, his goal is to reduce the disparity between these two divisions of riders by carefully delineating the processes of good riding and training. The first part of the book explains the proper development of horse and rider so that both learn to enjoy their work. The latter part offers excellent, concise training advice for combined training and show jumping. Lt. Col. d'Endrdy was a member of the Hungarian Olympic Three-Day Event Team, a member of the Hungarian International Show Jumping Team, and a champion race rider.

Genres: Nonfiction

544 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Dark-Draco · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has taken me ages to read - not because I found it boring, but rather because the style is a bit old fashioned and takes some concentration. The book was first published in 1959, which is probably one of the newer books in this series. The author goes through the schooling and training of horses right from first principles up to competing at Olympic level venues - a bit out of my league I think! Still, a lot of the advise is still sound, although we tend to word things in different ways these days. There are also some practices described that are really not considered ok - the section on rapping horses legs over jumps I missed out completely. Still, an interesting read and I picked up some tips too.