9 books to get you through September

1. How to Look Cool Whilst Learning Polo: A Very Modern Approach to a Traditional Game

How to Look Cool Whilst Learning Polo takes a very modern approach to the traditional game of polo. The author, Steve Thompson, is a veteran polo instructor and professional player with over twenty years of teaching experience across the globe. This book is a culmination of his teaching and playing experience over two decades in the sport. More than just a technical ‘how-to’ guide, it provides everything you need to go from zero to hero on the polo field, and more importantly — make sure you look cool whilst doing it!

Followed correctly, this book can save a lot of pain, frustration and a significant amount of cash by teaching an aspiring player how to function correctly from the very start. Becoming a polo player is just like building a house: only when there is a true and solid foundation can you begin to layer the storeys on top. Buy HERE

2. True to the Line: A Hunting Life

True to the Line is Adrian Dangar’s recollections of his life at the sharp end of hunting, during which he was a Master and huntsman of three different hunts in three unique regions of England — Dartmoor, North Yorkshire and Leicestershire. During this time, the author came into close contact with many fascinating characters that live and work in these beautiful landscapes.

His memoir portrays these rural lives alongside hunting, hounds and foxes, together with the challenges, frustrations and rewards of organising modern hunting in an illuminating and anecdotal style.

This book not only covers his account as the first amateur huntsman of the Quorn in 80 years, but also his time as hunting correspondent, hound judge, conservationist and all-round countryman. Buy HERE

3. Lungeing and Long-Reining by Jennie Loriston-Clarke

Lungeing and Long-Reining is a step-by-step guide to training, exercising and suppling horses from the ground, written by Britain’s leading exponent of the art. Published in association with the British Horse Society this book begins with advice on handling untrained youngsters and works through a logical training progression, culminating in advanced dressage movements.

Straightforward guidance is given on: training foals and young horses, lungeing equipment and technique, introducing long-reins and early lateral work, backing and riding young horses, lungeing over poles and fences, piaffe and passage and more. Illustrated with specially commissioned sequence photographs, this book will prove particularly valuable in the early training of young horses, as well as in improving or retraining older horses, and refining dressage movements in advance horses. Buy HERE

4. The Horse Encyclopedia
 A stunning celebration of the equine world, The Horse Encyclopedia is a fully illustrated look at all the major horse and pony breeds and types, from the ponies of Dartmoor to the American mustang.

Packed with gorgeous photographs of horse breeds from around the world, The Horse Encyclopedia is the definitive guide to the evolution, anatomy, and origins of each horse breed and its place in history, art, and culture. Buy HERE

5. Perfect Mind: Perfect Ride, Sports Psychology for Successful Riding
Positively inspiring hands-on advice, on how to develop relevant attitudes and mental skills, make Perfect Mind: Perfect Ride an essential companion Possessing the right mind-set and relevant mental skills has long been considered vital in achieving top performances in all sports. And yet, to many horse riders, sports psychology and mental fitness still remains something of an afterthought. Buy HERE

6. Spiral of Hooves
 In Canada, researcher Armand Sabatier witnesses what could be the murder of groom Odette Fedon, but traumatic images from his past smother his memory, and a snowstorm buries the evidence. Harassed by nightmares but fighting through them, Armand remembers the crime a few months later. By then he is in England, where he is dragged into a plot involving international sport horse breeding. Suspecting everyone around him, Armand is forced to brave the past that he has kept buried. Buy HERE

7. Moments in the Sun: Tales from the Punter’s Pal

Claude Duval, who retired as The Sun’s racing correspondent in October 2016, after 47 years, has a unique insight into the Sport of Kings. He watched all the ‘greats’ in action from Arkle to Frankel and marvelled at the exploits of riding sensations from Lester Piggott to Tony McCoy. He has experienced some hilarious moments on his world-wide journeys and he reveals the inner secrets of the turf’s top trainers like Sir Henry Cecil, Martin Pipe and Peter Easterby. Buy HERE

8. BHS COMPLETE HORSEMANSHIP Volume 3

An in-depth approach to developing your professional career pathway as a groom, coach or rider. This title introduces the practical element of cross country jumping, further develops your lungeing technique and considers requirements and knowledge for management and care of the horse and yard. Volume 3 expands on the BHS Complete Horsemanship foundation series to support an equestrian professional. Buy HERE

9. The Faraway Horses: The Adventures and Wisdom of America’s Most Renowned Horsemen

Nearly every week of the year, Buck Brannaman is on the road, conducting horsemanship clinics in which he teaches horse owners how to better understand and work with their animals, creating a relationship based on trust and respect rather than force. Buck’s skills have become legendary in fact, the main character in Robert Redford’s film The Horse Whisperer was based largely on him, and he served as the director’s technical adviser during the shoot. 

“These principles are really about life – about living your life so you’re not at war with the horse, or with other people,” Buck writes. At heart, this rich and rewarding autobiography is ultimately a prescription for living a harmonious existence – whether it involves horses or not. Buy HERE