The ABC Guide to Breaking and Schooling Horses by Josephine Knowles

The ABC Guide to Breaking and Schooling Horses by Josephine Knowles

Josephine Knowles has been breaking and schooling horses and ponies since she was twelve years old. Almost a lifetime of experience is contained in this book which is probably the most meticulously detailed guide to the subject ever published. The early chapters deal with the care and handling of the foal and the education of the yearling and two-year-old. An explanation of lungeing and long-reining includes advice on the necessary equipment and how to fit it. The benefits and method of loose-schooling are described and mouthing, bitting and backing are covered in detail. Chapters on schooling on the flat and over poles take the equine pupil up to participation in a first show, hunt, dressage test or Pony Club rally. Valuable advice is given on assessing and buying young horses to school on, and on reschooling badly trained or difficult animals. Matters of behaviour, vice and nervousness are covered, as is road safety, saddlery and equipment, travelling, and feeding, care and management for all ages and stages. The book is illustrated with the author's own photographs and almost 200 line illustrations by Dianne Breeze. Throughout the book, the emphasis is on safety for both human and equine. Josephine Knowles may occasionally give unconventional advice, but her proven training methods which combine firmness with tact and sympathy, result in horses and ponies that are happy, willing and obedient.

Josephine Knowles was two years old when she was given her first pony in 1931. She was breaking and schooling ponies, usually purchased after much haggling from rag and bone merchants in her native Lancashire, by the time she was twelve. Soon she was training difficult animals for others and when she had passed her Pony Club tests with the Holcombe Harriers branch, she became a Pony Club instructor. Several jobs followed, including working for a hunt, a livery and dealing yard, a girls' school where riding was part of the curriculum, and an eventing establishment. During this time, Josephine came second in one of the first Horse Trials to be held in this country on a horse given to her as a reject by Colonel Guy Cubitt. BHS examinations followed, and after gaining her BHSI, she opened her own riding school. Setting her sight on a Fellowship, she applied to take the examination 'just to see how much I would need to know' and passed. For many years now, Josephine has been breaking and schooling horses and ponies from her Northamptonshire yard. She also buys and sells horses, teaches, gives demonstrations and lectures and has gained an enviable reputation for her work with young equines.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780851315591
ISBN 10	0851315593
Title	The ABC Guide to Breaking and Schooling Horses
Author	Josephine Knowles
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Hardback
Publisher	The Crowood Press Ltd
Year published	1998-01-10
Number of pages	320
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.