How Your Horse Wants You to Ride: Starting Out, Starting Over by Gincy Self Bucklin Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of How Your Horse Wants You to Ride: Starting Out, Starting Over
Book Review: Excellent, informative book.
Summary: 5 Stars
I just got "How Your Horse Wants You to Ride" yesterday morning, and I bought "What Your Horse Wants You to Know" a couple of weeks ago. I read the former until one this morning and have nearly finished it. I finished "What Your Horse Wants You to Know" in an afternoon last week.
Both books are by author Gincy Self Bucklin. She actually knows how to write with precision, humor and clarity. I wish I'd discovered her books before I spent money and time on less worthy (and knowledgable) authors.
If you want a clear new perspective on riding and handling your horse, definitely buy both of Ms. Bucklin's books.
Rita D. Miller
Book Review: Fabulous!
Summary: 5 Stars
A fabulous, practical book that addresses a common but "secret" problem of so many horse lovers...fear and anxiety. This is especially distressing to adult riders who used to be able to just jump on and GO! Gincy gives concrete and helpful exercises for us to do on and off the horse. She uses great visualization techniques like Sally Swift. It's great to have a book that addresses riding instead of ground training. Thank you Gincy!Book Review: For the Fearful Rider
Summary: 3 Stars
I read this book while I was taking lessons over a period of months. I was returning to riding after a 30-year hiatus and was in effect starting over. This made me an ideal candidate for the author, except I wasn't fearful. I found very little in this book that was helpful to me, although I think it may be useful to the fearful beginner who has the necessary resources available.
1. I found the style tedious, boring, self-congratulatory, and patronizing.
2. The author's way is the only "right" way and any other way is not just wrong but detrimental. Never mind that many of these "wrong" ways are standard riding and horse handling by many highly regarded systems and first-class riders.
3. Anybody who has seriously pursued a physical skill, such as a sport or playing a musical instrument, will have developed a technique for focusing and relaxing under stress. To such as person, the author's "Seven Steps" are unnecessary and even silly. They may be helpful to someone who has never developed this technique.
4. I could do few of the exercises in the book because I lacked a suitable horse and helpers, and I suspect this will be true of many readers. Maybe readers should form a reading club to help each others do the exercises if they want to get the benefit of the book.
5. The author encourages the emergency dismount whenever the rider feels insecure in trying a new exercise. What about working through difficulties? You can't learn to balance at the canter if you won't stay on as you canter - you have to tolerate the gait to learn to balance to it.
6. Per the above, bailing out at any difficulty may be helpful to building confidence in the fearful rider, but it, like many techniques in this book, lends itself to slower progress in riding. For me, the first year of learning the basics was not much fun, and to extend this process would have been both unnecessary, tedious, and discouraging.
7. The author implies that if you don't have mastery of the basics, you can't ride well. This is true. However, you don't need to master the basics to progress. You need to have adequate control to go on, and then you should continue to work on the basics as you also work on more advanced skills. This is what top riders do. Yet the author condemns anyone who moves on before mastery - her method, and therefore the only right way to do things.
Book Review: Get those riding basics perfected!
Summary: 5 Stars
Just having leg cues explained fully and clearly is reason enough to buy this book, and then it offers so much more!
This book has helped my Western Trail riding. Sure most of the photos are with an English saddle and tack however it applies overall to good riding basics for any discipline. It is the best book I have ever purchased for clear direction for specific maneuvers. It includes WHY I should do it this way, and how it effects the horse I am riding. I wish I bought this book first, and saved my money by not buying some of the others. It is easy to read, easy to reference, and easy to apply the information. No gimmicks. No Memberships. I think advanced riders would gain from the book as well, as a refresher.
It has helped me overcome fear, gain confidence, and improve my communication in the saddle (the book was intended for a rider like myself). I rode "way back when" and now have come back to horses after some decades. Being older complicates matters. Even after 4 years of riding and owning horses I was still not back to my old level and I was frustrated. This book has jump-started my return to a beloved pastime. I have read it cover to cover, and will continue to reference this book for many years to come.
No one gets to borrow my book, as borrowed books this good never get returned. Instead I send them the Amazon link to buy their own!
Book Review: Great book
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is GREAT! Gincy starts from the very beginning and in little steps builds your skills and confidence. This is the first time I have known what I am doing and why; this is also the first time I have been able to ride relaxed and confident. This is the information that everyone who rides, regardless of discipline, needs to know.