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Horse Books

30 Best Horse Books



Back in 2006, in honor of Horse Illustrated’s 30th year, the editors compiled a list of 30 favorite horse books. What’s your favorite horse-related novel or non-fiction book? Leave us a comment at the end and share your thoughts!



For 30 great horse movies, click here.

For 30 great horse songs, click here.

Here are 30 great horse books.

Just Horses: Living With Horses In America
By Margot Page
Beautiful images capture the spirit of the horse from quirky publisher Willow Creek Press.

 

Gypsy From Nowhere
By Sharon Wagner
Wendy meets Gypsy, a filly who needs Wendy as much as Wendy needs her.

 

Happy Horsemanship
By Dorothy Henderson Pinch
This child’s guide to equitation, written from a horse’s point of view with charming, humorous illustrations.

 

Chestnut Mare Beware
By Jody Jaffe
Reporter Nattie Gold and her show hunter Brenda Starr take on a murder mystery exposé in Virginia hunt country.

 

Heads Up, Heels Down
By C.W. Anderson
A classic introductory riding guide.

 

Saddle Club Series
By Bonnie Bryant
Horse-loving best friends share enough riding adventures at Pine Hollow to fill more than 100 books.

 

Riders
By Jilly Cooper
File also under “trashy novel”—a guilty pleasure about show jumping, scandal and seduction.

 

Secretariat:  The Making of a Champion
By William Nack
This 1975 biography of Triple Crown Winner Secretariat was updated in 2002.

 

Ride Like an Indian
By Henry V. Larom
Native American wisdom helps a pair of dude ranch misfits.

 

Hunter Seat Equitation
By George H. Morris
The Bible, written by the master of the sport.

 

National Velvet
By Enid Bagnold
A teenage girl wins a horse in a raffle, trains it, and rides it in the Grand National steeplechase.

 

The Black Stallion
By Walter Farley
Shipwrecked on an island together, an Arabian horse and a boy bond.  Once rescued, they go on to win a match race against the top Thoroughbreds in the nation.

 

A Leg at Each Corner
By Norman Thelwell
Nothing is cuter, or more mischievous, than a Thelwell pony in the hilarious cartoon “guide to equitation.”

 

Seabiscuit

By Laura Hillenbrand
Modern day masterpiece about the small colt who became an American racing legend when the country needed him most.

 

Misty of Chincoteague
By Marguerite Henry
At the annual Pony Penning roundup, Misty becomes the beloved pet of two children and a beloved icon of horse loving children everywhere.

 

 

Summer Pony
By Jean Slaughter Doty
Ginny brings a pony home for the summer, but shaggy, spotted Mokey is not the sleek show pony she envisioned.

 

A Very Young Rider
By Jill Krementz
Who didn’t want to be Vivi Malloy in the ’70s?  Follow Vivi and her pony Ready Penny on the A-circuit, in photos.

 

Hank and Chloe
By Jo-Ann Mapson
An urban modern western with romance between a hard-headed horsewoman and a mild-mannered professor.

 

The Stone Pony
By Patricia Calvert
JoBeth spends time with her late sister’s horse, Riono, and learns she and her sister weren’t as different as she thought.

 

Klimke on Dressage
By Reiner Klimke
The master of dressage illustrates the ideal development of a horse through the levels.

 

Horse Heaven
By Jane Smiley
This character-driven novel takes the reader on a wild ride from California to Kentucky to Paris with the high stakes game of horse racing.

 

Old Bones the Wonder Horse
By Mildred Mastin Pace
The true story of 1918 Kentucky Derby winner Exterminator.

 

The Horsemasters
By Don Stanford
A group of young riders pursue British Horse Society certification in England and bond over the grueling experience

 

Odds Against
By Dick Francis
We selected this one for its hero, the one handed jockey turned private investigator Sid Halley.

 

Ruffian, Burning from the Start
By Jane Schwartz
The life and tragic end of the filly who captured America’s heart in the mid 1970s.

 

Smoky the Cowhorse
By Will James
Smoky survives the hardships of life on the range, partners up with cowboy Clint of the Rocking R Ranch, and even serves a brief stint as a rodeo bronc.

 

My Friend Flicka
By Mary O’Hara
A young boy struggles to please his domineering father and finds solace in gaining the trust of a filly.

 

Centered Riding
By Sally Swift
Creative visualization for better riding.

 

True Unity
By Tom Dorrance
The first and last word on natural horse training, from one of the men who started it all in modern times.

 

Black Beauty
By Anna Sewell
Told straight from the horse’s mouth, Black Beauty’s tumultuous life in Victorian England. One of the first books to deal with the welfare of the horse.

 

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View Comments

  • I loved it. I have atleast a third of the books, including the Saddle club series and the Black stallion series. Plus I have read many of the others.

  • Colt by Nacy Springer is a 5 star ratted book 5 being the best it should be in the top 30 please conciter it here is some summarys

    From School Library Journal
    Grade 4-8-- Colt's story is launched with his trademark whine, "I don't want to!" Handicapped with spina bifida, he resents how adults totally control him. He fearfully resists therapeutic horseback riding, but a few minutes on an Appaloosa named Liverwurst changes his life. The contrary Colt is a complex character, ruled by conflicting moods of anxiety, curiosity, and embarrassment about his condition. He feels helpless physically and emotionally when his mother remarries a man with two children. Riding gives him freedom and the opportunity to master a skill. He savors his newfound independence and fights to continue the risky sport, proving his mettle when he rescues his new stepbrother following an accident. In a matter-of-fact style, Springer transforms Colt from a grouchy victim to a likable boy. Despite a debilitating situation, he gains a passion for living. Readers will be affected by his triumphs and failures, changing their initial sympathy for Colt to admiration. Recommend this uplifting story to those who want "another" after Jodie's Journey (HarperCollins, 1990) by Colin Thiele. --Charlene Strickland, formerly at Albuquerque Public Library , NM
    Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
    From Kirkus Reviews
    Colt, who has spina bifida, is introduced to riding in a special program for handicapped children. Reluctant at first, he soon learns that being on a horse not only strengthens his muscles but empowers him with new independence and courage, a better route to self-identity than his former brattiness. Meanwhile, his mother Audrey marries Brad, a gentle, sympathetic man with a teenage son (``Rosie'') and a daughter Colt's age. What would normally be a minor incident--Colt's mount jolts him when he starts to trot--is life-threatening for Colt, and Audrey reluctantly decides that the riding must stop. Colt becomes despondent, but then Brad comes up with an especially safe mount and the family agrees that, as Colt has pleaded, the rewards of his riding are worth the risks. Indeed--in a satisfying scene dramatizing how Colt can overcome his limitations, he rescues his stepbrother when the two are alone together and Rosie is injured. The plot here is familiar, the details concerning spina bifida obviously purposive. But Springer's characters, striving to create a loving new family, come alive as exceptionally warm, nice people who try to solve their unavoidable problems without dissipating emotional energy in rivalries or self-pity. Sweet but not saccharine: a satisfying horse story with fine extra dimensions. (Fiction. 10-13) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
    THE BOOKS SUMMERY
    Colt Vittorio has never run a race, or even walked down the street on his own. Colt has spina bifida, and sees the world from a wheelchair. Then his mother signs him up for a special riding program. "An excellent portrayal of a young person struggling with the emotional and social ramifications of a serious disease."--Booklist. An IRA Young Adult's Choice; Winner of the Joan Fassler Memorial Book Award.

  • This is great to have on the web site. Now I have a bunch of new books to get and read. Thanks

  • I am surprised that "Pamela and the Blue Mare" is not on here! I know copies of that book are very hard to come by, but it was the best book I ever read as a teeneager!!

  • I think the top 2 books are the best, but thats probably because those are the only two I've read from the list.

  • hi,
    i would think that chicken soup for the horselovers sole would be in the top 30 but i gess not. yeah well they are good books to i read most of them!!!!

  • All of the books in the top 30 are wonderful.Only about half of them I have read before,but they all sound wonderful!!
    Horse Lover

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