North Point Press, 1996
This book follows the progress of three trainers in the Olympic sports and their horses—Keith Taylor in combined training, Lendon Gray in dressage, and Anne Kursinski in show jumping. It was inspired by close friends who spent most of their waking hours thinking about horses and how to make them better at things we think are fun to do. I have spent quite a few hours at this myself.
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Forward Motion is truly splendid, a rare insight into horses, and beautifully written. I particularly like the respect the author has for horses, and her fearless use of words to describe them, words that some would say should be reserved for human beings. Yet if horses are athletes they should be called athletes, and if they speak to us, we should know that, to help us hear them. . . .Most fascinating of all is the interplay between the horse and its rider, the miracle of fusion that takes place between a good horse and a good rider, so that the two become one.
—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas