Book Review - Human Views and Equine Behavior

Human Views and Equine Behavior: Self Fulfilling Philosophies and Communicating with Horses

By: Janice Ladendorf
Publisher: CreateSpace
Publication Date: October 2013
ISBN: 9781493542789
Reviewed By: Kristi Benedict
Review Date: January 2014

The book Human Views and Equine Behavior by Janice Ladendorf gives the reader much to think about when communicating with horses. With her chosen discipline of classical dressage and years of working with her own horses, Ladendorf has experienced and observed many of the interesting and intriguing behaviors of equines. Both in wild herds and domesticated horses certain recognizable behaviors have been noticed and studied over the years and with this book those are well described. She gives another look at these unique animals and conveys information that is great for anyone interested in horses to know and that experienced horseman have seen time and time again.

In addition to describing the behaviors of horses, Ladendorf also shows how these behaviors affect training and then continues to show some methods that can be used to gain the most out of a relationship with your horse. Along with extensive descriptions of training techniques there are also diagrams and pictures accompanying the text that help the reader to understand how each technique can work for their particular horse. Different types of equipment are also mentioned to show that there are many alternative solutions to effectively train your horse or work on a problem area.

There were some good points in this book and for the most part I did enjoy reading about each of the techniques and ideas that Ladendorf wrote about. However, I also found many of the chapters to be a little repetitive and caused me to feel as if I was reading the same chapter over again. I understand that when writing a non-fiction book there will be some points that will be repeated but with this particular book I honestly think fewer words would have made the information more interesting for the reader. In regards to the content of the book I was glad to see this author give equal time describing the different views of equine behavior and the options of training techniques. Many times when reading about horses, I get the impression that the author has one way of thinking and that is the only way. To my surprise, most of the writing in this book did not do that and I was glad this author continued to show that there is not just one sure fire way to work and train horses. She successfully conveyed that each horse and situation will be different and each rider/trainer has to make the decision on what they want to achieve with their horse and how they want to reach that goal.

Quill says: Here is a book that gives many views on equine behavior and options of training to achieve the best relationship between horse and rider.