[leashedForLife]

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with my new job [thank Goddess], I am less penurious, & i indulged in some book-buying.

I bought a 2nd copy of The Color of Horses: A Scientific & Authoritative Identification of the Color of the Horse by Ben K. Green
because I saw one available, & they don't come up often - my 1st beloved copy was ruined by a plumbing leak, I was so happy to replace it! - & this one's in gorgeous shape, too.
This is a fantastic reference IMO, full of useful tidbits about the qualities of horses of specific colors - such as their endurance, any tendency to harness or saddle galls, color & hoof toughness, & more.

During his lifetime, Ben Green was known as a "horse doctor" & may or may not have been a schooled veterinarian, but he was 'Doc Green' to all & sundry, & many vets consulted him when they had puzzling cases - so schooled or not, he was deeply educated about horses & their anatomy, physiology, illnesses, & injuries - plus, & in my eyes most-important, their behavior as a species, & their capabilities as individuals.
No one could [or should] do today what he did, diagnosing & treating horses with questionable credentials - but he was dam*ed good at it, & many people, plus their equines, were grateful for his care.
It was a different era, vets were practically nonexistent for many square-miles, & anyone who could help a suffering animal when transportation & labor WAS the horse, was a Godsend in ranch country.

4 hooves up! :thumbsup:

- terry

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[leashedForLife]

'A thousand miles of mustangin'

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While purchasing it, I saw other Ben Green books, & after my 1st paycheck was deposited, I bought 2 -
the 1st one that i read was A Thousand Miles of Mustangin',
in which he talks about traveling large parts of western Texas, particularly the Big Bend area, catching wild horses, trading horses, & selling a few. // It's the depths of the Depression, ca$h is scarce & precious, & he spends most of his time camping in lean-tos he builds himself, or in abandoned ranches or farmsteads.

NOTE:
'Doc' Green was a mighty knowledgeable man, but there are practices here that we'd consider cruel - e-g, putting a silk-Manila hackamore on a just-caught mustang, & tying her to a tree to fight it out.
There's also an accidental killing - 3 young horses are caught by rope-traps set by a Mexican peasant, who's helping Ben; one colt chokes himself, bucking & getting wrapped around a tree.
But there are also very savvy techniques, such as roping broke-&-set-to-roam burros as "weights" for flighty young horses when Ben must go to town - the burros keep the young mares from running off, & nobody gets hurt or lost. Burros were cheap & durable, & local Mexicans would catch & use one, then turn 'em loose vs keep & feed them, once the job was done - there was a constant supply of former-harness or ex-riding burros, roaming the country & feeding themselves.

this book is a time & a place that won't come again, with a cast of characters that includes all manner of people, indigenous & immigrants; Ben makes a deal with the Yacqui elders to catch wild horses on their land, & learns a thing or 3 about Yacqui culture [he knew they didn't ride - they RAN - but he didn't know the youths who'd gather & wear-down the mustangs for him would be girls, not young men - the elders kindly point out that the teenaged girls don't get distracted by wild game & abandon the horses to hunt, don't forget what their job is & spend the day sleeping in the heat, are lighter & faster than the boys would be, & more responsible].

He also gets a serious injury to his roping-hand, when a wild horse bites it & gives him a huge de-gloving - an elderly woman treats the swollen, thumping, red-streaked mass, & he not only survives, his hand recovers completely, which is quite incredible.

All in all, a great story of the west-Texas range, the land, the local denizens, human & non-human, & some adventures in the mid-1930s. Well-worth reading.

4-hooves up for this one, as a slice of history. West Texas & all its inhabitants come to life, in this book.

- terry

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[leashedForLife]

'Horse Conformation as to soundness & performance'

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the Doc Green book i'm currently reading is Horse Conformation as to soundness & performance -
i'm less than a third into it, but it appears to be another winner, explaining clearly & succinctly what to look for, as good & bad points of structure.

What's a good head? - a bad head? What does the head do, for a horse, besides serve as a setting for eyes, ears, nose, & jaws?
How long is a good neck? What's wrong with a ewe-neck, & why? What's wrong with a crested mare's neck, or a gelding with a lot of crest?

The anatomical drawings of overall skeleton & joint details are excellent; the sketches that compare horses of various type are very clear & understandable, greatly enhancing the reader's understanding of the effect on function of different proportions. I am learning a tremendous amount, such as the layback of the shoulder determining the horse's forward reach, & thus stride length, whether they're agile or prone to stumble, & so on.

I'm sure this is going to be another keeper. The amount of info packed into this short book, less than 100 pgs, is astonishing.

- terry

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[leashedForLife]

'Horse Tradin'...'

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started another Ben Green book, 'Horse tradin'', & i've learned quite a lot from it, already.

Unfortunately, the book was misrepresented as 'very good cond'n' - the spine is broken in half, which i didn't discover until, while reading it in bed, i kept finding little bits of yellow-white flaky stuff on the grey-on-grey pinstriped sheets... hmm.
Then there was a sudden snowfall of yellow-white stuff that came out & made a small pile, & i thot, OH, NO! - SILVERFISH... but no, the spine of the hardback was broken in 2, & hunks of glue, broken spine-edges of the sewn pages, & other detritus was falling out.

I can get it repaired, but that won't be cheap - however, the book is worth keeping, so it's worth fixing. Meanwhile, i've secured the smaller broken segment to a good hunk of the rest of the pages, with a rubber band wrapped clear 'round the front cover & 50 or 60-pages past the split, to prevent any more damage.

Doc's not afraid to tell tales on himself, he got taken by a pair of mules that were represented as 8-YO, they'd been given fake dapples & their teeth had been re-worked to add a corner cusp. They were lovely mules to work & drive, but their color ran when they sweated & then it rained - they were 14, if they were a day.
He got the fella back that took him in, tho. :rofl: It took him a few months, but he did it.

- terry

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