Horsey tales - part 2

Being keen on horse-riding, I have built up a little equestrian library. But there's more to horsey tales than the 'what are' and 'how to' books I wrote about in part 1. In my young days, I had my fair share of teen-books about English girls and their horses living in middle-of-nowhere farms.

As an adult, one of my early horsey books is The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans, first published in 1995. Many of us know the title as that of a movie, starring one of my generation's leading men, Robert Redford. The book, a moving story about a girl, her horse, her mother and the man who brought them from the brink, generated a lot of interest about natural horsemanship and the training methods of people such as Monty Roberts and Pat Parelli.

I really enjoy those horsey books in which the stars are the horses. We must all have read Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty, which brought tears to my eyes. Published in 1877, the book has been adapted for film and television many times. A movie that recently hit local cinemas is War Horse, based on a children's novel by Michael Morpurgo published in 1982. There are also books about real-life famous horses, such as Seabiscuit - an American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand (2001) and William Nack's 2002 story of Secretariat; both books have been made into films as well. Most of us would have seen the movie Hidalgo, touted as a true story when it was released in 2004. Soon after, however, it was found that the lead character Frank Hopkins was a fraud and his story a lie.

One book that I think would make a great film, but a comedic one, is Michael Korda's Horse People - Scenes From The Riding Life (2003). It's a hilarious collection of stories about horse-riding and the people who do it. In Chapter 6: The Perfect Horse, Korda writes: "Most people spend years buying the wrong kind of horse before they stumble across the right one, which quite often turns out to be different from what they've had in mind all along. Many people - particularly those with plenty of money to spend and an exaggerated opinion of their own skill as a rider - end up buying a horse that's too 'hot' for them..." (My friends who ride at Bukit Kiara will nod knowingly if they read this).

In Chapter 8: Horse People, he describes a local competition: "As they walked their horses around the ring, their faces were set in an identical firm, polite smile as if to suggest that while they were taking this as seriously as could be, they were also having the time of their life - the precise expression preferred by judges in everything but those extreme horse sports, like the stadium and cross-country phases of three-day eventing, or serious jumping. In those classes, only a winning time and perfect performance - no refusals, no rails knocked down, gets you a ribbon, and a tortured expression, a look of terror, or a great splash of mud across your face doesn't count against you at all." (My riding friends would be able to easily identify with this).

Given my voluntary work with the Bukit Kiara - Riding for the Disabled programme, I find The Horse Boy (2009) particularly touching. The true story by Rupert Isaacson brings us along on his family's journey to the Mongolian plains to heal his son's autism. This book has also made it to the silver screen. 

An Arab proverb goes like this: The wind of heaven is that which blows between a horse's ears. Horse-riders would certainly agree with this.