"Imagine you're a horse..."

The author makes this request regularly throughout his book and begins by making some serious, thought provoking points on the sad reality of many horses' lives:

"Imagine being loved so much, and not being understood at all..." and later on... "Despite our highest intentions, the horse's life is often filled with fear, discomfort, and misunderstanding..."

He suggests we try to see things from the horse's point of view and states that the prime motivation for his writing and his work is to try to make a real difference to horses as well as those who ride them.

'Real Riding' is a robust glossy book with a bright orange cover suggestive of sun and light with the central image of Ying and Yang denoting harmony – not an easy book to lose! It has a familiar conversational style with plain everyday language, which makes it easy to read and the pages have a spacious feel and varying print styles, which makes it inviting to dip into. Most of the chapters finish with suggestions for things to do to put what you have read into practice followed by a quick reference recap of the main points of the chapter which was useful, although it did remind me a bit of an exam revision text book in that respect. Perhaps that was the author's intention!

The book is neatly divided into five sections:

'Horsework' provides an insight into the nature of the horse and to things he might teach us as, he suggests, "we are dealing with a reflection of our own inner self, and that is why it is so important for us to feel that our communicating or treating of the horse is in a just and fair manner".

'Riderwork' illustrates the central importance of balance, contact and subtle aids.

'Mindwork', my favourite section, shows us how to ride intelligently, how to develop patience, positive attitude and confidence through techniques such as visualisation, role models (which includes a section on sofa riding!) and how to attain a state of true 'being' with the horse that is at the very least meditative and at its best a spiritual experience.

'Partnership Work' is the most technical section covering pace, rhythm, feel, riding on the bit and lateral movements but, contrary to what you might expect, it does not make dry reading and contains the rather unorthodox suggestion of trying out the paces on all fours to get a feel for them.

'Horsemanship Work' covers safety of the horse and rider (including the familiar fear of black rubbish bags and indifference to fighter aircraft), crisis management and the basics such as leading, tacking up and mounting.

There is a useful glossary of terms at the back of the book together with some information on how to find out more about the author's work both with horses and people.

This is not so much a book about riding technique. It's about focus, about making crisp clear decisions so that the horse knows exactly what you are asking of it. It's about co-ordinating your mind and body in order to transmit clear requests always with greater emphasis on mind action than body action. Most importantly, he stresses, it's about having fun. In the glossary Perry Wood defines harmony as 'being in agreement with each other'. His book is not about teaching people how to ride but a commonsense up beat guide on how to refine our riding and handling skills so that we are not only talking to the horse in a language he understands but we are listening to him as well becoming more effective as a team as we work in a spirit of co-operation and empathy with the horse's nature.

Not many books have had me chuckling on a packed commuter train but this one certainly did. Not only that - any ideas I had about my own riding were turned smartly on their heads by Perry Wood's no nonsense book 'Real Riding'. Sometimes he shouts, sometimes he whispers, but what comes across consistently is that Perry Wood is passionate about the message he is trying to convey. As a rider of twenty years who does little more than hack out, this book has inspired me to take some more lessons and try to apply some of the principles in this book and hopefully, in the process, discover a whole new dimension to my riding.

Review by Suzanne Bonner

© Sue Wingate - The Joy of Horses 2004