My New Equine Books

As most of you know Chrome was second runner up in the Best In Show competition at Mango Minster 2012. If you missed the post, here it is: http://rdxhorses.blogspot.com/2012/02/mango-minster-2012-best-in-show-2nd.html

As Chrome's prize he got gift certificates to Amazon, so I helped him out and ordered a few books. I'm sure he would have chosen something completely inappropriate like a catalog full of cute filly pictures, so I had to do the ordering. ;) Here is what I got:

I read this book in three days (I'm a fast reader lol) and I learned a LOT! I learned all about how muscles work, how long it takes to strengthen muscles, tendons and bone, safety tips and it even answered a lot of my questions about when/how to start Chrome as a three year old. :) It has really cool cards in the back that has all the exercises on them and bunch of different routines for different goals. My goal right now is to get him ready to have a rider so I'm using one of the routines that has a lot of stretching and exercises for getting him for supple. I'll share my workout routine later. It's three days a week and all in hand of course since I'm not riding him yet. Anyway, definitely more to come. I really enjoyed this book and will be going back to it continually over the next few years as I get Chrome fit (and me!).

The next one is a book I've wanted for a while. I was so excited to finally get it!

I read this book in two days! As soon as I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It was so interesting and easy to read. I learned so much!! I learned all about the anatomy of hooves and the importance of diet and exercise in hoof health. I also learned that I need to stop over stressing about how his hooves are trimmed. It's important, but not the end of the world if it's not perfect. Perfect hoof health comes from balancing vitamins/minerals and cutting sugar/starch out of the diet. :) And exercise of course which just goes perfectly with the first book hehe. The fun thing is that I finished the book the day my trimmer came over so it was all fresh on my mind as I watched her trim Chrome. That made for interesting conversation. She isn't a barefoot advocate, but she's not opposed either. This book didn't answer all of my questions, but it sure filled in a lot of holes in my foundation understanding of hooves. It also debunked some of the myths I still believed about hooves. The main thing it did was get me really interested in equine diets . . . there may be another book on the way soon lol!

The last one is:

I haven't started reading this one, so I can't give a review on it yet. I will as soon as I finish it, which might take a while because it's huge! I'm hoping it will help fill in some of the holes like the hoof book did. Understanding the reasons for doing things and how things work helps me to learn how to do things so I'm hoping this one will do that for me. We shall see! :)

Anyway I'll post hoof pictures tomorrow. :) This was easier and I'm totally enjoying a lazy day off LOL! Later guys!