02 Dec 2010 – LibraryThing Early Reviewers programme

This has the distinction of being the first e-book I’ve ever read! I read it on Matthew’s old e-book reader, although I could have chosen to read a pdf version on my PC too, which would have allowed me to click on all the useful links as I read it, rather than going through them for the sake of research afterwards!

The book itself is a guide to horses and horsemanship for the writer who wishes to use horses (real or fabulous) in their work.  As it puts the references to writing in lightly, it would also serve as a useful introduction to horses in general. I know a fair bit about horses and riding (although I haven’t ridden for years) and I found the information familiar but still useful and interesting (I did learn how to harness a foal, which was useful! and the descriptions of horse colours were spot on and marvellous – I used the bay/chestnut differentiation only this afternoon while watching some showjumping on the TV with Matthew!).  The tone was friendly and supportive, but knowledgeable, with plenty of examples from Tarr’s own experiences with her much-loved animals.  Good illustrations, which showed up fine on the e-reader and looked lovely on the PC, and the excellent aforementioned links, appropriate in content and volume, made this a useful, interesting and engaging read, which I imagine the expert and non-expert, writer and non-writer could all get a lot out of.