Rating: 
Summary: Colonel Podhajsky's narrative.
Review: This book is written in a style similar to a series of short stories. Colonel Podhajsky passes along some of the lessons he has learned from his four legged teachers that any horse person can understand. It is like listening to a friend speak of his experiences rather than studying a textbook. This makes the book both entertaining and educational. What a pleasure to read!
Rating:
Summary: A book every horse person should read.
Review: What a pleasure to find this book back in print.I am re-reading it for the first time in years, and am pleased to find it not at all dated, and indeed very relavent. The good Colonel has a gift not only with his horses, but to let us the readers know his horses and his riding technique. He is as instructive and entertaining as any book available. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: A book every horse person should read.
Review: What a pleasure to find this book back in print. I am re-reading it for the first time in years, and am pleased to find it not at all dated, and indeed very relavent. The good Colonel has a gift not only with his horses, but to let us the readers know his horses and his riding technique. He is as instructive and entertaining as any book available. A must read!
Rating:
Summary: His Horses, Our Teachers
Review: With the increasing interest and participation in dressage today, many excellent books focus on the details of the rider's position and aids, but only briefly discuss the key element in the partnership, the horse.
After retiring as Director of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, Col. Alois Podhajsky wrote The Complete Training of Horse and Rider and The Riding Teacher about the art of riding. His autobiography, My Dancing White Stallions chronicled his life with horses from his childhood up to his involvement with the Spanish Riding School, but My Horses, My Teachers is a literary monument to his equine teachers and companions of a lifetime.
It is a delightful, endearing book filled with love, humor, sadness and devotion to his four-legged partners, but to read it simply as entertainment would be a mistake, because careful reading reveals gems of wisdom as to what Col Podhajsky's horses did teach him. It is not a training manual in the traditional sense, but when Col. Podhajsky relates difficulties with individual horses, it is evident that he did not master them with correct body and leg position alone, but that he sensed their emotional and psychological needs, and established an unparalleled rapport and harmony which enabled him to accomplish his goals with the horse kindly, humanely, and patiently.
The Lippizaners dominate his recollections, but there are many others: timid, sensitive Thoroughbreds; hot, fiery Teja; sweet nondescript little Nora, who was almost laughed out of the competition ring as a "poor little sausage", yet was always true and steady; Neger, his cavalry mount in World War I who was mortally wounded carrying him to safety; Judith, the jumping mare who never responded to anyone else as she did to him; and little Nero, who relied on him completely and helped him win a Bronze Medal in the 1936 Olympics.
This book is a rich character study and a beautiful reminder that putting the well-being of the horse is first and foremost, and, particularly, in riding, that "things take time". Col. Podhajsky's foresight to put his memories on paper makes them available to us long after his passing. Because of a changing world, masters of Col. Podhajsky's calibre will not come our way again, yet his rich experiences and ability to put his words so eloquently on paper are still timely and continue to enrich us today.
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