Rating: 
Summary: A new classic of horsey literature
Review: Expanded from his article about the world's most expensive thoroughbred stud, Kevin Conley's "Stud: Adventures in Breeding" falls squarely in the tradition of great New Yorker prose non-fiction. Like the various collections of the work of his fellow New Yorker author, Joseph Mitchell, Conely's book is funny and fascinating, its language lovely and lively. It's filled with incredible facts (who knew mares had clitorises?) and sneaky-hilarious observations (like the cool but horny horse who resembles Miles Davis).The book is digressive in structure, using the stories of various thoroughbred studs (from the most expensive to the cut-rate) as springboards to examine other issues connected to horses: ... of a system to monitor the bloodlines of thoroughbreds. In the end, after all the astonishing descriptions of horsing coupling (lots of drugs, rubber gloves, and sexual surrogates), ... the sex act of horses and people deconstructs, and the book offers some fresh--and pretty profound--insights into a subject (sex) which has been done to death over the years.
Rating:
Summary: Took me back to my Kentucky days
Review: I absolutely loved this book. The first chapter with Storm Cat was wonderful and I flipped when they said the name of the mare being bred to Storm Cat as I owned one of her sons. This was a very insightful book into the breeding industry. I worked at Overbrook Farm for awhile and I'm still fascinated by Storm Cat and the attention around him.
Rating: 
Summary: Monotonous
Review: I am a big horse racing fan. Every year during the pre-race parade at the Triple Crown and Breeders Cup I trace the sires and dams of the different racers. Quite a few a given space in this book.
In STUD: ADVENTURES IN BREEDING, Conley introduces us to Storm Cat, the highest paid stallion in America, and to Seattle Slew, who was still alive at the time the book was written. There's some interesting stuff about how spinal fusion saved Slew's life and how he returns to stand at stud almost as good as new.
The structure of the book is a bit hard to follow. We visit some of the great sires, and their breeding sheds where we are party to some of the inside secrets, such as the "teaser" stallion, a generally docile sort who gets the mares ready to be bred. We also go to Keenland for an auction where we meet the Arab sheiks and Irish high rollers who seem to dominate these sales. Later on, we're introduced to pacers and trotters where we find a difference approach. The pacers and trotters embrace artifical insemination, whereas that's a no no with the Thoroughbreds.
The most interesting part of the book for me was the historical background starting in 1704 when Darley Arabian was smuggled out of Turkey by Thomas Darley. Conley traces Storm Cat's ancestry all the way back to Darley Arabian, Northern Dancer (the greatest of all sires) and Nijinsky, the Dancer's son.
Conley also gives us a look at breeding hierarchy. The best stallions and dams breed in Kentucky. Others are shipped off to places like California and New Mexico, which doesn't mean these places don't sometimes produce a winner. We're introduced to California bred Tiznow, who won the Breeder's Cup Classic two years in a row, something no other horse has done.
It's amazing how much these horses are like human beings. Some are aggressive, some are moody, some are aloof. Conley brings this home with a visit to the New Bolton Center where Shetland ponies live on a preserve with almost no human intervention. Each stallion has his own little harem, but there's a definite hierarchy with a definite Alpha stallion. A funny part was when they were observed comparing fecal piles.
Although Conley has a fondness for the parenthetical remark, I enjoyed this book immensely and shall be looking forward to his next, hopefully in the not-too-distant future. A good writer is able to fashion an entirely unique world and Conley certainly does that here.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Non-Fiction Read
Review: I never would have bought a book about thoroughbred breeding on my own, but a friend gave me Stud, and much to my surprise it turned out to be the best non-fiction book I've read in a long time. It fulfilled all the requirements of a "great read." It was interesting, funny and quite moving. Conley succeeds in giving each horse a distinctive and appealing personality so it's fun to read about these grand and sometimes frightening animals and the life they lead. His descriptions of the fabulous horse farms - big and small - make you want to stop what you're doing and fly to Kentucky or California immediately! Best of all, he takes you into the very select and rarified world of horse breeding - a world you would never even know existed before reading this book. His portraits of the patrician owners who have been breeding horses for generations as well as the oddball characters who work in the breeding barns is really fascinating and fun. The book includes a surprising amount of history - which Conley manages to make very fresh and interesting. His observations - whether about British royalty, ancient horse trading or the origins of the first Stud Book - are fascinating, and his writing is as elegant as the horses he admires so much. This book would make a great birthday or Father's Day gift for someone's special stud.
Rating:
Summary: A Semi-Humorous Look At Thoroughbred Breeding
Review: If it weren't for the "Look Inside" feature of Amazon.com, I would have never bought this book. But, since I did "Look Inside," I'd been dying to get the book, yet didn't want to spend the price. I finally succumbed (er?) to Amazon! I am 100% not disappointed. With over 200 pages, I read this book in about 15 hours off and on. I could not put it down except to sleep and drive (otherwise there'd have been a terrible wreck!). The author, Kevin Conley, delves into realm of studs' lives. Starting out with (my personal favorite going on 7 years now) Storm Cat, the most successful stud since Mr. Prospector, and probably better! But Mr. Conley doesn't turn this book into a technical look at breeding for scientists and students, he turns it into a semi-humorous book for everyone to read. He talks about those things that you think are said in a stud barn, and they turn out to actually be true! I can't help but giggle and feel a little disgusted at what I giggled at, but then I say, "Hey! I'm not the one who wrote it!" He also goes down the interesting path of how the Thoroughbred actually began, and gives the background of every sire of a particular horse (can't remember his name right now), all the way back from the Arabs. The one thing that disappoints me is how Mr. Prospector was notoriously left out of this book. He was obviously the sire of the most stakes winners until his death in 1999. Another little quirk I had was when Mr. Conley would refer to Nijinsky II as just Nijinsky. I'm just weird like that, but those two things aren't enough to bring my rating down to 4 stars. But, if you're into horses, or maybe even if you're even not, this sure did turn out to be a good book to read! I'm very happy that someone could finally come up with a breeding book that doesn't make you look around the room to see if people are looking at the cover. And for those Storm Cat fans, yes, that's him on the cover.
Rating: 
Summary: A Book about horse breed for the rest of us
Review: Stud is a book written for the rest of us. Those people who feel that there are better ways to spend 100,000 than on letting a mare have a good time with a handsome horse. It manages to make the world of those who DO spend that kind of money seem very real and very intriguing indeed. Conley crosses the country from the elite of the business in Kentucky to the up and comers in California down to the struggling breeders in New Mexico. And he makes it all so fun to read. There are great portraits of the families and the farmers who try their hands at winning the most expensive 30 seconds in sport. From the office to the breeding shed to the graveyards of the great sires nothing is left uncovered "Stud". Best of all the author makes it enjoyable for those of us who are not a part of the horsey set.
Rating:
Summary: When We Get Behind (Barn) Doors
Review: Stud is a great book for all thoroughbred enthusiasts or anyone just looking for several good laughs. Mr. Conley is obviously not a horseman and this fact actually makes the book better. His reactions to learning about, seeing and hearing the breeding process are informative and often comical. His descriptions of Earl the teaser stallion and Jughead, the old mare that young stallions visit to learn the, uhh, ropes of breeding females made me laugh out loud. Of course, my wife then made me read her what I thought was so funny and she immediately declared me a weirdo. The profiles of Storm Cat and Seattle Slew and the people who take care of them (can you say pamper with a capital P?) were outstanding. Mr. Conley covers, oops, bad word, I mean discusses several other lesser known horses and the contrast between these animals and the Kentucky royalty is very interesting (in the breeding world, "cover" refers to the stallion's physical breeding of the mare). Women and older folks may be pleased and surprised by Mr. Conley's revelation that the the horse breeding industry actually places a premium on the contributions of females and seniors. The author spends a little too much time discussing the history of horses and people and a group of semi-wild Shetland ponies and their social dynamics. Yawn. This and the lack of photos cause me to rate the book a 4. The remainder of the book is definitely a 5.
Rating:
Summary: When We Get Behind (Barn) Doors
Review: Stud is a great book for all thoroughbred enthusiasts or anyone just looking for several good laughs. Mr. Conley is obviously not a horseman and this fact actually makes the book better. His reactions to learning about, seeing and hearing the breeding process are informative and often comical. His descriptions of Earl the teaser stallion and Jughead, the old mare that young stallions visit to learn the, uhh, ropes of breeding females made me laugh out loud. Of course, my wife then made me read her what I thought was so funny and she immediately declared me a weirdo. The profiles of Storm Cat and Seattle Slew and the people who take care of them (can you say pamper with a capital P?) were outstanding. Mr. Conley covers, oops, bad word, I mean discusses several other lesser known horses and the contrast between these animals and the Kentucky royalty is very interesting (in the breeding world, "cover" refers to the stallion's physical breeding of the mare). Women and older folks may be pleased and surprised by Mr. Conley's revelation that the the horse breeding industry actually places a premium on the contributions of females and seniors. The author spends a little too much time discussing the history of horses and people and a group of semi-wild Shetland ponies and their social dynamics. Yawn. This and the lack of photos cause me to rate the book a 4. The remainder of the book is definitely a 5.
Rating:
Summary: Sex, Money and Humor
Review: The only thing missing from this book is actual passion. The author is fascinated by the millions of dollars top Thoroughbred stallion Storm Cat has generated via, well, generation. Storm Cat is the lens he uses to examine the exchange of vast quantities of money at auctions, breeding farms and the race track. He applies it to large and small parts of the horse breeding and racing industry and relates some very funny stories along the way. The book is amusing and well-written- perfect for the casual inquirer or a horse lover who isn't expecting too much in the way of technical or in-depth equine information. It reads well on a story-telling level for any reader. This wouldn't be on a list of recommendations for serious breeding advice, but I would recommend it as casual, funny and well-written narrowly focused reading. I enjoyed it a lot but as an equine enthusiast I never felt that at any point there was anything more than intellectual curiosity on the part of the author- no driving interest in the subject particularly, no passion for the Thoroughbred or for horses. Even the interviewed horse people came off as being surprisingly passionless about the subject of their lives. As most equestrians know, involvement with horses takes a great deal of passion. There are otherwise too many drawbacks to a life with horses. Highly recommended in spite of this- perhaps because of this the book is more accessible to the non-horsey reader.
Rating:
Summary: Sex, Money and Humor
Review: The only thing missing from this book is actual passion. The author is fascinated by the millions of dollars top Thoroughbred stallion Storm Cat has generated via, well, generation. Storm Cat is the lens he uses to examine the exchange of vast quantities of money at auctions, breeding farms and the race track. He applies it to large and small parts of the horse breeding and racing industry and relates some very funny stories along the way. The book is amusing and well-written- perfect for the casual inquirer or a horse lover who isn't expecting too much in the way of technical or in-depth equine information. It reads well on a story-telling level for any reader. This wouldn't be on a list of recommendations for serious breeding advice, but I would recommend it as casual, funny and well-written narrowly focused reading. I enjoyed it a lot but as an equine enthusiast I never felt that at any point there was anything more than intellectual curiosity on the part of the author- no driving interest in the subject particularly, no passion for the Thoroughbred or for horses. Even the interviewed horse people came off as being surprisingly passionless about the subject of their lives. As most equestrians know, involvement with horses takes a great deal of passion. There are otherwise too many drawbacks to a life with horses. Highly recommended in spite of this- perhaps because of this the book is more accessible to the non-horsey reader.
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