All About Bits And Bridles

Choosing the right bit and bridle is a vital part of creating a partnership with your horse. This book explains everything you need to know about a complicated subject in easy-to-understand text and with specially taken photographs. It looks at: different types of bit and how to fit them correctly; mouthpiece and cheekpiece designs and how they work; traditional and modern material and how to choose the right combination for your horse; which type of noseband to use; and how to fit a bridle correctly. The book contains advice on a huge range of subjects, from solving problems to bitting young horses, and emphasises that choosing tack must always go hand in hand with correct management handling and schooling.

Illustrates the importance of mouth anatomy in bit selection, selection and use of various bitless bridles, and teaching a horse to accept a bit without fear or resistance.

As even a quick glance around a saddler shop or through a tack store catalog will show, the world of horse bits is both enormous and mystifying. The primary means of communicating with and controlling a horse, Western and English bits come in a bewildering assortment of materials, sizes, and shapes. Their descriptions—full-cheek snaffle, hackamore, high port, French link, Tom Thumb, spade, KK Ultra—are no less puzzling, and with new bits and refinements being produced every year, even the most experienced horseman must struggle to keep up with the state of the art. The Ultimate Book of Horse Bits will answer all your questions on the subject . . . and then some. Not only does the author and horsewoman Emily Esterson go into detail about all kinds of equine mouthware and how each is constructed, but she also explains how and why each works in the context of what the rider wants the horse to accomplish. Does your horse have difficulty bending or flexing? Suggestions and solutions to these and myriad other horse-and-rider problems will be found throughout these authoritative yet user-friendly pages. Whether a novice or expert horseman, every rider, trainer, or owner in any equestrian discipline will benefit from this book’s wide-ranging and practical information for years to come.

A Washington Post Top 50 of 2014 Fiction pick A Wall Street Journal Book of the Year, selected by Phil Klay Electric Literature 2014: Year of the Debut A Largehearted Boy Favorite Novel of 2014 Slaughterhouse 90210's Most Rapturous Book of 2014 Vol. 1 Brooklyn A Year of Favorites: Jason Diamond picks Called "powerful and unflinching" by Column McCann in The New York Times Book Review, "something of a miracle" by Ron Charles in the Washington Post, and named a must read by The Millions, Time Out, New York Magazine, and Grantland; Scott Cheshire's debut is a "great new American epic" (Philipp Meyer) about a father and son finding their way back to each other. "Deeply Imagined"—The New York Times / "Daring and Brilliant"—Ron Charles, Washington Post / "Vivid"—Elle / "One of the finest novels you will read this year."—Flavorwire It's 1980 at a crowded amphitheater in Queens, New York and a nervous Josiah Laudermilk, age 12, is about to step to the stage while thousands of believers wait to hear him, the boy preaching prodigy, pour forth. Suddenly, as if a switch had been flipped, Josiah's nerves shake away and his words come rushing out, his whole body fills to the brim with the certainty of a strange apocalyptic vision. But is it true prophecy or just a young believer's imagination running wild? Decades later when Josiah (now Josie) is grown and has long since left the church, he returns to Queens to care for his father who, day by day, is losing his grip on reality. Barreling through the old neighborhood, memories of the past--of his childhood friend Issy, of his first love, of the mother he has yet to properly mourn--overwhelm him at every turn. When he arrives at his family's old house, he's completely unprepared for what he finds. How far back must one man journey to heal a broken bond between father and son? In rhapsodic language steeped in the oral tradition of American evangelism, Scott Cheshire brings us under his spell. Remarkable in scale--moving from 1980 Queens, to sunny present-day California, to a tent revival in nineteenth century rural Kentucky--and shot-through with the power and danger of belief and the love that binds generations, High as the Horses' Bridles is a bold, heartbreaking debut from a big new American voice.