The United States Pony Club Manual of Horsemanship: Basics for Beginners / D Level Paperback – March 1, 2012

The book was nice, clean, and in great condition. I compared it with the first edition and there were some good updates. This book was recommended by my trainer. It's easy to understand and thorough.

Great book. Both my girls were involved in pony club, and I can attest it was one of the best things we all did together.

I consider this a "must have" book for all new horse owners. If every owner knew what was in this book, there would be a lot more happy horses. The most comprehensive book I've read to get you started with horses, For less than the price of one riding lesson, you will have a huge amount of information at your fingertips. Great illustrations and descriptions. I buy several when on sale, and give to new horse owners.

Excellent

Every youth equestrian and their parent should read this book before buying or leasing a horse. It walks you through all of the basics of riding and care particularly for the parents that might not be present for part or all of their child's lesson. This helps Child and parent understand safety of both rider and horse.

Every horse owner should have a copy of this- especially if you have young riders. This little book is well laid out and contans more useful information than you would usually find in several books. I have purchased additional copies for our 4-H club library, and public library.

I've always loved the original USPC manual that I owned (still own), and while I really do think it was high time that the manual be updated, I'm a bit disappointed that the Standards of Proficiency weren't included. I can understand WHY they weren't, but I'm going to miss being able to pull out the D-Level Manual and look at the requirements while IN the section being examined; it was super helpful for myself at the D-Level, and I'd hoped that the new manual would be the same for my younger Pony Clubbers. Ach, well!I'd also like to caution people who want to use this manual as a guide to learn to ride -- Pony Club comes from the English hunt tradition, which was very much about forward seat and getting over fences. It's not the best way to teach a child to ride, and it's certainly not something you should use as any sort of manual to train a horse. (I would recommend classical texts, but that's my preference.) However, like my boss is always telling me, Pony Club is the gold standard in horse management (with few exceptions,) and the manual is worth buying for the horse management section alone!

This is a must read for every equestrian! Wonderfully written and clearly illustrated. No equine library would be complete without this book!