Minding Animals
Awareness, Emotions and Heart
by Marc Bekoff
Published by Oxford University Press
ISBN0-19-515077-5
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Marc Bekoff a professor of Biology says, “Indifference is deadly” and openly advocates the “Need to reconcile common sense with science sense.”
He writes openly and passionately about animals and is not frightened to rumadge around in areas that may make people uncomfortable; Nor does he worry about being politically correct when he say’s “Arrogance and know it all attitudes need to be replaced with humility and honesty”
During my own learning I have pursued the balance between science and ‘real life’ application and often found my self in a no mans land, this book, makes me feel a little less lonely.
To Quote Terry Tempest Williams taken from Minding Animals
“Wilderness is a place of humility. Humility is a place of wilderness…. The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.”
I couldn't agree with you more. I read this book 2 months ago and was lifted by his views. Don't feel lonely in no mans land, there are a fews of us standing with you!
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfull, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has"
Margaret Mead (taken from Minding Animals)
Taking the idea from Helen Is it possiable Catherine, to dedicate one thread to recommended reading? Contributers could add books, as and when they read them, with their thoughts and comments.......
I'm planning to put a few links at the top of the page to particularly useful threads eg book lists, getting started in CT etc. That way even if a thread drops down it's always easy to locate.
I'm stupidly busy over the next 2-3 weeks so if I don't get a chance to do it in July then definitely in August!
Thanks for the book recommendation - I bought the book in my last Amazon splurge but haven't had a chance to read it yet. Bit of a back-log but so much to look forward to!
I can't remember who wrote all the books I have really enjoyed reading but will make a list and post it here sometime.
At the moment I'm reading The Tao of Equus by Linda Kohanov. I'm finding this book fascinating from both a horse training point of view and personal point of view. I'm finding it to be one of those books that I understand what is being said and already knew a lot of the information deep down, but for the first time I'm reading what I couldn't ever explain to another person in a very well written book.
As for other books - well if you look at Company of Horses recommended reading list - think I have read most of them and enjoyed them too.
I'm a book worm and so like to read any books. I don't think you can ever underestimate the value of any books - even books you know you won't agree with. Maybe I'm odd, but I like to read books by people who I know I don't aggree with becasue you can learn so much from them just by creating a questioning thought process as you disagree with what has been written.
Oh, forgot to mention - I adore Harry Potter...I'm sure they are relevant here somehow
Have just bought one of Lorenz's books, will let you know what I think of it. Bought it because he's mentionned a lot in Karen Pryor's Lads before the Wind book, which I think is my favourite book of all time.
I was just re-reading this post and thought I would update my post a bit.
Since writing my post about Tao of Equus, I have now finished reading the book and learnt a huge lesson in so highly recommeding a book before I had finished it. I did find the book very interesting, but the further I got into it, the more I was disheartened by what I read
Since reading Tao of Equus, I have also read "Horse Sense & the Human Heart: What Horses Can Teach Us About Trust, Bonding, Creativity & Spiituality" by
Adele von Rust McCormick, Marlene Deborah McCormick. Again I found this book very interesting but it somehow didn't get to the heart of how I truely believe horses can help in the healing process and unfortunately, as with Tao of Equus I felt through what I read that the spirit of the horse was being compromised.
I have also read "Mindreading"
Sanjida O'Connell which I found extremely interesting and fitted nicely into learning about equine behaviour.
"In the shadow of Man" by Jane Goodall is also very itneresting and although not specifically related to horse behaviour, I found it fascinating to read similarities between Jane Goodall's observation of Chimp behaviour and observations of equine behaviour.
I can't remember the other books off the top of my head now, but next time I manage to hop to my book shelves I will select a few more of the books I have found worthwhile reading.
Why Does My Horse……..
By Paul McGreevy
ISBN 1-57076-067-5
Trafalgar Square Publishing
I read this book a couple of years ago and I am still surprised how easily it is passed over. Perhaps this is because it does not promise to be all singing and dancing, but then that really appeals to me!
Written in modest tone, it covers a wide range of issues, topics, questions and answers. It may seem fundamental and maybe even basic hence easy to ignore, BUT in my opinion, in today’s equine industry we are so hungry for solutions and ‘harmony’ we often put the cart before the horse (pardon the pun) and it shows. We often build on sand, this book reminds us foundations are everything and cannot not be ignored.
This concise, well-written book reminds us of the importance of understanding and ‘seeing’ the detail found in all behaviour. Essential, if we are to get an educated picture and in turn adjust our own behaviour, thoughts and actions accordingly.
A perfect example of this is found in one of the author’s questions and answers on a two and a half year old TB filly called Mott.
If you are a member of the Equine Behaviour Forum you will know of Paul McGreevy, but in general his name is not often heard, even less his book. I think this is a shame, I for one would love him back in this country.
This book to me is a dish of information served on a bed of reason, lightly seasoned with science. Complemented with a side salad of mixed practical, theory and evolutionary flavour, accompanied with a wonderfully generous, appealingly fresh, coating of common sense.
About the Author:
Paul McGreevy qualified as a veterinary surgeon and spent five years in general practice in the Midlands and Australia before becoming a veterinary Research Fellow at Bristol University where his doctoral thesis was on horse behaviour. He is a member of the association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors and since gaining his doctorate he has moved to Sydney Australia where he is a lecturer in animal behaviour at the University of Sydney Veterinary School.
Paul McGreevy has done another book which is due out in the next few weeks, called "Equine Behaviour: A Guide for Veterinarians and Equine Scientists". The link below offers a sample chapter to give a flavour of the book.
Thanks Francis, just had a quick look at the link, am now positively drooling! Do you think we could move Christmas forward a few months? Maybe I should write to Father Christmas now, early bird gets the worm........
I think I get 2/3 off books that my company publish.
I'll try to find out as its from a different office to mine but if anyone is thinking of forking out full price for a copy hold your horses and lets see if I can get some copies for very reduced price...
Humpf, I only get 40% off as an Elsevier employee, basically because its a decent book - I get 2/3 off all the much more dull science ones.
However, I can order as many as I want with 40% off so if anyone is interested email me.
Suz
Oh no - Francis you shouldn't have put the link up - now I must get it, but I have no money... The kids have to eat pizza for a few weeks, or.. maybe I have to go without chocolate for a month, that would pay for the book!
Well I just read the other thread and have ordered the book through Amazon - fingers crossed!
This message has been edited by Mariaana on Jul 5, 2004 1:23 PM
Just to bump up this message. I'm re-reading 'Minding animals' (top of this thread) and has forgotten why I liked it so much. So just a recommendation for anyone who hasn't yet read it.
It's not a horse book (it's even fictional!!) but an amazing insight into seeing the world through the eyes of another person - which I think we'll all agree is important to be able to do if we want to understand how our horses think. It's written from the perspective of a teenager with Aspergers Syndrome and is funny, sad, frustrating, intriguing. A very very clever book.
How animals keep themselves well and what we can learn from them.
(From the back cover)
'In the wild, nature is the pharmacy and every animal its own practitioner. Monkeys, bears and birds protect themselves from insect bites and fungal infections by rubbing medicinal plants and insects into their skin. Chimpanzees carefully select anti-parasitic medicines to deal with parasites. Elephants roam miles to find the clay they need to help counter dietary toxins. And birds help their chicks by lining their nests with aromatic leaves. Wild Health explores the behavioural strategies animals use to maintain health, many of which may be relevant to improved animal husbandry and human health care.'
I found this book extremely easy to read and soooo interesting. It had loads of little 'snipets' in there that I didn't know, like why Horse Chestnut trees are called such - because horses used to gorge on the leaves to relieve themselves of a chest infection! And loads of other stuff that was really interesting. I would definitely recommend this book.
There's a book just out "The Domestic Horse. The evolution, Development and Management of it's Behaviour" edited by Sue McDonnell and Danny Mills. (Cambridge University Press 2005.)Sixteen chapters each by a leader in their field eg Katherine Houpt, Christine Nichol.
The first part is "Origins & Selection of Horse Behaviuor". Second "The Natural Behaviour of Horses in the Wild and Domestic Environment". Third "The Impact of the Domestic Environment on the Horse".
The book is the result of an equine behaviuor and welfare conference held in 2002 chaired by Prof George Waring where international scientists presented their work and reviewed the current state of knowledge. It makes very interesting reading, is written in a very accessible style and is well referenced.
Hi Janet, I hope you are well, nice to hear from you again!
Just wondering about this book only because I keep on buying every equine behaviour book as it comes out and am finding that for the most part they're all blurring into one. Is it worth getting do you think if you've got Paul McGreevy's recent book or even George Warings? Is there much more info included in this new book compared to others in your opinion? Sorry to ask so many questions but I'm being lazy as usual and can't face a trip to the library to plough through yet another equine behaviour book especially if it's the same as all the rest! LOL!
No doubt I'll succumb in a couple of months and buy it anyway, he he!
Hi Lucy
Nice to hear from you too. Yes I think the book is worth getting. It's not too bad at about £15. The material is hot off the press so to speak and the contributors are people who haven't been in print in other peoples books very much. The list of contributors at the front is like a who's who of anyone at the cutting edge of equine research !
There'es quite an emphasis on welfare, and ethics, trying to explore what we are doing with horses day to day and how this is affecting/compromising them (eg imprinting, variuos training methods). As with McGreevys book it's very well referenced so appears to be "where the research is currently at". The chapters also poses lots of questions, each author ponders out loud where the current limitations about equine behaviuor are.
Have just finished reading "Animals in translation. Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behaviuor" Temple Grandin & Catherine Howard. Rich in material taken from physiology, welfare, learning theory, consciuosness and cognition Animals in Translation explores how animals think, feel and experience their environments. Developing the hypothesis that animals are hyper specific and cognitive specialists, similarities shared with people with autism. Arguing that "normal" people convert experience into words, generalisations and abstractions whilst animals and autistic people process the world as sensory information e.g. specific pictures, sights and sounds.
Written in an accessible style Grandin alternatley challenges and uses current knowledge across species (dogs, cats , cattle and horses) to develop her argument. Anyone interested in animal behaviuor will love this book !!
hi , I thought long and hard about sharing this with you all. but a company called abebooks.com does the cheapest books i have ever come across..I have just bought Horses Never Lie by Rashid, Mark for £8.70 including p.p. and i have had lots of bargins before. I hope you alll get bargains (as i have) but i hope the prices don't go up as a result...
Would definitely agree with Helen that Wild Health is a fantastic book - compulsory reading for all!!
I've been reading The Celestine Prophesy at last after being recommended it many times over the years. Well, I obviously read it at the right moment as I found it really excellent (thanks Dee!). It's fictional but blends together very cleverly a good story, a good look at human behaviour and a good overview of the "metaphysics" that surrounds complementary therapies. But very easy to read! Some of the science/psychology it includes is a little naive and simplified, although not actually incorrect (just perhaps more opinionated and less factual than implied). I found that the parts I disagreed with factually, I could still accept metaphorically and so they didn't take away from the essence of the book.
Was quite weird actually as I read it whilst up in Durham last week, much of it on the train on the way home. Yet because of the gripping way in which it's written, when I got home I was convinced I'd just returned from Peru (where the story is set) and not Durham!!! (Maybe that had a lot to do with the week's lack of sleep and excess of alcohol though, who can say?!)
Catherine
This message has been edited by Brocksopp on Jul 26, 2005 2:15 PM
Have just finished reading Human Traces by Sebastian Faulkes (and still in bestseller lists in UK so should be available at sale prices in UK high street shops). Absolutely fantastic novel set in Victorian times through to post-WWI about two boys who become friends through a shared interest in how the human mind works. Their roles as pioneering psychiatrists takes them on a wonderful journey of discovery, both inspirational and tragic, as they pursue their preferred areas of the science.
Faulkes is such an amazing author (Birdsong and Charlotte Gray are also fantastic although less relevant subjects to the THF!) and, as a historian, his books come across as so well-researched that you keep having to remind yourself that it is just a novel. I have no idea how much artistic licence went into his "history of psychiatry" (which plays a big part) and when I get a moment I will do a bit of research to find out (no time soon!) - I suspect not very much though.
It's also great from the perspective of seeing the ups and downs of being a scientist - just because something is "science", doesn't make it right. Just part of the research process. (And that's kind of a warning as at one point I felt a bit down, abandoned, because the book seemed to temporarily take a turn for the worse - but actually turned out to be the point Faulkes was deliberately making. Keep your faith - I found it remained excellent right through to the end!)
Not quite sure what to read next - my mind is a bit blown away!
And this is just a reminder of the thread Suz put up with some other non-horsey inspirational books. Dont want it to get lost in the archives.
Goodness me! Just noticed that a year and half went by between my last two contributions to this thread. This is one of the threads which is fixed at the top of the site so always accessible. And eagerly awaiting more book recommendations from you all....
I've just been looking at the Amazon reviews for Human Traces and thought that since so many of them are really negative I should comment further. This book is certainly quite heavy-going in places and I can imagine that anyone without any interest in the subject would easily give up. I also felt at times that there were a lot of threads that at the time seemed to have been glossed over quickly but in retrospect I think they did all tie together. And I really liked the characters, warts and all. I still stand by what I said above!
All I can say is that I'm glad I bought this book by gut instinct, rather than reading the amazon reviews first as I normally do! Think they would have put me off a bit. Best not to look at them, I reckon - flick through it in a shop instead!
I've just finished 'Be With Your Horse' by Tom Widdecombe which is saying, I think, what the Dorrance brothers are trying to say in their impenetrable Yank-speak, but Tom says it in English, clearly and succinctly.
It's not a behaviour book per se but this one volume has probably made more of an impact on me than all the other NH books combined. It helps rather a lot to know that the author is British, is used to dealing with British horses and doesn't assume that we all spend our lives roping calves for branding in 1000 acre lots.
I followed it with Mark Rashid's new one, Horsemanship Through LIfe (I think,I just leant it to a friend so can't quite remember) and the combination was amazing, although I do rather want to go back to Aikido again....
Hi Manda,
If you like Mark Rashids' books then I can recommend Kathleen Lindlay's new book 'In the company of Horses'. Kathleen is Mark's teaching assistand and it describes a year on the road with Mark and what kathleen learnt from him about horses and about life. It's a really good read.
Cath
I am nearly at the end of reading Human Traces by Sebastian Faulkes and love it – don’t want it to end. I agree with all you said. I wish all teachers, scientists, professionals etc (of any subject) would read it – In my opinion, among other things this book offers a lesson on how damaging & dangerous compliancy can be. A reminder why we must not just follow blindly but keep looking to break new ground. Take what we know today and use it to improve what we will know tomorrow. For me this is a profound book, that can be uncomfortable to read on many levels, but from my own selfish point of view it has allowed me to breath a huge sigh of relief - to challenge ourselves, others, science, truths and beliefs is not a sin - but a necessity!
Hope it's ok to mention a couple of parenting books (sorry, promise not to be obsessive!) which I genuinely think are relevant.
The Continuum Concept (Jean Liedloff) - the classic 1970's hippy approach to parenting which has been adopted by dogmatic types all around the world. It is the natural babymanship book! So I was planning to avoid it. But someone lent it to me and I ended up reading it. Really fab and deserves its reputation. Author is a psychotherapist and gives some fascinating insights into human behaviour. It considers the ways in which we enter the world in modern society compared with more "primitive" cultures and the ways in which we consequently abuse our babies. And the knock-on effects throughout society (which get a bit too extrapolated - eg horse-riding and being gay are considered pathological - but that aside.....!!).
Three in a bed (Deborah Jackson) - similar sort to vein to the above, criticizing the Victorian ideas which have now become so ingrained. She goes as far as talking about leaving babies to cry in their cots as resulting in learnt helplessness and is refreshingly blunt.
Just a warning though - while I think these should be compulsory reading for anyone starting out on parenthood, if you've already left that behind you then these books may well get you questioning some of the things you did because they are soooooo normal in our society. So consider whether you want to do that, now or ever. Of course you might decide that the ideas in the books are rubbish anyway and so no harm done.
Catherine
PS Also just finished reading Engleby, the latest Sebastian Faulks. Another fab book from him, nothing like anything I've read before. Off topic for here though, although it is a fascinating insight into an odd character
My current favourite book which I'm just re-reading is:
"Knowing Your Horse: A Guide to Equine Learning, Training and Behaviour" by Emma Lethbridge
# Paperback: 208 pages
# Publisher: WileyBlackwell; 1 edition (8 May 2009)
# Language English
# ISBN-10: 1405191643
# ISBN-13: 978-1405191647
# Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 17.3 x 1.5 cm
Emma talks about the methods of training rather than a specific system and looks honestly and scientifically at the pros and cons of each method. It helps you to understand your horse's behaviour and also, importantly, how they learn.
There is enough science for those who want to understand more but this is balanced out by practical applications and easily understood explanations.
