If the Trails are Muddy, Give Me a Good Book...

For those of you on the East Coast, mid-Atlantic area, it's a been a strangely wet summer so far. I can't remember a summer with so much rain (almost seven inches this month and it's only June 21st!). Of course, that means the trails are awfully muddy here... and since the rules around here on the trail easements are "Please don't tear up trails if they are already muddy"), that means we're all stuck in the stables. Anyone else out there getting frustrated over not being able to ride???


Well, there I have one great consolation to turn to: the comfort of a a good book (and maybe a nice cigar along with it). I just finished in the last few weeks three excellent books and highly recommend them for those of you who enjoy the horseback riding and the history of horses in history. All three were published within the last year and each captures different aspects of the magnificent history of horses in battle (and how they have changed the course of history).


The first, Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton (Scribner Books) is a rich, fast moving account of US Special Forces who secretly went into Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks in advance of the full-scale US invasion. America's smartest, bravest and most highly trained soldiers, they were ready for anything -- except perhaps for the surprise of learning the way they would move with the Northern Alliance forces on horseback, sometimes for 14 hours at a time over some of the toughest terrain in the world. Of course, they adopted, learned quickly (no small feat when you consider most of the horses were stallions. The passages of them riding high on thin mountain passages with feisty stallions kicking and stomping at each other leaves the reader holding their breath for multiple pages) and beat an overwhelming enemy (they were outnumbered most of the time 40-1). And yes, there are some great details of what is now the "last" US Army Calvary charge -- US Special Forces galloping across the plains with their Northern Alliance comrades, charging Taliban tanks and machine gun emplacements as they simultaneously direct GPS guided bombing runs. A great read and a brilliant reminder of brains, determination and guts of the US military. Finally, and most appropriately, this book sheds new light on a tremendously brave and good man -- the first man to die in battle after 9/11, CIA officer Mike Spann. A true American hero.


The second book, Mounted Warriors by Gene Smith (John Wiley & Sons, Inc) is a fun history of the horses in war. Smith writes his history in a beautiful literary, almost poetic, style, covering a huge swath of history from time times of Alexander the Great up to Afghan charge of US Special Forces. The chapters covering the history of cavalry during the Civil War is particularly superb, bringing Jeb Stuart to new light while introducing us to another great but less-known cavalry hero, US Union Calvary Captain Charles Russell Lowell. Great and most memorable stories.

And finally, War Horse: A History of the Military Horse and Rider by Louis DiMarco (Westholme Publishing). Alternatively thrilling, highly educational (if only my college history textbooks read like this!) and a source for hundreds of other cavalry tomes (for me, the bibliography is like a treasure map of future reads), DiMarco has provided us horse lovers a great service writing this book. I finished the book two weeks ago and have found myself picking it up almost daily as a reference for other research I'm doing.

I highly recommend all three of these fine books. They've kept me a happy state in an otherwise soggy summer! If you have any good cavalry reads -- history or fiction -- I'd be most pleased to hear your recommendations.