Spring is here! Unfortunately that sometimes means rainy days and mud, not the best weather for carriage driving. While you are inside we have a few books dealing with carriage driving that you might enjoy…
The Essential Guide to Carriage Driving by Robyn Cuffy and Jaye-Allison Winkel
A practical guide to carriage driving covering topics ranging from the selection and fitting of harness and vehicle to preparing for competition and driving multiples. The Essential Guide to Carriage Driving has helped thousands of readers learn how to drive with topics like: Selecting and Caring for Harness; Selecting the Bit; Selecting and Caring for Your Cart or Carriage; and The Basics of Driving.
A great gift to pop in a basket, this little book packs a lot of information into a small price tag. A commonsense guide offering advice on a wide range of driving topics, aimed at avoiding common mistakes and becoming a safer and more proficient carriage driver. Chapters include correct harness fitting and care, vehicle maintenance, driving on the road, tips on preparing for a show, taking part in show classes, and eventing.
This 8 1/2 x 11 revised printing of Tom Ryder’s classic driving book, On The Box Seat, is sure to have something for drivers at every stage of their driving education.
Chapters include: Schooling the Horse to Harness; Single Harness; Driving in Single Harness; Double Harness; Four-in-Hand, with Notes on Unicorn, Six-in-Hand and Five-in-Hand; Handling the Reins and Tandem Driving
Coaches and Coaching Throughout the Ages by Gloria Austin
Coaches and Coaching Throughout the Ages travels through time when horses led coaches down every trail turned street to the modernization of coaching today. While learning about its past necessity, you will understand what it takes to properly identify, turn out, and drive a coach. You will get an insight into some of today’s renowned coaching shows, and get the behind scenes look at some of Gloria Austin’s most memorable coaching moments.
Great Father’s Day gift!
The true stories of the Wild West heroes who guarded the iconic Wells Fargo stagecoaches and trains, battling colorful thieves, vicious highwaymen, and robbers armed with explosives. The phrase “riding shotgun” was no teenage game to the men who guarded stagecoaches and trains the Western frontier. Armed with sawed-off, double-barreled shotguns and an occasional revolver, these express messengers guarded valuable cargo through lawless terrain. They were tough, fighting men who risked their lives every time they climbed into the front boot of a Concord coach. Boessenecker introduces soon-to-be iconic personalities like “Chips” Hodgkins, an express rider known for his white mule and his ability to outrace his competitors, and Henry Johnson, the first Wells Fargo detective. Their lives weren’t just one shootout after another―their encounters with desperadoes were won just as often with quick wits and memorized-by-heart knowledge of the land. The highway robbers also get their due. It wouldn’t be a book about the Wild West without Black Bart, the most infamous stagecoach robber of all time, and Butch Cassidy’s gang, America’s most legendary train robbers. Through the Gold Rush and the early days of delivery with horses and saddlebags, to the heyday of stagecoaches and huge shipments of gold, and finally the rise of the railroad and the robbers who concocted unheard-of schemes to loot trains, Wells Fargo always had courageous men to protect its treasure. Their unforgettable bravery and ingenuity make this book a thrilling read.
The Great Blue Army Wagon by Thomas Lindmier
For the Civil War enthusiast in your life!
The Six and Four-Horse or Mule Wagons proved to be such an effective means of transporting supplies, that they saw extensive service well into the Twentieth Century. These wagons were perfected many years and long miles on the western trail. This exhaustive volume follows the wagons’ development from the Revolutionary War through their use in World War I. The dimensions, drawings, correct paint colors and harness details that are included make this a valuable addition to the bookshelves of restorers and re-enactors alike.
Author Thomas Lindmier, noted Military and Western Historian, has spent 20 years researching his subject, and has restored a number of these wagons for the National Park Service.
Harnessing Your Power to Drive Forward by Pam Umberger and Cheryl Bess
Looking to improve your team’s ability to work together? The authors discovered the close correlation between business relationships and the roles of horse, driver, harness, and carriage. While being involved in the sport of carriage driving, they became aware that many aspects of corporate structures, management dynamics as well as personal and team relationships parallel aspects of carriage driving. For example, the roles of a horse and driver can be comparable to the roles appearing in professional work settings, i.e. workforce and leadership. Likewise, the functions of harness and carriage parts can be compared to various functions of people and teams in business models. Analyzing the characteristics and inter-relatedness of the horse, driver, harness, and carriage can yield profound insights into the nature of professional relationships and the impact on business success.
All of these books are available in the Carriage Association of America’s Book and Gift Shop. Simply click on the book title to be whisked away to the shop!