Breaking and Training the Stock Horse (and Teaching Basic Principles of Dressage)

Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho, Published date: 1980. Hardcover; xiv, 125 pp; 26 cm. Sixth edition. Illustrated throughout with black and white drawings and instructional sketches. In acceptable condition with acceptable dust jacket. Original tan cloth boards with brown lettering and pictorial decoration on front cover; staining to cloth along to edge of covers and spine; light shelf wear to edges and corners; binding sound. Damp-staining to top edge of text block which bleeds onto the top 1/4" of several pages. Overall slight musty smell to book. Pages are unmarked. Dust jacket present with moderate to heave wear wear including a 3" tear to the paper over the top edge of the front cover which has been repaired with tape and several other smaller chips and tears, erasing, fading, soiling and toning; now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. A solid reading copy. Authoritative Western horsemanship manual by Charles O. Williamson (1894-1984), an experienced range horseman, cattleman, veterinarian, and guide. The book presents a systematic approach to breaking and training stock horses, combining practical ranch methods with foundational principles of classical dressage adapted for working horses. Topics include halterbreaking, riding seat, rein use, longeing, saddling, mounting, collection, lateral work, reining, cutting, roping horses, jumping, gaited horses, and trailer loading. Widely regarded as a classic in American stock horse training literature, valued for its clear, practical instruction grounded in decades of hands-on experience. Contents include: Foreword; General Remarks on Horsemanship; Riding; The Seat or Sitting On; Hands, Legs and Body; Riding on a Slack Rein; Cruelty and Punishment; Tact; Training Equipment; Halterbreaking; Teaching a Horse to Walk Beside You; Showing a Horse on the Halter; Breaking; The Barn-raised Colt; Breaking the Wild Range Colt; Odd Horses - The Running W; Training; Cruelty and Punishment; Suppling a Horse and Making Him Light; Collection; Teaching Suppleness; Fast Reining; Backing; The Side Pass; Working the Square; The Serpentine; Drunk Man; The Lateral Flexions; The Trot; The Canter; Change of Leads; Two Tracks; The Flying Change of Leads; Pole Bending; Barrel Racing; The Quick Stop on Hind Feet; The Calf-Roping Horse; The Horse at the Barrier; The Steer-Roping Horse; Standing for Mounting; Ground Tying; Lofty Action for Parades; Training the Cutting Horse; Training the Horse to Jump; Advanced Work on the Longe Line; Learning to Ride a Bucking Horse; Shoeing the Saddle Horse; Teaching a Horse to Enter a Truck or a Trailer; Training the Gaited Horse. …