Fiction, Nature, Essays, Mammals, Horses

Some Horses

Name: Some Horses
Author: Thomas McGuane
ISBN: 9780375724527

by Thomas McGuane, Buckeye Blake

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Overview

In Some Horses, Tom McGuane animates the wide prairie, the ranches where cattle roam and cutting horses are trained, and the packed coliseums in which these horses compete for prestige and prize money. Best of all, McGuane brings to life the horses he has known, celebrating the unique glories that make each of them memorable.

McGuane's writing is infused with a love of the cowboy life and the animals and people who inhabit that world where the intimate dance between horse and rider is as magical as flight—well beyond what the human body could ever discover on its own.

Synopsis

Tom McGuane loves horses. Nowhere is that more evident than in his deft and utterly fascinating essays about some of the more remarkable horses and horsemen he has known. The horse that most intrigues him is the cutting horse-the essence of the sport that pits horse against cow, where the horse demonstrates his athleticism and intuitive sense of bovine mentality. Among the cast of these memorable characters are the near mythical trainer Buster Welch, who defined the modern cutting horse, and the no less mythic Chink's Benjibaby, a horse that had too much "cow" for her own good.

In these eight essays, some published here for the first time, McGuane taps the literary wellspring of his own personal passion. He examines the relationship between horses and humans: what it is about horses that reveals so much about ourselves, what we see in them, why they respond to us, and the symbiosis that can result from such a match. Whether writing about cutting horses, hunting with horses, learning to rope, or the birth of a foal, McGuane's extraordinary talent shines.

Thomas McGuane is the author of ten books, among them several highly acclaimed novels including The Sporting Club, The Bushwhacked Piano, Ninety-two in the Shade, which was a finalist for the National Book Award, and Nothing But Blue Skies. His stories and essays have been selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories, The Best American Essays, and The Best American Sporting Essays. He lives on a ranch in Sweet Grass County, Montana, with his family.

San Franciso Chronicle

"Tom McGuane has produced some of America's most precise, vivid, and amusing prose."

About the Author, Thomas McGuane

Thomas McGuane lives in Sweet Grass County, Montana. He is the author of eight previous novels and a collection of stories, as well as two collections of essays.

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Editorials

From The Critics

"One of our sharpest, funniest, and most wide-ranging talents." - Boston Herald

Sally Eckhoff

His nine essays about riding and roping, most of them previously published, are commentaries on the human-animal contract. "If you think of animals as humanity and mankind as the lawyers, you get my picture," McGuane comments.
—New York Times Book Review

San Franciso Chronicle

"Tom McGuane has produced some of America's most precise, vivid, and amusing prose."

Library Journal

Horse lovers will enjoy this collection of essays written by a fellow horse enthusiast. Acclaimed novelist McGuane lives on a Montana ranch with horses and cattle and is a frequent competitor in cutting horse events. In these nine essays, he explores the relationship between horses and humans and introduces the reader to some venerable characters from each species. McGuane is most intrigued by the cutting horse, and several of his essays refer to this unique sport, which pits horse against cow and emphasizes the horse's athletic prowess. His vivid descriptions of the country, ranch life, and rodeo competitions make the reader feel like part of the scene. This book will appeal to horse people everywhere and leave them hungering for more. Recommended for equine collections.--Deborah Emerson, Monroe Community Coll. Lib., Rochester, NY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

School Library Journal

YA-Nine lyrical, informative, and often moving essays about the Western horse and associated traditions. McGuane's horses will seem real to those already familiar with these fascinating, quirky animals and the difficult work they perform. For readers who think horses are just old-fashioned motorcycles, or who are familiar only with eastern riding styles and traditions, this book can be a revelation. McGuane tells of camping in the mountains, working cattle, and experiencing the challenges of roping and cutting horse competitions. Illustrated with evocative drawings of horses and riders, these essays include studies of outstanding horses such as Chink's Benjibaby, a genius of a cutting horse who nearly missed his calling, and Roanie (McGuane's "one great horse"). Readers also see what life can be like for the people whose lives revolve around these horses. Teens can enjoy this book whether their interest has been sparked recently by Horse Whisperer; or they have a broader interest in Western history, life, and lore; or are interested in animals and their relationship to humans. Finely crafted personal essays about lives well lived.-Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library, VA Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Sally Eckhoff

His nine essays about riding and roping, most of them previously published, are commentaries on the human-animal contract. ''If you think of animals as humanity and mankind as the lawyers, you get my picture,'' McGuane comments.
The New York Times Book Review

San Francisco Chronicle

Tom McGuane has produced some of America's most precise, vivid, and amusing prose.

Kirkus Reviews

It is a small world, the one made up of cutting horses and their lovers, but novelist McGuane (Nothing But Blue Skies, 1992, etc.) invests it with such urgent purpose and unimagined beauty, even the most horse-shy will feel the pull of its attraction. McGuane lives on a ranch in Montana where horses have always been a part of the landscape. This small collection of eight essays speaks of those horses, the ones that he just kicked around with ("I am a wanderer in any case but I prefer inarticulate companionship"), others that shared with him candent moments hunting, where "man and horse and dog, birds and forest coalesce into something of duration." Mostly, though, what has caught McGuane's fancy, indeed, what has McGuane wrapped around its hoof, is the cutting horse—a horse trained to weed a single animal, a cow, say, out of a herd. He relates, in the clackity music of bright, spare, yet melodic prose, the horse's history, the mechanics of its work, how the better trainers handle them (there is a terrific chapter on McGuane's tutelage under the resolute and inspired hands of trainer Buster Welch). He appreciates the "eye-of-the-storm" style that marks the competent rider; the horse's alertness to space, shape, smell, and light; how a horse imposes its moods and ways on us; the unadorned pleasure of watching the best cutters doing what almost comes naturally. Then there is the suspect character of the horses; McGuane, perhaps out of envy, likes them on the wild side, full of "chaotic personal ideas." With more than a hint of pride he will say of a horse "the only safe place is on his back," then he can get wistful—like a besotted protective daddy—over the birth of a sorrelfilly in the corral of his high valley home. Horses have taken McGuane home off wild stormy mountains in more ways than one. This book is a payback, an inclusive horse-hug, a humble confession of love, a thing—like its subject—of spare beauty.