This is the most comprehensive horse care book I own. I just love this new updated version. I also owned the 1985 edition and this new one has not only updated information, but more information. I highly recommend it to any horse owner or anyone interested in owning a horse (especially good for a first horse owner or lessee).

If there was an introductory level class for horse owners, The Whole Horse Catalog would be the perfect accompanying textbook. The book surveys all aspects of horse ownership from selecting the horse, stabling the horse, what to feed it, horse health, and so on. It is excellent in explaining horse terms, tack, apparel and events. It describes what all those products you see in the tack store are for. There are lots of diagrams and sidebar-type articles. The coverage is comprehensive. For example, the book even shows and explains the different types of snaps! Other examples: it lists all of the contact information for veterinary colleges. It tells you how to make a muckheap. It shows you different styles of creases on cowboy hats. It explains what TTeam is. It charts the advantages and disadvantages of different material for fences. It tells how to best photograph yor horse. You get the idea? It's like a concise encyclopedia on horses and horse-y things. This book will tell you everything about the horse world you should know, but don't know enough to know to ask.

I have an older version of the book. It was the single most helpful source of questions I had after acquiring my first horse many years ago. I would recommend it to anyone who is even thinking of acquiring a horse.

Barbara Burn's The Horseless Rider provides a guide to riding, showing and enjoying other people's horses. From analyzing a stable's qualities to taking different approaches with different horses, this is packed with invaluable, practical ideas.

This book nourished me through many dark days of horselessness, and helped me even see it as an advantage. This is an outstanding book for new riders who want to know how far they can go without the committment of becoming an owner (as far as you want!), or for those who already know they want it all but do not have the resources to have a horse of their own.

This is a great book for the beginning aquarist as well as the knowledgeable. All of the advice has been gained the hard way, by doing it. Alice Burkhart writes in an easy to read, practical manner that covers all of the information a beginner NEEDS to know. I recently started a new 44 gallon tank following the directions given, and have not lost a single fish! This book will pay for itself from the get-go. If you prevent the death of even one Discus for instance, you have paid for the book! I cannot recommend this book too much, I just wish it had been available 20 years ago when I quit the aquarium hobby out of frustration over dead fish.

This book will answer all the questions for anyone who is new to fish keeping.Its easy to read and explains things like water chemistry in a way that is clearly understandable to everyone.It tells you what you need and how to set up an aquarium and in doing so will make keeping fish an interesting and enjoyable experience. I cannot reccommend it too highly,its a must for every budding aquarist.I doubt I would have needed to buy the many other books I have read if I had found this one first.

I am using this text for a graduate level class I am teaching about reading in the content area. It seems to be a very large overview of all of the issues facing secondary content area teachers.

Not your typical guide to trees, this book goes beyond identification to list the physical properties of the trees native to N. America, their ecology, and economic uses. For the forester, ecologist, or even the nature buff, these are excellent volumes for learning hard-to-find information on native conifers and hardwoods.

As someone who works and lives with "exotic" animals, I found this book to be full of misinformation, both on anatomical and temperment. I have personal experience with a number of species she has listed, some of her "facts" are totally unfounded. Perhaps if you only see these animals in a zoo situation, they may be as troublesome as she contends. However, this is supposed to be about PETS. No, exotics are not for everyone. Yes, you do have to rearrange your life around them. The same holds true about any pet. Several of my friends also read this book, we all felt it was unfairly biased. The hidden agenda seems to be, anything unusual belongs in the wild or a zoo. We share our homes and lives with several "impossible pets", amazing how we seem to be surviving and loving it. The title is totally misleading. It is not a guide, but a tirade.

I enjoyed this informative book with interesting facts on how to care for a tropical fish to a hedgehog to a iguana. However, I was worried about a things that were untrue in her book. She listed that iguana has teeth. I have a four-foot long iguana, but it doesn't have teeth! But in any form, this is an excellent book to read and remember.

This book is the most comprehensive guide to animal care and selection that I have ever seen. It lists pets by category: Easy, Difficult and Impossible, and goes to the trouble of explaining why some animals (listed in the "Impossible" section) just do not make good pets for the average person. There is also a lot of information on the basic care of the species and covers, in all, somewhere around 84 species. Recommended reading for anyone who loves animals.