ALL DURING MY SCHOOL LIFE, and even before, I had wanted to know horses: how to tell a Thoroughbred from an Arabian, a Tennessee Walking Horse from an American Saddlebred, a Belgian from a Clydesdale, and on and on. I was equally curious to know in what country each was bred, and for what specific purpose.
There was only one way to find out, and that was to write a book! First came exciting study in libraries—borrowing books, ten at a clip, and poking around in the stacks for more. What a world I was getting into! But that only prodded me on.
After months of research, I was ready for action. With a bundle of notebooks and a camera, I charged across land and sea—from the Arabian Ranch in Pomona, California, to the Morgan Horse Farm in Vermont; from Thoroughbred and Standardbred stables in Kentucky to the Lipizzaner stud in Austria.
I dogged the footsteps of world-famous horsemen—like Colonel Alois Podhajsky of the Spanish Riding School and old Samuel Riddle, owner of the legendary Man o’ War. I met jockeys and horseshoers, cowpunchers and mule skinners, mounted policemen and circus trainers.
The days were never long enough. At night, by telephone and letter, I bombarded specialists in animal husbandry, genetics, and veterinary medicine.
Then one day I knew I had to start organizing the book, or the focus would be gone. At first everything worked out smoothly. The Percheron, Belgian, Clydesdale, and Shire all fitted into the section on draft horses; the Thoroughbred and Standardbred into the section on racehorses; the American Saddle Horse and Tennessee Walking Horse into the pleasure group. But what to do with the little Morgan? He could pull heavier logs than draft horses. He could draw a carriage with as much elegance as a Hackney. He ran faster than two famous Thoroughbreds. Here was a horse that demanded a book all his own.
When the Morgan book was finished, I turned once more to the ALBUM OF HORSES, but again I was interrupted, this time by the birth of Misty.
No less than five horse books nuzzled their way into being before the ALBUM was finally completed. But who knows? Perhaps it could never have been written without these intervening adventures.