Customer Reviews

The Anatomy of the Horse: A Pictorial Approach

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As an Equine Massage therapist I use this book exclusively. The illustations are clear and is a great resource for my clients. I have owned this book for years and consistantly refer to it.

This book breaks down the vast amount of information related to equine anatomy. Each part is taken in sections and clearly labelled. Both the appendicular and axial skeletons are examined. Great for experienced and beginners alike!

My first (and lasting)impression was - oh , how disappointing. Although the book does indeed provide many, many drawings of anatomy and detailed views of important tendons and ligaments I found some of the work a little amateurish in that the overall shape of the horse was sometimes lost, so that it took several attempts to work out how the picture you were looking at actually fitted in to the horse's anatomy.

In addition there is often no good way to 'drill down' upon a specific area of the body - for instance in the section on the hindquarters you cannot view one page which shows you a superficial view of the top layer of muscles - then view the next layer down - then the skeleton etc so that you get a visual picture of how the horse is put together. Because the artist often loses detail and perspective or proportion at the same time it is often hard to tell what exactly you are looking at. The drawings of small areas are most helpful - drawings of joints (such a a hock or pastern) on their own are generally very clear and detailed - but once they go to an overall drawing of the shoulder or entire horse the lack of proportion and detail is extremely distracting.

For a better look at skeletons or musculature there are a number of excellent books that I would rather recommend - including 'THe Art anatomy of Animals' by Ernest Thomson or even "Equine Massage : A Practical Guide -- by Jean-Pierre" which not only gives great anatomical guides but will teach you massage at the same time :)