True Unity: Willing Communication Between Horse and Human [Hardcover]

Tom Dorrance (Author), Milly Hunt Porter (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1884995098 | ISBN-13: 978-1884995095 | Publication Date: June 1, 1994

Tom Dorrance has been referred to as the “horse’s lawyer.” Tom gives the horse credit for his knowledge of a horse’s feelings and problems. He says, “What I know about the horse I learned from the horse.” In True Unity, Tom shares his ideas to help achieve a true unity for human and horse.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 151 pages
• Publisher: Word Dancer Press (June 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884995098
• ISBN-13: 978-1884995095
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #595,548 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 5 STARS FOR CONTENT, MINUS 2 FOR EDITING=3 STARS, August 10, 2007

By 

D. McAllister "MRD" (Somewhere in the Field) - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Unity: Willing Communication Between Horse and Human (Hardcover)

Let's agree, first off, on one important thing: riding horses is not the same as riding motorcycles or four-wheelers. Many of the people I know who ride expect to get on a horse--any horse--and control it as they would a machine. Every horse the same. Every signal with the reins nothing more than steering with handle bars. Right?

Wrong! The essence of Dorrance's book, TRUE UNITY, is really quite simple: horses are individuals, complete with personalities as varied as their human counterparts and realizing this fact is the beginning of finding the unity that Dorrance espouses.

TRUE UNITY, like the process of achieving it with a horse, is not easy. It's easily one of the most complex books I have ever read. I found that I had to read and reread sections several times in order to get the gist of Dorrance's lessons. I had to act as if Dorrance was in the room with me, explaining his experiences and I had to listen as carefully as I could and "feel" his ideas. In the end, I found that the content was exceptional and the fact remains that dealing with horses is an exercise in shared feelings between two individuals--the rider and the horse.

Some have noted that this book doesn't follow enough of a lock-step process to handling horses. What they seem to have wanted was an owners manual for horses. Step 1: Find a horse. Step 2: Climb aboard. Step 3: Ride and ride and ride. Step 4: Put horse away. Again, Dorrance makes it clear that this book was never meant to be a set of steps to take with guaranteed results. Those who feel otherwise should stick to machines.

I have to take exception, though, with the editing. The job of an editor, being one myself, is to help communicate the meaning of the writer as concisely and as clearly as possible. Given this fact, Milly Hunt Porter, the editor here falls flat on her face and the readability problems with this book, such as they are, arise, in my opinion, from Ms. Porter's ineptitude as a communicator. It becomes readily apparent that Ms. Porter was nothing more in the process than a glorified secretary, taking down, verbatim, Dorrance's sometimes rambling reminiscences about handling horses. It's apparent that she didn't take time, as she should have, to ask clarifying questions and then communicate her findings to the reader. As my title indicates, I don't blame Dorrance; I blame Porter.

Handle this one with care. If you're expecting a well-written, flowing, easy read you will be sorely disappointed.

For me, now that Tom Dorrance is gone, I wanted, whether clear or not, to read his thoughts about getting into the heads of horses and, in the end, the read was well worth it.

THE HORSEMAN

38 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful book and one of the most valuable to study., March 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: True Unity: Willing Communication Between Horse and Human (Hardcover)

This is an incredible book that isn't easy to understand and it sure as heck isn't a recipe book. It is a book that you read, adsorb and one day a lightbulb will go off and you will understand what it was that Mr. Dorrance tried to relate. IT IS TRUELY A HORSEMAN'S BOOK. You may not understand it at first but it is absolutely worth the effort you put into it.

26 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Definitely for the Advanced Horseman!!, April 21, 2001

By 

"jeancody" (Southwest Iowa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: True Unity: Willing Communication Between Horse and Human (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful book written by an extremely skilled horseman. The book is hard to read at times because Mr. Dorrance tends to be kind of vague on his techniques. But then, I'm not really sure he had too many "techniques." He just understood horses like few have ever done.