Whip and Spur

George Edwin Waring, Jr.Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.5

Word count: 247K words
Chapters: 25

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Whip and Spur by George E. WaringAuthor: Waring, George E. (George Edwin), 1833-1898,Language: English, Class: SF: Agriculture: Animal culture, Release Date: Dec 24, 2013

Editor's review

Whip and Spur is an essayistic work by George E. Waring on horses and riding, classified under agriculture and animal culture. Drawing on firsthand experience, the author discusses horse training, riding technique, and daily management, in a style that carries the practical air and personal observation of nineteenth-century English and American equestrian writing. Its value lies not in the completeness of a systematic textbook but in its vivid details of human-horse relations, rural life, and the use of horses at the time, offering both historical material and reading pleasure for students of equestrian history, animal culture history, and agricultural history. The experiential judgments in the book should be examined in light of modern animal welfare and veterinary knowledge. It is suitable as equestrian cultural essays or historical background reading, not as a modern operations manual.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in equestrian history and the history of animal culture
Readers who enjoy nineteenth-century essays on rural life
Those researching the history of agriculture and animal power use
English-reading enthusiasts curious about horses

Not a good fit for

Beginners looking for a modern standard equestrian training textbook
Readers seeking systematic veterinary or horse care knowledge
Readers sensitive to old-fashioned training ideas and unwilling to distinguish period differences

Reading tips

Read it as a collection of essays in sections; there is no need to plow through chapter by chapter
Distinguish historical experience from contemporary animal welfare standards while reading, and make brief notes
Look up equestrian terms in notes or reference works first, then reread the relevant passages
Compare with modern introductory equestrian books to appreciate changes in training ideas

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Can this book be used as a modern equestrian textbook?

It should not be used directly as a modern textbook. It reflects nineteenth-century horse training and riding experience, and some practices and ideas no longer meet contemporary animal welfare and veterinary standards. It is better read as history, to understand equestrian practice and human-horse relations of the time.

Can someone with no equestrian background read this book?

Yes, but it takes some patience. The book involves tack, training, and riding terminology, and readers without a foundation may stumble. It is advisable to learn basic equestrian vocabulary first, or choose an annotated edition, and read it as essays rather than a tutorial.

What is the style of the book?

It is closer to essays and personal experience than to a tightly structured textbook. The author organizes the content around personal observations and firsthand stories, in a tone colored by its era. Readers can dip into sections as interest dictates, without insisting on a systematic order.

Comments

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About the author

George Edwin Waring, Jr. Author · American · 1833–1898

George Edwin Waring, Jr. (1833–1898) was an American sanitary engineer and agricultural writer. He began his career as a drainage engineer for New York's Central Park and served in the Civil War; he later designed the sewer system of Memphis and became Commissioner of Street Cleaning in New York City, and in 1898 he was commissioned to improve sanitary conditions in Havana. His writings span agricultural technique and public health: Draining for Profit, and Draining for Health discusses farm drainage alongside health concerns, Village Improvements and Farm Villages addresses the improvement of rural living conditions, and The Elements of Agriculture sets out the fundamentals of the subject. Four of his works are held in the collection, and public information is limited; his books deal with practical matters in a plain style and helped advance sanitary and agricultural reform in the nineteenth-century United States.