The director of the riding program at Sweet Briar College for more than 30 years, Cronin is a well-known and highly respected trainer and riding instructor. Here he presents a clear and practical guide to getting the most out of a horse in a humane and sensitive way.

Out of print for more than 20 years, this classic book on equitation introduces and explains the art of riding. Updated with all new color photography of contemporary riders and horses, it includes details on training the rider, schooling the horse, cross-country riding, dressage exercises, and jumping techniques. It expertly provides a wealth of practical knowledge and experience and concisely lays down rules and guidelines that are as applicable today as when the book was written more than 70 years ago. Beginners and experts alike will find the instructions easy to follow and will benefit from the essential theoretical background provided here but so often overlooked in modern riding.

First published in 1959, The Way to Perfect Horsemanship was immediately recognized as a classic work of equestrian literature. It offers insight into the psychology of the horse as well as its muscular system and the mechanics of movement. It explains in detail the basic principles of training, the fundamentals of riding, and the effect of training aids. Everyone, from trainers to occasional riders, will benefit from this book.

Covers training basics, hunter seat equitation, selecting, riding, and showing hunters and jumpers.

"[This book] .. covers all areas from 'nursery school' to more advanced work, competition riding and problem solving. the rider's initial role is to establish his own posture and balance and to learn to communicate with the horse through body language and position, using the language of touch initially to educate and then to support. There is an explanation of the horse's biomechanics - how it carries and uses itself so that the rider an understand how to improve his horse's self-carriage and also to recognize his horse's strengths and weaknesses"-- Book jacket.

"In my opinion, Harry Chamberlin is the founding father of equestrian sport in the United States. He has had a tremendous influence on the sport over the last sixty years, especially in riding methodology in show jumping." - George H. Morris "Using direct, simple language, General Harry Chamberlin presents an account of riding and training horses for the show ring and for hunting which the rawest novice can understand and which the most experienced horseman will ponder. His discussion of the seat, hands, jumping, application of the aids, and fundamental riding precepts, should be read and reread many times. The Chamberlin seat, an eclectic evolution of broad experience, is set forth with unanswerable common sense and logic." - John Cudahy "It takes a certain amount of genius, not just to see what others have seen, but to say things others have never said. Writing in clear, understandable prose, Chamberlin lays out his system, a system still in use nearly a century later. Not only could Chamberlin, a genius in the saddle, make it work, but his students and their students made it work. He was the leading light of the military horse world for three decades, and his influence continues to the present day. With his writings and teachings, Chamberlin satisfies one of the most sacred duties of a horseman: He produces a system of riding and training that truly preserves "the tranquility of the horse." -James Wofford Warren Matha introduces this new edition by Xenophon Press.