How The Thinking Horse Breeder got its name

I fell in love with the title as soon as I heard it. Why did you call it The Thinking Horse Breeder?

Well, it— you know how things come to you in the middle of the night when you're just lying awake? Yeah. And that's what did. But in the meantime, I'd been thinking of several titles, and I had written a book called Horse Color Explained way back in the day before when there was only, um, Snail Mail. And, um, I— some people suggested I do Horse Breeding Explained, so that nearly became the title.

Thought Horse Breeding Explained, and— but you changed it to The Thinking Horse Breeder as a result of what?

Um, I suppose the inspiration that We want responsible breeding, whereas Horse Breeding Explained would've done the job. Um, I'm sure it would have, but I think, think it— Thinking Horse Breeder encapsulates the fact that it's broader than that. It's about ethical breeding and responsible breeding and really thinking about what you are doing. And so as a result of that, This book is quite unique. It's not like any other book on breeding horses out there.

Oh, look, I'm not a horse breeder. I'm not even a country person. You know, I'm probably the most urban creature, and you know, all my life I've been in books. But I love this book. You know, I had the, um, great pleasure of producing it and, you know, linking you with a, with a performer who could narrate the book. But I was entranced by the photos, and there were all sorts of elements that really appealed to me. Um, but if I'm—

sorry, if I'm— the photos was actually, um, pivotal for the book because I didn't just want to have beautiful photos. I did want to have beautiful photos because I wanted it to be able to be reread and be a bit of a coffee table type thing. But at the same time, I wanted them to really explain, you know, the picture is worth a thousand words, uh, what I was saying in the text. So it took me, I suppose, about as long to go through the photos and decide what were most appropriate as writing the book itself.

But they very much matched with the with what you're actually explaining. And I suppose this is where thinking comes in. They're very practical photos. They're not just pretty photos. They just happen to be exquisite.

Yes. Um, but well, that's me, you see. Um, I tend to be rather down to earth. Oh yeah, all horse people are.

Well, you would have to be. You're living in a very pragmatic world, but you know, for me in the fiction world, I'm thinking, oh my God, this information is so useful. I'm thinking any dystopia that happens, you know, we are going to have to go back to, you know, riding horses to get anywhere. And, you know, Jeanette, you're going to be like the queen of that. People will be coming to you wanting horses, wanting horse information. But I'm sure that's not the reason why you wrote it. You let me know, like, who is it that you're hoping will pick up this book?

Well, um, where certainly where I live, there are a lot of horse studs around the area. Um, but I want it to be anyone overseas or further afield simply because the problems facing horse breeders are not unique to Australia. Um, they're not unique to horse breeders really. Um, it's about how do you run a business too? How do you survive in a business that's actually going to take you 15 years to get anywhere? Yeah, and maybe even longer. And as far as I know, in Australia there's probably a handful of people that have made a go of it who are actually breeding horses alone that pay for themselves. Um, but almost every other breeder has to have some other source of income like adjustment and coaching and training and all these other things that go with it. Um, so I've outlined that all in the book. Um, and things that people make mistakes— another reason I put photos in the book was because I have a whole chapter devoted to taking photographs in the horse industry. And how that's pivotal to you being able to sell horses well and also getting the reputation that you want out there. And bad photos do more harm than good.

That— yeah, as you would know. Yes, very pragmatic. But you used the word ethical a few moments ago. Can you tell me a little bit about that element of it?

Well, there's so many things that go wrong because people are either ignorant, and I see that all the time, or actually, um, trying to get away with tricks, let's say. Um, and I don't know whether this is a trick or not a trick, but I recently heard of, um, a supposedly reputable breeder not so far away from me who sold a horse. They hadn't handled it. It was a, a weanling. And admittedly, there's a drought going on at the moment, but the youngster had poor nutrition. Um, it hadn't been handled. And then when the people got it, they found out its breeding was not as represented. And now there's a great big problem trying to find out what its real breeding is. Now, these are the kinds of things that Um, well, breed associations are tightening up a lot because they are requiring DNA testing and better identification and records. But there are a lot of people who say, oh, let's not breed, breed an association or registered horse because it costs us too much money. So let's just go down the other path and do it as cheap as possible. Mm. Now that's not ethical. It ends up getting a bit like the puppy breeders. Who decide to do it outside regulations, and that only makes more problems for pups and rescues and all these other areas that we know about.

When you said handled, you know, the young strait— yes, what did you mean by that? Hadn't been handled?

Well, the foal had not been touched by human hand. It may have had somebody lean over the fence and reach out to it, but it hadn't had the usual halter training and leading and being brushed and groomed or accustomed to human beings. So when it was weaned, it would have been run into a yard, and then somebody would have tried to handle it a couple of times in order to get it sold to this person. But when they got it they ended up requiring or needing to do all this handling themselves that the breeder should have done.

So you are dealing with a very wide range of topics in this one book. But I do know that you've written more than one book. Yes. Is this a— why did you start with, like, this is— the other books have been published, this one is the first one that you decided to produce as an in audio. And I would imagine that's because you know that it's going to reach a wide range of people that you want to reach. We're not going to sit down with a book, you know.

That's right, because, um, being horse people, they get out and they, um, feed their horses and they go ride their horses, and by the time they come in and, um, you know, they're whacked and they've probably got a day job in the meantime. Um, so really the, the time they've got is driving to work or driving to a horse event for Australia, that can be like 500 k's away, you know, a day trip before the event. So listening to an audiobook is ideal for them.

And so why did you decide with this one, with this book, to do—

well, I hadn't written a book since 1999. That was my Horse Color Explained book. But this was, funnily enough, a sudden idea just before Christmas that it's about time I wrote a book. I've got all these experiences, and they— the— my thoughts around it were quite unique. And within 2 weeks, I decided I was going to write this book. Um, so this was my first, and I guess a seminal work The other books have followed since. So this is also the book that I feel best lends itself to audio.

Great. Okay. Well, thanks, Jeanette. Well,