Lucy Rees

Welsh author. Born in 1943. Ms. Rees is highly educated, having studied zoology and neuro-physiology to post-graduate level. After studying she went to live in Snowdonia to farm and break Welsh ponies which led in turn to her equine-centred writing and training career. She is also very widely travelled.

Lucy Rees is probably best known for her non-fictional works about horses which take a lateral look at the subject, focusing on the relationship between horse and human and the mind of the horse itself. Her book
The Horse's Mind probably best illustrates this approach. The book was the result of Ms. Rees extensive travels throughout the world observing different cultures' approaches to horse training combined with her scientific background and studies of equine ethology. It has become a landmark work of its kind and is studied in many horse care and horse behaviour courses. The author has also become quite famous as a horse behaviourist and trainer. She uses a natural approach, similar to that of Monty Roberts, working with a horse's natural instincts rather than against them. She gives demonstrations of her training techniques.

As well as her books on horse care and riding she wrote two unusual pony stories which explore the issues of growing up in conjunction with the usual horse and girl relationship. She also wrote an account of her own fascinating journey on horseback through Arizona.

If you speak the language there is an excellent Spanish website devoted to Ms. Rees. If you don't however, I have summarised some of the main points from the website in this introduction.

Horse & Pony Books:

WILD PONY
(FABER 1975)
Republished in paperback by Puffin in 1978.
EDITIONS PICTURED: 1st edition, Puffin paperback.
SUMMARY: Set in Wales. Fifteen year old Pippa longs for a pony but money is short. She gets a job at a trekking centre and eventually her dreams come true and she can buy her own pony. But the pony is wild and needs breaking in. Can she do it?
PONYMAD RATING: 4 HORSESHOES
Join in with a discussion of the book with the chat forum reading group

HORSE OF AIR
(FABER 1980)
As far as I know not reprinted in the UK.
American edition published by Methuen in 1980.
EDITION PICTURED: 1st edition.
SUMMARY: A troubled teenage girl finds herself drawn to a temperamental Welsh Cob.

Collectors Info:
Horse of Air is reasonably easy to find in the UK and USA, with both British and American editions available.  Wild Pony is a little rarer but fairly easy to find in the UK, especially the paperback edition. However price varies a huge amount so shop around before buying. Wild Pony was not published in the USA and is hard to find there.

Books about the Author:

THE MAZE: THROUGH HELL TO HOPI
Aka THE MAZE: A DESERT JOURNEY (USA edition)
(BANTAM 1995)
Reprinted in paperback by Black Swan
Published in hardback in the USA under slightly different title.
Reprinted in paperback in the USA by University of Arizona Press.
EDITIONS PICTURED: UK Paperback edition, USA hardback & paperback editions.
SUMMARY: Non fiction account of the author's journey on horseback through the deserts of Arizona searching for a stone carving similar to one in Tintagel, Cornwall.

Collectors Info:
This is fairly easy to find in both the UK and USA.