Maybe I should change "seventeen-hand hunters" to just "tall hunters" or somesuch. Other than that, I'm happy to say I think I've successfully avoided all of those horse pet peeves. For example, I'm so sick of heroes on big black stallions that no one else can control that I deliberately gave James a 14.2- or 15-hand gray mare that, although fleetfooted and spirited, is good-natured, promiscuous in begging for carrots and sugar lumps, and could be managed by any experienced rider.

Everything I came to love about Arabians I learned first in King of the Wind, where a good horse measured equally from withers to nose, and withers to tail.

My favorite book as a child, that was.

I think mine was probably Twenty Gallant Horses, or Thoroughbred Breeding and Nicking Patterns.

I was (more than I am now), extremely pedantic on the subject of equines, read far more fact than fiction or fictionalized accounts, and would on occasion get into knock-down drag-out brawls as a result.

Hmm. Went to Amazon to look for Tweny Gallant Horses. Three used copies, all ex-library. The "good" copy is $78. The "very good," $177.

Beverly, go bid on this.

[link]

Also, check out [link] which has a copy for as low (!) as $40.00.

Never, ever use Amazon as your sole source for a used book.

No, Betsy is smart about this.(And of course, bunches of other things, too.)

Thanks, Betsy! I have it marked and I'm "watching" it. We'll see how the bidding goes.

I never use Amazon as the only resource. But it's useful for getting a ballpark price, an ISBN, and if I'm lucky, a synopsis and some reader feedback. I should probably be ashamed of how I use Amazon's resources cavalierly, and then so seldom purchase from them.

But Amazon's "ballpark price" is really, really high. You'd be better off using Half's ballpark price.

Yeah. Much more reasonable.

Half is my second stop, then ABE and alibris, then powells. Then ebay. By then I've figured out if it's the one I read when I was eleven or just the one I could never find, and do I reeeeeally want it enough to give it sparse shelf space. If so, and if I can find it at ebay I mark it and sit on it till 3 minutes before the end of the auction, and then I post my max bid and cross my fingers.

I'm a cheap old biddy when I'm buying. But when it's imaginary money I'm proflilgate.