Christmas Quiz: Count the Health and Safety Violations!

Dear readers, Merry Christmas to you all! Here’s my If Wishes Were Horses festive quiz: count the health and safety horrors committed by “Little Miss Fearless” in this short Pathé video from 1933 1923*. I’ve spent most of 2015 slogging away to finish book two, The Age of the Horse, which will be out at …

Another Happy Ending After Amersham

I wrote about Redwings Horse Sanctuary and the Amersham case in If Wishes Were Horses. Spindles Farm in Amersham was a horror show: dozens of horses in a state of starvation and neglect that was hard to comprehend. Redwings were instrumental in coordinating the rescue, and are still caring for many of the horses. Here’s …

Non-Horsey Men Read and Enjoy Book About Horses

(and he’s not the only one!) Reader’s Digest: ‘For any woman who once shared Forrest’s obsession, the result with be thought-provoking nostalgia; for everybody else, If Wishes Were Horses is a fascinating, beautifully written social history – and one of those books that makes you suddenly interested in a subject you may never have thought …

One Elderly Lady and One Nearly Middle-Aged Lady in the Havelland (with apologies to Penelope Chetwode)

Today I had a long overdue ride at Sabine Zuckmantel’s Wanderreiten im Havelland, the stable that features in the last chapter of If Wishes Were Horses. Half the horses were away (along with Sabine) on a ride in Poland, so we were a small group, and I was assigned the yard’s Queen Mother, Etincelle. Etincelle …

If Wishes Were Horses

Guardian (Lucy Cavendish): ‘Susanna Forrest describes her ongoing fascination with horses with such clarity, such a feel for how horses can affect your life, that she took me right back to a childhood of Thelwell and Follyfoot. … Hers is a richly evocative book, describing the smells, the sounds, “the clanking of the fork on …

Horses in the Museum

Yay! The British Museum are going to have live horses in the forecourt this Saturday to celebrate their The Horse from Ancient Arabia to Royal Ascot exhibit. I felt pretty iffy about the exhibit for various reasons (detailed here – it’s a wee bit incoherent, inaccurate and slanted), but the Horse Power day sounds like …

If Wishes Were Horses on the Road

I’m going to be giving a talk at the Telegraph‘s Way with Words Festival at beautiful Dartington Hall on Sunday, 8th of July before trotting over to Tetbury for the Yellow Lighted Bookshop’s extravaganza on the 9th July. Do come and bring your imaginary horses!

If Wishes Were Horses on the TeeVee

If you’re in the UK you can see me on Countryfile on BBC1 at 18.30 today. I’m talking about sidesaddle and the Mrs Power O’Donoghues of the world! Roger Philpot, the don of British sidesaddle, plays host and master saddler Laura Dempsey shows presenter Ellie Harrison around a leaping head.