John Hockensmith

Gypsy Horses and the Travelers' Way is a coffee table style book with beautiful photographs but a lot of text as well. The primary purpose of the book is to explain the Gypsy fair, called Appleby Fair, held in Northern England on the first weekend in June. This gathering is centuries old. The Gypsies travel for days, weeks and some for months to attend the Fair. Many drive horse drawn "living wagons" and camp along the way. The Fair is an opportunity to show off their beloved horses and to buy and sell them. The current Gypsy horse, or cobb, is a breed developed over a period of 100 years. Gypsies don't maintain written records so the exact source of the breed isn't known. These are beautiful work horses. They are short, ranging from 12 to 15 hands and have very long manes, forelocks, and feathers along their legs. The bodies are wide and provide strength for pulling heavy loads.

There is a history of the Gypsies included but it is very brief, if you were looking for a comprehensive history this would not be it. The author's goal was to understand the Gypsy horse trade and the ways of the Gypsy people.

Hockensmith writes: The Gypsies and their horses spurred me to examine perceptions, challenged me to be a seeker and encouraged me to respect and celebrate life...… (más)

Hard to rate this one. The pictures are ravishing, the text not so much. Despite the book's assertion that the photographer/author was accepted into prominent families of Irish gypsies, there's a sense of arm's-length distance between reader and subject, which makes me doubt the real bond between photographer and people. And as a woman who loves horses, I find the almost total non-interaction between woman and horses in both text and pictures to be sad. There's one picture of a woman with a horse that stands out. Maybe that's the way it is in the life of the Travelers, but I don't know. Will be handing this one off to my riding teacher's kids.… (más)