New Book Coming Soon!

Maddy Butcher

After years of helping readers understand the complicated processes that unfold between your horses’ ears, Maddy Butcher is coming out with a book. Look for HorseHead: Brain Science & Other Insights in coming months. Dr. Steve Peters contributes.

Butcher is founder and publisher of Cayuse Communications, director of the Best Horse Practices Summit, and helped develop the manuscript for Evidence-Based Horsemanship, by Dr. Steve Peters and Martin Black.

She writes:

You’re probably familiar with that filmmaking technique, in which a director starts with an intimate focus before zooming out to a panorama. Or the opposite, in which we’re shown a big, blue universe before honing in on a minute detail.

The filmmaker is saying, “See the big picture and the small one. They are both vital to this story.”

That’s my strategy with HorseHead. This book will feature hard science, research reviews, essays, and tongue-in-cheek musings. It’s an intentional blend of subject matter and treatments.

Some dig into the cellular level for an appreciation of biochemical processes. Some pan out to a more existential layer, because—at 4:00 a.m., when you are hauling water or treating an abscess before heading to work, or at 4:00 p.m., when you are walking two miles home after coming off your horse and learning she had more herd allegiance than rider connection, or, after twilight, when you and your mare are staying out late, and you drop the reins, close your eyes, and let her take you home—who doesn’t search for meaning in our horse-human existence?

Think of HorseHead as a pack, full of essential, thoughtful provisions for your life-long journey with these insightful, powerful four-legged partners. HorseHead expands on our lives with horses, from the tight focus of neuroscience to the panorama of lengthy, indelible relationships. It’s a blend of science, sense, and sentiment with educational know-how, practical bits, and reflections that I hope you will enjoy.

Photo by Beau Gaughran

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5 Comments

  1. This is long (hoped for) waited for,…. science based information dispelling the long standing myth that a horse’s brain is no larger than a walnut (what many of us learned (and taught) in pony club not so many years ago!! Thank-you, Thank-you! And Thank-you for all of the work that you do that helps shape thoughtful care and work with horses!

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