Oopsie

Nobody would know or even care, but TODAY is actually Balloon Day. I got my days mixed up.  AND I've looked high and low, and I just can't figure out where I put that 24-year-old balloon.

While searching for the balloon, I found some interesting books from my childhood, that I haven't seen since we moved here 24 years ago. I've been sorting and boxing up books that are scattered about the house today. Boxes are labeled My Library (books I've read and want to keep), TBR, and Giveaway (I'll probably drop them off at the Goodwill store). Some of these books I haven't even seen for about 20 years! 

And then I came across a stack of booklets I bought when I was a kid. I must have been about 12, because that's when an older teenage friend of the family got drafted and sent to Vietnam. Before he left, he gave his old horse to me and my sister. Big mistake! Queenie had been rode hard by a teenage boy who knew how to handle her. For two little girls with almost no riding experience, she was downright mean and dangerous. :o( A real disappointment!
 

To learn more about horses, we answered an ad we'd read in Western Horseman magazine for a course in Horse Training from the Beery School of Horsemanship, of Pleasant Hill, Ohio. When they sent back info, the course cost a lot of money --- something like $25, if my memory serves me well (which it usually doesn't), a lot of money for two kids in the '60s who only made $1 an hour babysitting and $1 a week allowance.

We had to really badger our mom to loan us the money, but we did get the booklets. Along with the basic horse training set, they included three other sets of booklets: Saddle Horse Instructions (about English-style riding), How to Ride and Train the Western Horse, and Home Course in Animal Breeding. I really loved these booklets and learned alot about riding from them. Oh, and the course in animal breeding was my introduction to the topic of sex, with its crudely drawn pictures of the reproductive organs of horses, cows and pigs and it's descriptions of animals breeding, with forbidden words like vag*** and pen** (we CAN say those words now, right?) LOL! 

Professor Jesse Beery (1861-1945)  was a true pioneer in the field of horse training.  For 16 years he toured the country, demonstrating his training skills at county fairs and expositions. Then in 1905, when he realized he was becoming overwhelmed with demands for his performances, he went back home to Pleasant Hill, Ohio and began a very successful mail-order course in horsemanship.

His first edition of the booklets came out around 1908-1909, with reprintings in the 1940s, 1960s (mine), and 1970s. I searched on-line and discovered that these books are indeed rare and collectible.  The 8 book basic  set I have is selling for $125 in excellent condition.  The Saddle Horse set is worth $65 and the breeding course is $50. The complete 30 book set  is worth $300 in excellent condition. Mine is in very good, used condition with a few stains, and two books missing from the Western set. But I found out I can sell the ones I do have, individually, for from $10-$25 each.


It's really good to find this "blast from the past." Now I need to decide if I want to sell them or not…