Girl's best friend

What is it with little girls and horses? Imagine my surprise when my daughter, whose sole experience with horses are the ones pulling sodden tourists around in the summer, added a request for "a real hors" to her Christmas list for Santa. (She's already begun building a stable).
So if you have a little girl in your life, you might consider bringing home Horse Breeds: 65 popular horse, pony & draft horse breeds by Daniel and Samantha Johnson. It's a compact little book filled with gorgeous pictures of horses jumping, galloping, pulling carts, playing polo, racing and grazing. This book is also a really nice introduction to different types of horses popular today, with descriptions of their best attributes. The authors discuss temperament, strength, breeding history, and physical characteristics, giving the reader a nice overview. Thumbing through the book, I was drawn to the dark Percheron horses:

"Its movement is also influenced by its Arabian heritage, as the Percheron
exhibits a longer stride than many of the other draft breeds. Percherons
have historically been used for farm work, as war horses, and as driving
animals. The Percheron originated in France and is named for the Le Perche
region."

So if you're picking out a horse to leave under your daughter's Christmas tree this year, take a gander at this lovely book. Or better yet, bring it home for her to read.