Sonrise Stable Books~History on Horseback

Jenny/ April 8, 2020/ Homeschool Reviews

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor compensated in any other way.

If you read my posts you know we LOVE doing history product reviews so when we were given the opportunity to review Sonrise Stable Books and their History on Horseback: the Early Years I was super excited! To combine History and Horses, how super AWESOME is that? We were given the first volume and I gotta tell you, we are loving it!

First off, I love how they set this book up! Its divided into short chapters, so its not a complete history program yet, but will be when they finish. Each chapter tells about a different historical time or event but it goes beyond that and tells about the horse’s history during that time period too. It also tells the specific breeds and any famous horses that are know from then.

How we used History on Horseback…

I read these aloud to my children each morning as part of their history program. They really enjoyed learning about the different horses and we learned (are learning) so much we had never even heard of. We started in the year 1493 and are currently at 1789 and learning about the Morgan horse breed. We would have been further but unfortunately our whole family got the flu a few weeks ago😰.

Anyway, we have already learned about the arrival in America, The Weather God, Thoroughbred Family Tree, Arriving with Bells On, Delivering the Good News, Eclipsing the Competition, Sounding the Alarm, Fighting for Independence, Independence or Slavery, and First in the Heart of His Mules.

In that we learned about first explorers to the new world, such as Columbus and Cortez and the beginning of the Thoroughbred breed.    Then we learned about the Conestoga wagons and their history along with the Conestoga horse breed.

Next we read on the circuit preachers and the horses role in delivering the Word of God to remote communities.  After studying the great racehorse Eclipse we went to the Ride of Paul Revere and learned the real story behind that!  Then we went through the Revolutionary War with George Washington and then on to Thomas Jefferson and the 2nd and 3rd presidents.  I absolutely loved how Jefferson believed that a President should provide his own horses, horsefeed and carriage and not put that burden on the government.

We all really enjoyed how this book told us history from such a unique perspective. To my knowledge I have never seen another history book that does this! So if you have a child who loves horses I’m betting they will love this history resource even if they aren’t a history buff! I’m super excited about continuing this series when their second volume comes out! They are also planning on a study guide to expand this further.

Don’t forget to read what our other reviewers thought at the link below!