HOOFS IN THE DISTANCE

The sportsman is a book buyer-in his own field. This can run into big money if you study your customers and bring certain types of books in limited editions, to their attention. This- and the next book following- belong in that category... Hoofs in the Distance is definitely ""caviare to the general"" -- dated, in a ""glitter and the gold"" sort of way. The author humorously quotes what she says will be her obituary: ""The Gibson Girl of Madison Square"" at the close of her ""confessions"" as an ex M.F.H. This is a story of a child who was horse crazy; who was determined to learn to ride, to have her own mount, to put riding to hounds at the head of her educational requirements. She went the gamut of requirements for a young lady of fashion in little old New York: the Froebel League kindergarten, Chapin, Spence- but when graduation came she was hunting in Ireland. She preferred the Riding Club and Central Park to ballrooms. She drove anything, rode anything, took her spills, and won an international reputation as a shower in the ring. Her story encompasses the range of smart horsemen and women on both sides of the Atlantic. Here's a nostalgic backward look at days that are no more.