You don’t need to own a horse or even care about horses to benefit from Barbra Schulte’s latest book, The Gift, A Treasury of Practical Mental Strategies to Empower Your Riding. But if you compete in the riding arena, The Gift is that rarest of all books about horsemanship – one that benefits riders of all disciplines and at every level of performance.

Compiled from six years of monthly articles that Schulte wrote for The Quarter Horse Journal, The Gift is a treasury of practical advice and a source of renewable energy. It’s a book to be read, tabbed, annotated, and read again. Although it will gather dust in a gear bag, when it is inevitably hauled from show to show, it will never gather dust on a bookshelf.

Written in a clear, straightforward style, The Gift is based on Schulte’s years of experience as an award-winning open competitor, as well as a clinician and motivational speaker. Although she is a cutting champion – the first woman to capture open titles in the NCHA Derby, the NCHA Super Stakes Classic and the Augusta Futurity – Schulte has also competed in western pleasure, reining and horsemanship.

In June 2000, Zane Schulte, 17, beloved son of Barbra and Tom, passed away after a year-long battle with bone cancer. Inspired by Zane’s courage, Barbra dedicated the book to him and named it for “the gift” of inspiration that Zane gave to her.

“The most wonderful thing about courage is that whoever lives it inspires others, who in turn extend their inspiration,” Barbra writes. “I share my most precious gift with you so that, both in and out of the arena, you might grow in courage and share it with others. It’s the gift that never stops giving.”