Life with Horses Is Never Orderly: Cartoons for Riders Who Are in on the Joke

A hilarious comic treasury from the popular online equestrian series "The Idea of Order."

If there is one thing that equestrians have learned to do over time, it is laugh at themselves.

The horse world is a crazy, wonderful, ridiculous, awful, beautiful place, and horse people know it. We spend an inordinate amount of money on insanely fragile animals with a well-recognized ability to get hurt just enough to be out of work most of the time and eating and sleeping all of the time. We dress ourselves, and our horses, in silly outfits, obsess over diet, exercise, and footwear (for the horse), and invest in regular massages, chiropractic work, acupuncture sessions, and pedicures (again, for the horse).

Morgane Schmidt knows all about the madness that comes with the equine territory, having owned and competed horses in eventing and dressage for years. A lifelong fan of the classic equestrian cartoons penned by internationally renowned artist Norman Thelwell, she began her own comic series in 2011, sharing deftly funny reflections on life with horses with an avid online fanbase. Ten years later, her witty observations and fabulously rendered characters have been brought together in one immensely entertaining collection. Featuring both viral favorites and never-before-seen comics created exclusively for this book, Life with Horses Is Never Orderly offers endless laughs and on-point commentary about the equestrian world and those insane enough to fumble along within it, knowing full well absolutely nothing is within their control.

With plenty of evergreen humor that always applies, hot topics and seasonal hits, and cartoons inspired by current events in the "outside world" that some equestrians are willing to admit actually does exist, readers will find hundreds of reasons to feel good about all the bad decisions they've probably made because they "love horses," and a whole lot to laugh about

Morgane Schmidt is a native Floridian who has spent nearly a decade living in Reno, Nevada, where she has in fact confirmed her suspicion that snow is utterly worthless. She started her comic, "The Idea of Order," way back in 2011 while bored out of her mind in Clovis, New Mexico. The comic was inspired by the equestrian favorite "Thelwell" series and named as an allusion to Wallace Stevens' poem, "The Idea of Order at Key West." Given that horses are inherently entropy despite one's best efforts, the title seemed amusingly fitting.

Although Schmidt has run the gamut of equestrian disciplines--including a short stint as an eventer before she admitted to herself that she was a weenie--her favorite is dressage as it suits her masochistic, marginally OCD, perfectionist tendencies. To date she has completed her USDF bronze and silver medals and is currently working on her gold. Her life these days is largely ruled by Woody, a 14.2-hand snarky Quarter Horse; Willie, a charmingly cheeky KWPN gelding; Milona DG, a four-year-old-KWPN chestnut mare (you can make your own inferences there); and Bowie, a Great Dane with a personality as unwieldy as he is.