Dressage

"The French term 'dressage' means, literally, 'schooling'. In equestrian literature it refers to the schooling (or training) of the riding horse through a gradual, progressive series of exercises aimed at developing the athleticism, balance and obedience of the horse so that he will become his rider's willing and able partner in any sport or activity his rider chooses."

Collective Marks

by Nancy Feldman

This is a novel about the coming of age of a young man on the edge of delinquency and his struggle with a gifted but uncompromising horse trainer. It is set in northern New England in the 1960s, a time when dressage as an equestrian discipline was relatively new to the United States and little understood.

Nancy Feldman has actively ridden and trained horses all her life. She has been a licensed social worker in a rural Mental Health Clinic, a Registered Dressage Judge, and the District Commissioner of two member clubs of the United States Pony Clubs, of which she is a life member. She and her husband have three grown children. They are semi-retired and live in Maryland, where they share their home with a dog and several horses.

Of Collective Marks the author says, "I never aspired to write a novel, although I've been an avid reader since childhood, and I wrote a great deal of non-fiction both in school and at work. In college we studied literary criticism exclusively, and no courses were offered in creative writing. In fact, I never took a writing course or workshop until after I had finished the novel!

"It was only after my children had graduated from college and moved away that I began to think of writing this story. Much of it was conceived and written in my mind during the hours I spent on horseback and in the barn. I began to ruminate on human and animal behavior and the ways in which they communicated with their own kind and with each other. I decided to write it as a test, to see if I could write a novel I would like to have read that gave a true picture of both the hard work and the joys and sorrows of living with and around horses. I used only my own experience and my imagination as a guide, and until it was finished, not even my husband knew I was w