The Village Horse Doctor: West of the Pecos

By Ben K. Green

Book Overview

Ben K. Green takes us back to the deep Southwest and the never-a-dull-moment years he spent as a practicing horse doctor along the Pecos and the Rio Grande. With precious little formal schooling but a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0394429222
• ISBN13: 9780394429229
• Release Date: April 1971
• Publisher: Knopf
• Length: 306 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.7" x 1.1" x 5.9"

Customer Reviews

After reading Wild Cow Tales, I started adding more, and this has the story I remembered!

I've met and known a number of large animal DVMs (Doctors of Veterinary Medicine), who've agreed with me that medicines should be prescribed by weight rather than age. At any age, if I've needed anything (symptom relief so I can sleep to recover from an infrequent (one of the 5+ circulating coronaviruses) flu, or ibuprofen pain relief after surgery), half the dosage suits me fine. (After surgery, the surgeon and others take payment in their recovery. <G>) Ben Green's story that I remembered from years ago is in this book about his call to respond to a rancher's need, and a recently arrived M.D.'s response. Priceless! My last year of high school, Dad told us three boys to move a steer calf up to the barn corral so Doc Taylor could check him out in the working chute. On our way up the pasture, nearly to the corral, the calf bolted, went through the fence, and we tried to get him back through a gate next to his breakout. No joy, so we all went up to the kitchen and reported our disappointing news. Doc replied, in his 'slow 'n easy' way, "Well... if he's able to do that, he must not be very sick." Dad tried to get him out to the ranch once a year, but since he'd trained us in treating most of the livestock, his only ranch call would be to castrate a litter of pigs, while Dad watched, and I bent over in the farrowing crate to hold the boar piglets for Doc's quick work. We'd adjourn to the kitchen for coffee and a 'chin wag' to catch up on things.

Village Horse Doctor

I have read The Village Horse Doctor a couple of times since the early 1970's. It is among my favorite books. I've lent the book to old timers who grew up in OK and Texas during the depression have told me that The Village Horse Doctor is one of the best books about the west they've ever read. I lent the book to the veterinarians I worked for, they loved it. (No James Harriett in Fort Stockton!) I do not have the book handy to skim it to refresh my memory and evaluate how much Dr. Green may be pulling our leg. After reading the book the first time, it made perfect sense to me why Mr. Green would retire all the way across Texas after publishing The Village Horse Doctor. Perhaps some of the stories are exagerated. But, the point of the loco weed story is NOT what he detected in the lab. It's his observations in the field. As far as the loco weed goes, the lab and the pills were a deception so that he'd recover for his time spent on the field work. Like O Henry, the sense of humor often involves a bit of chicanery. (For example, O. Henry's The Gentle Grafter). I would rate this book higher than Wild Horse Tails although it is also a fine book.