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This is the future in riding and having a horse as a full partner with you. If you are a serious rider, I highly recommend this book.

People send me books they've written, and I provide feedback. Canadian rider Chris Adderson sent me her book, Going Beyond. I struggled with it because it felt like a very personal book that my male perspective found difficult to digest, me being a tough polo playing guy. What kept me reading it was her focused effort to help readers to "go beyond".

Chris wants more riders to go beyond the physical biomechanics of it all to a higher level of "feel". We agree on the value of unity of balance and movement with a horse. It's what riding is all about, sharing one shared balance together with a horse in motion. The book goes further and asks the question, "What happens to the rest of your being when you achieve physical unity when riding?"  She describes something more than an intimate physical connection that comes with achieving unity.

I have experienced a connection with horses beyond the physical. Some might call this a feeling of spiritual awakening. My uncomfortable feeling of not wanting to talk about going there was at first an obstacle for me. But yes, there are moments when sharing balance with a horse in motion that changes your consciousness, which for me is difficult to describe however precious those moments are. 

In describing these feelings Chris sometimes uses unfamiliar words. For example, she uses the word "hum" to describe the experience of unity beyond the physical. I know what she means. I might call it "awakening" if I were to describe it, but men don't talk about that much.

Chris' book, Going Beyond, might be a woman's book for a woman's horse world.  I think the discussion the book initiates, needs to be had.  I say this because today's horse world has become so commercial and superficial with any horses becoming personal accessories like a luxury car or a yacht. So many people today are missing the best part of a horse, the total experience Chris describes.

This book arrives at a pivotal moment in equestrian culture, as more of us seek relationships with our horses based on mutual respect rather than domination. Chris's contribution to this evolution is significant and timely.

Whether you're new to horsemanship or have spent decades in the saddle, Going Beyond offers fresh insights that will enrich your understanding and deepen your connection not only with horses but with the natural world around you.

––Peggy Cummings Founder of Connected Riding

Sharing a friendship with a horse based on a gentle language of movement, feel, and timing is an enormous privilege and treasure.

In her book, 'Going Beyond', Chris Adderson shares a number of stories, and concepts to help people consider different ways of approaching life with horses, to find ways to live this magic in their relationships with horses.

Thank you for writing this book. I love a book that invites me to keep going back and reading it again and again.

There is so much in this book!

Hi Chris. I enjoyed reading your book! It is a reminder of what was for me before the passing of my beloved Andalusian mare Carmina. She passed when she was 25 a few years back and even though I knew it would happen one day her passing left me overwhelmed and shattered.

I fell into an abyss for what it felt the longest time until Inquieta my second Andalusian mare came into my life. My son in Texas started her under saddle and my daughter took over when she arrived at our farm.

In Buddhism we always believe that when the student is ready the master shows up! Your book did just that and came at the right time as I start a new journey with Inquieta … it is with it in mind that I partnered with her this weekend for the first time in months. I thank you profoundly for it.

I hope many enjoy reading Going Beyond, as I did!

"Your book just arrived in the mail today!
I love it and I can't put it down.❤️"

This book grabbed a hold of my heart as well as my head, and since it was offered by a kindred spirit, I both feel and know we are getting closer to what we call a partnership with the animals. Chris has put words together in a way that invites the best results--I'm betting that even young readers will devour it as I did and look up with a knowing grin.

If that sounds intriguing, buy this book. If it doesn't, buy this book for your kids or a young horse lover, because we simply have to get these kinds of animal translations out to the world.

"Going Beyond" shows us how we can dance, how we must play, and open all our senses. Here, we meet each other and the animals from a cleaner source, where we all heal for real.

"This isn't a book about horse-riding technique or step-by-step training—it’s about reclaiming the quiet wisdom of the body, dissolving the borders between control and compassion, and learning to feel deeply enough that movement becomes meaning. In an era where prominent voices like Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk have openly questioned the value of empathy—calling it a distraction or even a threat to Western civilization—Chris offers a vital counterpoint: that empathy isn't a weakness, but the highest form of intelligence. A sacred strength. A language older than speech."

This book is a beautiful invitation. It calls to a depth few speak of in the horse world, of the piece that is missing even from kinder forms of horsemanship. Chris shares personal experiences of finding, exploring and sharing that for which we are searching, with knowledge that we are all capable of achieving Hum; true connection to another Being.