Perfectly Themselves
Horses in the Human World
$38.99
- Hardcover
384 pages
- Release Date
10 September 2026
Summary
Wild horses spend their lives building and maintaining social bonds, moving together in synchrony, their communication constant and subtle. In domestication, we isolate them – move them from paddock to stable to yard – separating them from their companions for our convenience, then find them fragile, anxious and difficult to handle.
An immersive and transporting memoir, Perfectly Themselves offers intimate portraits of horses living freely in the company of their own kind, fr…
Book Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781776923236 |
|---|---|
| ISBN-10: | 1776923235 |
| Author: | Abby Letteri |
| Publisher: | Te Herenga Waka University Press |
| Imprint: | Te Herenga Waka University Press |
| Format: | Hardcover |
| Number of Pages: | 384 |
| Release Date: | 10 September 2026 |
| Weight: | 938g |
| Dimensions: | 34mm x 181mm x 259mm |

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Critics Review
‘Endlessly illuminating and stunningly told, this book changes the way we see horses. With descriptive beauty and moral clarity, Abby Letteri sets out new ways of being alongside non-human lives. A profound work.’ —Damien Wilkins
‘An extraordinary book—at once earthy and lyrical. I couldn’t put it down’ —Rebecca Priestley
‘Perfectly Themselves is a gem. Abby Letteri weaves her own deeply personal journey of discovery to pose questions that matter greatly for equine welfare: who are horses, and what do they need to thrive? It’s this willingness to make herself a part of the study, honest, curious and never claiming more than she knows, that gives this book its special character. The result is a beautifully crafted personal narrative, deeply felt, that explores how we see horse and, in doing so, hopefully, challenges how we treat them.’ —Professor Natalie Waran, OBE
Abby Letteri
Abby Letteri is the author of down they forgot: a memoir (2021). Her poetry, stories, reviews, and essays have appeared in various publications in the United States and New Zealand, including What She Wrote: An Anthology of Women’s Voices (2020), Turbine | Kapohau, and the Aotearoa New Zealand Review of Books. She has written for Concordia International Equestrian Magazine and the British Horse Society. Perfectly Themselves was completed as a PhD thesis at the International Institute of Modern Letters.
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