WHAT THE CRITICS ARE SAYING

"Like Herriot, Pons sees more than the tree. He sees the forest"

Just in time for the holidays, and a perfect gift for the horse lover, is "Country Life Diary", a three-year diary of life on a Maryland horse farm which has been operated by the Pons family for three generations. Forget the fact you may know or care little about horse farms. Josh Pons, the award winning author, has infused the book with the same charm evidenced by James Herriot in his marvelous "All Creatures Great and Small."  Like Herriot, Pons sees more than the tree. He sees the forest, has the ability to capture the spirit as well as the letter of life in a bucolic setting, and has the grace of the true storyteller. But let Pons speak for himself:

Dec. 27, 1989 --- The manure man was in the middle of his last forkful when the huge claw suddenly froze on his rig, dangling yellow straw 20 feet off the ground, as if a prehistoric bird had been captured gathering nesting material.

"Damn! Another minute and I'd have been on my way to West Grove," the manure man said scampering down from his perch. I asked his name. "Bob. Bob. Just another damn Bob!"

From years of talking to himself above the tumult of his hydraulic fork, damn Bob was unaccustomed to speaking in confines such as our small office. A client from D.C. phoned while Bob was shouting for help on the other line.

"If you've got problems, I can call back," the client thoughtfully offered. At that moment damn Bob hung up, pushed a fifty-dollar check and a box of fresh mushrooms across my desk, smiled a toothless grin, and quietly waved thanks.

"No, go ahead. I'm listening," I said into the phone, giving damn Bob the thumbs up as the door closed. His air of assurance, however, remained long after he had made for West Grove.

Or Nov. 11, 1990 --- Fussy Boy awoke before the sun again this morning. Looking out the window from the basement study, we watch the creek flooding from the two inches of rain yesterday. The sun's first rays pick their way through the forest understory. I  can't tell whether these mornings in the study are establishing a schedule for the kid that I cannot possibly maintain into the coming foaling season, yet these mornings are so special in their splendor, in their quiet solitude, that I am more at peace at dawn than at dusk. The kid, unfortunately, is exactly the opposite.

Or, March 25, 1991 --- All the horses bucked and careened off into fields turning Emerald Green from the weekend of rain. Today is our reward. Daffodils are in bloom as the sun rises against purple clouds of weather headed in the opposite direction. Gramercy foaled on her due date. There is some logic, some control, some order to life in breeding season.

"Country Life Diary" is touching, sensitive, perceptive.-reviewed by Joe Hirsch - Daily Racing Form

"brutally realistic at times, but at other moments, sheer poetry"

Gamblers who ever wondered how "the two-horse" ever got to the starting gate might want to pick up a copy of Josh Pons' recently published "Country Life Diary." Few people have chronicled the nuances of breeding racehorses more thoroughly than Pons, who spent three years writing about the daily joys --- and drudgery --- of life on a Harford County (MD) horse farm.

Raising a racehorse is a long, costly and laborious process. After finishing all 419 pages of Pons' book, a reader will never again wonder why people go nuts in the winner's circle even if their horse has just won an $8,500 maiden claimer. What those owners went through to get there is painstakingly explained by Pons. But what makes his book special, and why The Blood-Horse magazine has chosen to publish it after running it in serialized form since 1989, is the mixture of his insight --- brutally realistic at times, but at other moments, sheer poetry. One day's entry will describe the mating habits of his stallions in detail. Another will describe a hayfield in Virginia: "The bales looked surreal, dotting the landscape like so many Salvador Dali watches."

There are characters galore --- a leaser (the horse who excites mares before breeding) named Dew Burns; a mentally deranged foal nicknamed Rollaids, who wears a fedora; and a night watchman, actually a night watchwoman named Sue, who is knocked unconscious and misses the foaling of a mare after 50 bales of straw fall on top of her head. Glad she was raised a country girl," Pons writes.

It is clear from the "Country Life Diary" what sustains the Pons family. It is their love for the thoroughbred, and like the book, the lifestyle is never boring.  -reviewed by Ross Peddicord - Baltimore Sun

"full of the small details that horsemen will recognize and savor"

On the surface, California would seem to have little in common with Maryland. Located on opposite coasts, the two states are dissimilar in size, climate, and history. When it comes to breeding Thoroughbreds, however, the two regional centers share such concerns as disappearing farmland and the ever-present competition from Kentucky. Therefore, Josh Pons' new book, Country Life Diary,subtitled "Three Years in the Life of a Horse Farm," not only is enjoyable reading, it deals with the same situations in Maryland that face the California breeder --- except for perhaps harsher weather.

The author tackles a myriad of subjects, from the constant threat of real estate developers and the standing of a new stallion to such personal revelations as the birth of his first son and his father's courageous (and successful) battle against alcohol. Pons is at his best, however, when discussing the highs and lows of horse ownership. He feels for the animal and its owner, an empathy any breeder can appreciate.

A daily diary is guaranteed to occasionally become repetitious, but for the most part, Pons' account is interesting and full of the small details that horsemen will recognize and savor. The hope and love of the industry Pons infuses into his prose is well worth the pricetag, especially after a hard day when the prize mare came up empty, the feed bill arrived, and the yearlings roughed each other up --- again. - reviewed by Tracy Gantz - The Thoroughbred of California

"I can't begin to mention all the warm corners of this book"