Pony Kids by Perry Ogden, Fintan O'Toole (Hardcover, 2004) for sale online

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If you're on bareback you're with the horse... The feeling is youse are together, youse are clicking, you know what I mean, but if you're on a saddle youse are floating on a lump of leather you're not on a horse, but when you are on bareback it's a total feeling, you know. You are with the horse all the way and you feel every move that the horse is making going through that park. You might as well just sit on the ground and fucking run along the ground on you all fours on a saddle cos that's what it's like. When you are bareback you are bonding, you are with the horse, you're touching each other. I think that's the best but I couldn't even afford a saddle, I wouldn't even go there, put it that way, cos I couldn't afford a saddle, no way. --Natalie Smith Over the past decade, an extraordinary horse culture has evolved in the housing estates that surround Dublin. Teenagers from the families of the poor and often unemployed have been keeping their ponies on patches of green in the city wastelands. Once a month a horse fair is held at the city center. Perry Ogden has made formal portraits of these kids and their ponies in an open studio. The results document an endangered tribe. Renowned journalist, Fintan O'Toole, further introduces us to the lifestyles of these bands of kids on horseback, and traces their connection to Ireland's ethnic nomads, the Travellers.