Book excerpt: Dressage is a love affair between a horse and a human. Treat it as such. Ride your horse on a long rein with joy in your heart and be gentle with your hands and soft with your seat. When your horse has warmed up, pick up the reins gently in order to let it know that you want to play, to play a game of love with sunshine in your heart. In the letters of Leaves are Falling on Horses and Riders, author Ulli Berner paints a picture of the world of horse people that is just a bit more poetic, even compassionate, than people in a mechanical world could display. These letters are full of laughter but of grief too. How many teenage girls have in short proclaimed, 'Horses are fun!' And how many older women have turned back to life in the stable after the loss of their husband, or the flight of their children from the nest? Berner explores these questions and more, and takes the reader to a time when Leaves are Falling on Horses and Riders.