“How a Woman and a Horse Found a Private World of Animal Intelligence and Themselves”

Who is the world’s smartest horse?

For at least a century, horse lovers have pointed to Jim Key, the clever trick horse of Civil War veteran William Key, D.V.M., as the smartest horse ever.

Today, however, a 17-year-old chestnut thoroughbred gelding named Lukas (registered as “Just Ask Mike” – click here for pedigree), may have challenged Jim Key’s longstanding status for equine intelligence.

Overview of Playing with Lukas

Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, offers an inside look at a remarkable partnership between a human and a horse. Lukas, a discarded retired racehorse, was labeled unmanageable and unfit for jumping, dressage or any other equestrian discipline. With two bowed tendons and an unimpressive racing record, the horse was headed for a most uncertain future.

However, Karen Murdock, a determined horsewoman and former psychiatric nurse, saw a potential in the off-the-track thoroughbred (OTTB) and rescued him.

With plenty of time, careful observation, training and patient interaction, Karen Murdock and Lukas actually rescued one another, forming an astonishing alliance through trick training and horse play. The retired racehorse, once deemed distrusting and dangerous, surprised Karen Murdock and the equestrian world with his ability to balance such physical challenges as the passage and Spanish walk with such cognitive achievements as matching colors, shapes and numbers.

In her first published book, racehorse rescuer and trainer Karen Murdock outlines this process, sharing her personal experience with her now treasured equine companion.

What is Karen Murdock’s secret, as she works with a challenging off-the-track thoroughbred? “A genuine sense of appreciation and enthusiasm go a long way in training – and in life,” she writes (p. 41). Perhaps herein lies a lesson for us all.

Format of Playing with Lukas

Karen Murdock’s 84-page book, which began as a collection of training tips, actually offers more of a personal memoir.

The opening pages of Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, include dozens of quotations and endorsements from diverse equestrian leaders and animal lovers.

Playing with Lukas is filled with personal anecdotes and memorable musings from the author, who traces her seven-year relationship with Lukas, as he learns to trust her and to perform far beyond anyone’s expectations.

“When your training is correct,” Karen Murdock says, “the tricks are only a by-product and happen in an almost effortless, uncalculated way” (p. 44). The author confesses that she does not even own a horse

whip.

Included in Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, is plenty of the author’s own biography, setting the stage for her compassionate friendship with her special rescue horse. With a difficult childhood and few long-term relationships, the author’s own personal transformation of trust is as amazing as that of her beloved Lukas.

Early in her story, Karen Murdock pens this most telling statement about Lukas, her equine companion and project: “I now knew that I wouldn’t give up on him the way I had been cast off. I was determined to find a way through” (p. 35).

Potential Readership for Playing with Lukas

Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, is an intriguing and heart-warming read for anyone who loves horses or simply a feel-good story.

Lukas has already become a darling of the equestrian world, thanks to owner/trainer/author Karen Murdock and her compassionate network of horse-lovers. Major media outlets (such as ABC, CBS, CNN, HLN, NBC and RFD), major media (such as the Associated Press, American Horse Publications, Blood Horse Magazine, Equestrian Examiner and The Horse) and internet sites (such as EquiSearch and Equine Connection) have featured Karen Murdock and Lukas, tagging him the world’s smartest horse.

The Playing with Lukas website has received well over a million hits.

Having finished Playing with Lukas, author Karen Murdock is now working on a training guide to help other horse lovers with challenging equines.

Evaluation of Playing with Lukas

Playing with Lukas, by Karen Murdock, is a must-read for those who love horses – or any animals. The book displays penetrating insights into the possibilities of human-to-animal friendships. Could it be that animals (such as horses) are smarter than humans may have suspected?

The author’s technical training tips may prove useful to equestrians. Many horseback riding enthusiasts may be surprised to discover how much of the horse training and equestrian
recreation may occur on the ground, rather than under saddle.

What’s more, Karen Murdock’s transparent tracing of her own personal development make Playing with Lukas a gripping read, filled with hope and potential.

Published early in 2010, Karen Murdock’s Playing with Lukas is available immediately (for $15.00) as a download from Lulu.com. The book will also be available in print on Amazon.com by the spring of 2010.

About the Author: Karen Murdock

Karen Murdock, author of Playing with Lukas, is a retired nurse who has spent more than three decades working with difficult horses. Throughout her equine experience, Karen Murdock has employed clicker training, liberty exercises and positive reinforcement to build confidence and willing compliance with her horses. Karen Murdock is based in Walnut, California.

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View complete Book Review online at AssociatedContent.com

By Karen Murdock

Softcover, 83 pages; available at playingwithlukas.com

This is the most unique book on training I have yet to see, though it can be called that only in the broadest sense of the word. Author Karen Murdock heads one of her chapters with a quote by Helen Keller, who overcame blindness and deafness to become an icon of spiritual strength: “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” This is what this self-published book really is about – two beings, who couldn’t find their place in life, finally did through each other. It’s a wonderful story of the triumph of spirit. [Read more...]

~ Mary Daniels

For anybody who has a horse, anyone who ever had a horse, and all those who dream of having an equine companion, Playing With Lukas is a must read. Karen Murdock’s account of her journey through life before and after finding her horse, Lukas, is nothing short of a modern day fairytale.

It is Murdock’s own family life filled with emotional abuse and violence that would lend her the sensitivity to recognize both the hurt and the potential of the renegade Thoroughbred who had failed as race horse and was a misfit as a jumper and as a dressage horse.

Together, these two “unwanted” souls would embark upon a mystical journey, surviving the sneers ofon-lookers at a series of stables and emerging as one of today’s most sought after trainers and “The World’s Smartest Horse”.

The temptation is there to refer to what Murdock does with Lukas as “trick training”, but the truth of the matter is much deeper than that. Trick training is the thing of circus and rodeo acts. The tools used in this pursuit are whips, ropes, chains, and virtually anything which could be used to force a horse to perform. The results are wild-eyed creatures with broken spirits and, all too often, just plain old broken down horses.

Murdock’s approach, on the contrary, harkens back to the days of Karl Krall and the Elberfeld Horses, and Doctor William Key and his horse, Beautiful Jim Key. I prefer to call this approach the education of the horse as opposed to trick training. Based upon a bond of mutual trust, it is a technique in which the roles of student and teacher are fluid and ever changing between horse and human. Gone are the tools of torture and force, replaced by kindness, praise, patience, and reward. The primary tool of communication is listening on the part of both parties involved. With this approach, horses become more vibrant, more willing to participate in the training, more willing and able to communicate, and more willing to reveal just who they really are. The rewards for the human involved in this process are of mythical proportions but largely go unspoken. Why unspoken? Because those who travel this road know most would scoff in disbelief if they were told of the rewards, lest they be deemed mad for the truths discovered, and the realization that the journey is one each must take to fully understand and appreciate the treasure they discover along the way.

If you’re up for it and chose to follow Murdock down this magical path, trust me, you will never be the same again!

~ Linda J. Cutshaw