author
Willis J. Powell
Best remembered for an early and unusual guide to horse training, this 19th-century writer helped preserve ideas that later readers linked with gentler, more observant handling of horses. Very little is firmly documented about his life, which makes his surviving work stand out even more.
1 Audiobook
Tachyhippodamia; Or, The new secret of taming horses To which is added The breaking, training, and taming horses
by Willis J. Powell, J. S. (John Solomon) Rarey
About the author
Willis J. Powell was a 19th-century author known for Tachyhippodamia; or, The New Secret of Taming Horses. Sources found during this search agree that the book was issued before his death in 1848, and that a later reprint appeared in Philadelphia in 1872.
His name is most often connected with the history of horse training rather than with a well-documented personal biography. Modern reference pages describe his book as a work published alongside material by John Solomon Rarey, placing Powell within an early tradition of horse taming and horsemanship writing.
Because so little reliable biographical detail is readily confirmed, the surviving record of Powell is really centered on his authorship and the continuing interest in his book among readers of historical horsemanship.