Sometimes they don't even know the title, but I'm familiar enough with what's been published that if they can describe the book with any accuracy, I'll recognize it. Many of Ms. Bledsoe's book orders come from her readable and detailed catalogs. Orders can be placed by mail or phone. She recalls one customer who phoned in her order as she was driving her eight-horse van through Chicago. The books can be shipped anywhere in the world.
Some buyers regard it as a great treat to visit the small, cluttered shop in Cambridge.
There, the walls of one room are lined with more than 2,500 horse books arranged by subject and priced from one dollar to several hundred dollars. Sometimes people contact her when they have libraries to sell, and some of the books come from other booksellers. Her quest for books has led her from Paris, France to Paris, Ky., from the posh bookfairs of Europe to dim, cobwebby Midwestern barns, where books may have lain untouched for years. The next morning, mounted on shaggy Highland ponies, they were given a guided tour of the local flora and fauna. A longtime customer who runs trail rides in a redwood forest near San Francisco took them along the steep, narrow switchbacks on Quarter Horses.