Sid Gustafson
Novelist and Veterinarian

Veterinary Behavior Services Natural Approaches to equine wellness, performance, and behavior 406-466-2088
Dr Gustafson is licensed to practice in New York, Washington, and Montana, and offers equine behavioral consultations throughout the United States. He creates customized training and husbandry strategies in accord with the horse's social nature to facilitate optimal growth and achieve peak mental and physical performance. He offers enrichment strategies to improve the healing process in convalescing horses.

Horse and Culture, Journeys Into Animal Awareness
Horses and horsemanship in Montana culture through time

Equine Behaviour
THE LANGUAGE OF NATURAL HORSEMANSHIP, an upcoming treatise on Equine Behavior by Dr Gustafson.

The Language of Horsemanship
Achieving willing partnerships between man and horse, upcoming non-fiction published by Eclipse Press in Lexington, KY a Bloodhorse Corporation

Horseracing in America
With the advent of permissible raceday medication in the 70s horseracing in the United States entered the saddest phase of its history. The drug-weakened integrity of the sport began with Barbaro’s Preakness breakdown, and culminated in the tragic 2008 Kentucky Derby death of Eight Belles, who fractured both front legs in the biggest race in America in front of millions of viewers. Equine Veterinarian, novelist, and journalist Sid Gustafson takes readers onto the backsides of racetracks across America to deliver the firsthand story of the racehorse culture as it evolved from the 60s into the troubled drug culture of the 21st century that resulted in alarming numbers of racetrack breakdowns. He colorfully portrays the vulnerability of horses to pharmaceutical influence to gain competitive advantage and delves into the complex phenomenon of horsemen willing to subjugate horses to potent dangerous drugs for unfair competitive advantage without due consideration for the noble creatures and their riders. In this visionary book Dr Gustafson, a seasoned racetrack practitioner, explains how horseracing came to this low point and delineates the necessary guidelines and equine breeding, husbandry, conditioning, and training practices and principles necessary to restore integrity to the Sport of Kings.

HORSES THEY RODE
“This is a fascinating novel.”
Jim Harrison, author of Legends of the Fall and Dalva


When I started reading this fine novel, I was at
first taken aback, then disturbed. After fifty
pages, I realized -- or more accurately, admitted --
why: I was humbled. Sid Gustafson's understanding
of Montana -- real cowboys and Indians, and the
love-hate dependency that ties them, the land, and
its animals together -- is bone deep, blood true,
and beautifully described.
Neil McMahon, author of Twice Dying, Blood Double and the forthcoming Lone Creek, HarperCollins / April 2007 -- set in and around Helena, Montana.

Few novelists have a sense of place,
for Americans are a rootless people.
Sid’s is acute, and he tells a great story
of his land and the people on it,
and in it…

Peter Bowen, author of Coyote Wind and the Gabriel Du Pré Montana Mysteries

“Sid Gustafson writes like the language is a race horse and he is the rider, ready to go as far and fast as they both can go. He is in love with words, especially as they attach to the weather, terrain and inhabitants of Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, one of the most unforgiving and beautiful regions on the planet. He knows what he’s talking about. Listen to him.”

Deidre McNamer, author of Rima in the Weeds and My Russian

PRISONERS OF FLIGHT
The Great American Wilderness Novel

First Aid for the Active Dog
Practical Canine First Aid