(Cindy Pierson Dulay at www.horse-races.com)
Today is the second leg of the Triple Crown, the Preakness. I thought it would be appropriate to write about horse books.
My daughter has long been a horsewoman. When she was younger, I helped let the horses out, bought the grain, got up long before the crack of dawn to make breakfast on horseshow day. I’ve washed girth fuzzies and walked sick horse. Naturally, I am drawn to horses and books about them.
Sarah Gruen wrote two horse books prior to her well-known Water For 
Elephant……… Riding Lessons and Flying Changes. A 
young woman returns to her parents’ horse farm in New Hampshire with her wild teenage daughter. She relives her fears of a previously bad horse accident and sees much of her teenage self in her daughter.
A memoir Chosen by a Horse is Susan Richards story of being a whiny woman who feels sorry for herself until she takes in an abused, sick and neglected horse. She 
learns about love, strength and forgiveness from this poor, but gentle animal.
Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss is a novel about a young woman in Oregon during WWI, when women took over jobs for men who had gone to war. Martha Lessen saddles up her horse and heads for rural Oregon to gentle wild horses. She uses soft words and songs instead of whips and hobbles. The men come to respect her and the women become her friend. She even learns to wear a skirt.
