The Horse Dancer

This was a bit slow to get started; there are two stories at first, running alongside each other. One is of an almost-divorced couple who have to sort out their house and hope to do so amicably. Mac is a cheerful photographer, Natasha is quite an uptight lawyer. The other storyline features 14-year-old Sarah and her elderly grandfather who used to be a professional rider in France. Sarah adores her horse and works hard to learn the moves in 'Airs above the ground' - then disaster strikes.

Sarah's path crosses Natasha's and the stories then start to intertwine. As well as the overt theme of following one's dreams, this book covers fostering and adoption, theft and other petty crimes, teenage secrecy, the pain of ending a marriage, and show more the importance of parents and guardians listening to their children. I admit I skipped over some of the horsey sections, but that wasn't a problem.

The writing is excellent, the characterisation believable. There were one or two moments when I almost chuckled aloud, a couple of scenes where I was holding my breath in suspense, and towards the end I had tears in my eyes more than once. I started by reading just a chapter or two before going to sleep; by the time I was two-thirds of the way through, I could hardly bear to put it down.

Perhaps the ending is a little contrived, ending all the threads neatly in a happy-ever-after way; but by that stage it didn't matter. It's how I hoped it would end, with an extra bonus.

A wonderful book - well worth persevering through the early chapters. Four-and-a-half stars really. show less

Fourteen-year-old Sarah lives with her grandfather who was formerly of Le Cadre Noir, an elite corp of equestrians in Samur, France. Each day Sarah trains religiously to perfect her riding skills, hoping to someday audition for the exclusive group of experts in horsemanship. When Sarah’s grandfather unexpectedly suffers a stroke, the wayward teenager goes to live with Natasha, a child advocate lawyer, and her estranged husband Mac, who are trying to work out the details of their impending divorce. When Sarah comes up missing one day, Natasha and Mac embark on a journey to recover Sarah, and on this mission many unrequited feelings between the couple surface. The author, Jojo Moyes, very skillfully presents the tension between Natasha show more and Mac, while also portraying the determination and fortitude that Sarah exhibits in caring for her horse, Boo, and in fulfilling her dream of performing for Le Cadre Noir. I did decide to give this book a five star rating, but I will warn the reader that at nearly 500 pages, it did tend to seem a bit lengthy at times. I was just so impressed with Moyes’ extensive knowledge about horse behavior and training, and she expertly portrayed untold feelings of the characters in great depth. show less

This is from Jojo Moyes’ backlist, only recently published in the U.S. I am always glad for another book to read by this author!

The Horse Dancer tells the story of Sarah Lachapelle, who has just turned 14 when we first meet her. She lives alone with her grandfather, called Papa, since the death of her grandmother four years previously. After Nana died, Papa got a horse for Sarah to take their minds off of the loss. The horse, nicknamed Boo, is a Selle Français, a breed of sport horse from France renowned primarily for its success in show jumping. He has a “sweet, almost doglike nature,” and is unfazed by the heaviest traffic. This is helpful since Boo is housed in an urban stable yard in London. The yard is run by Cowboy John, show more one of the original members of the Philadelphia Black Cowboys.

[There is a century-long tradition of black urban cowboys and horsemanship in Philadelphia. Local horsemen maintain and care for horses, and teach neighborhood youth to do so as well. The horses are ridden throughout the city's streets and parks, and regular races are held on an open strip of Fairmount Park called the Speedway. You can read more about the Philadephia Black Cowboys here. There is also an excellent middle grade book about them by G. Neri called Ghetto Cowboy. My review is here.)]

Sarah’s Papa, Henri, used to be with the Cadre Noir in Saumur, France. This 250-year-old group of elite equestrian riders has been in existence since the 1700’s, and it was (and still is) an honor to be chosen for its academy. It’s mission (as stated on its website) is “to develop horse training, to teach riding for sport, and to teach the equestrian professions.”

Henri has been trying to train Sarah in the basics of dressage, an equestrian sport defined by the International Equestrian Federation as "the highest expression of horse training" in which "horse and rider are expected to perform from memory a series of predetermined movements.” The horse learns to respond to minimal cues from the rider. As Sarah explains:

“It’s about trying to achieve the perfect communication. And a little movement of your finger on a rein or a tiny adjustment of weight might do that. . . . It’s not just technical - it’s about two minds, two hearts . . . trying to find a balance. It’s about what passes between you. . . . when Boo gets it… when we get it right together, there’s just no feeling like it.”

Sarah also studies the book used by Papa, On Horsemanship, a treatise on horsemanship by the Athenian historian and soldier Xenophon (c. 430 – 354 BC). This book is still considered to be the vade mecum for modern dressage, and a quote from the book precedes each chapter in The Horse Dancer.

Henri surprises Sarah with tickets to go to France and see the Cadre Noir, but then he is suddenly hospitalized by a debilitating stroke. Now Sarah is alone in their apartment, without money even for food, and without money to pay for the stabling of Boo. Cowboy John, who has been a friend of Henri’s for years, would cover Sarah, but he has decided to retire and go back to the States, selling the stables to a less than savory character named Maltese Sal. Maltese Sal offers to pay for Boo’s food and stabling, but for a price Sarah is loathe to pay.

Juxtaposed to Sarah’s story is that of Natasha, a 35-year-old Solicitor Advocate specializing in children’s cases at a high-pressure law firm. “Tash” is separated from her husband Mac, and is seeing another member of the firm, Conor.

Tash has her own consuming problems. Her marriage with Mac had disintegrated “slowly, from neglect.” But mainly it died because of misunderstandings that grew out of Natasha’s insecurities. Mac was a photographer and worked with many young beautiful models, all of whom found Mac charming and attractive. How could Natasha compete? Plus she had had three miscarriages in four years; why wouldn’t Mac prefer some young fertile beauty to her?

“…with each miscarriage, her confidence in her own femininity had shrunk. . . .She had begun to feel old, dried up inside. And there he stood, charming them, perhaps already planning some new relationship with a younger, more beautiful partner. One who would give him children. How could he be expected to hang around now?”

Tash also had a devasting situation at work, in which a child for whom she had advocated may have turned out to be a criminal. Now she has “lost faith in her ability to see whether I’m being taken for a ride.”

With each perceived “failure,” Natasha judges herself harshly, and projects that judgment onto others, letting those negative perceptions color her relationships.

Sarah and Tash, each drowning in her own way, improbably meet, and are metaphorically challenged with the life equivalent of the capriole - a gravity-defying leap in dressage. It is considered to be the most difficult of all the airs above the ground, or higher-level, Haute ecole, classical dressage movements in which the horse leaves the ground. Whether they can each manage to rise up from the low level their lives have pushed them is up in the air, so to speak.

Evaluation: Can Jojo Moyes write a bad book? I haven’t seen any evidence of it so far. This story is wonderful, and the ending is just lovely. show less

As I love horses and appreciate the skill involved in drassage, I really enjoyed this novel. To be honest I had never heard of “Le Cadre Noir” and found the history of this school fascinating. I have seen the Austrian Lipazaner horses perform and the history is quite similar. 14 year old Sarah and her story were secondary in the novel to me as were Natasha and Mac who become her guardians and through them we get a glance into how social services works in the UK. Sarah’s flight to France was exciting to read compared to other more predictable parts of the novel. Overall though I did enjoy this novel.

I wanted to try a JoJo Moyes book and this one has a horse in it. I did enjoy it, especially the horse part. The main story centers about a teenaged girl named Sarah living in London with her grandfather. Her grandfather was involved in a specialized form of horse dressage in France and he has taught it to his granddaughter and her horse Boo. When the grandfather has a stroke, the girl struggles with keeping up with the upkeep of the horse, the payments for boarding him, and food for herself as well. When Sarah is caught lifting some fish sticks from a grocery store a local lawyer gets involved. This lawyer is estranged from her husband, but he suddenly pops back into the picture - saying he needs to stay at their house for a while. Can show more this lawyer, her ex husband, and this teenaged girl all find some way to resolve their collective drama and closely guarded secrets successfully? What about the horse? These issues kept me turning the pages, even if some parts of the book seemed rather far fetched. Sarah and Boo literally go on an incredible journey together and along the way they learn that telling the truth doesn't have to end in disaster - if that truth is told to the right people and those people actually slow down and listen to you.
There are some triggering things in this book, regarding Sarah being a vulnerable teenaged girl and the way she is treated by some of the male characters in the book. And parts of the story and how the characters behave stretch the bounds of what I would consider realistic. Still I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys contemporary fiction, especially if they enjoy stories about unlikely people becoming family, and even more so if they enjoy horse stories. show less

I loved this....partly because I am already a huge fan of Moyes---the way she writes just amazes me. How can she come up with so many, many stories? In The Horse Dancer I can understand that she personally knows a lot about horses but her characters interactions are so vivid. I have a terrible time putting one of her books down once I have started!! I keep thinking this one is the best....but really, I have never been disappointed with her writing.

I'd give this novel 2.5 stars.

Although I did enjoy this novel, it fell short of Moyes' other work. The characters were strong yet the plot felt weak at times. This novel definitely could have been shorter as the characters kept harping on the same issues verbatim, which I found tedious.

Sarah is a young girl who after losing her mother and grandmother, is left in the care of her grandfather, Henri Lachapelle. Henri was once an elite horse master and now trains his granddaughter in the art. But when an unexpected stroke lands Henri in the hospital, Sarah is left to fend for herself. She ends up in the hands of Natasha Maccauley, an attorney who specializes in child law, but has a hard time adjusting to a new routine while trying to show more balance the extraneous and demanding work of maintaining and paying for her horse, Boo.

I won't go into too many details but I did enjoy a story about a young girl who has a deep passion for horses. It was a light read but left me feeling a little disappointed. I expected more emotion from Sarah and more insight throughout the novel rather than jamming the last 2 chapters with resolution. show less