For Love of a Horse

*spoilers!*

This book is just outright depressing. The entire freakin' book. Starts out with Jinny's family moving because her dad can't stand to be a probation officer anymore, and talks about all the people he wasn't able to help/save. Then the poor abused horse at the circus that causes Jinny to lunge at the ringmaster to stop him from beating her... And Jinny has to leave and know that the poor horse will forever be scared and abused.

Then when the unthinkable happens and the abused horse is bought by the farmer at the new house... Oh, wait, nope, still depressing. Halfway through the book Jinny still has barely even touched the wild scared horse that she names Shantih. The book details the difficult school, the cruel teacher, Jinny show more being so disheartened about having to ride a "trek horse" to school instead of her "dream Arab". Jinny goes running, riding, chasing, nearly every day, trying to catch Shantih... Which is about the stupidest thing to do when the horse is terrified of people. She even corners the poor thing in a paddock just because she wants to get close to "her" horse; That horse isn't hers by any means, Shantih is completely wild and has been taught to fear humans. Jinny probably only made things worse by always cornering her and running at her.

And then the winter comes, with lots of snow, and Shantih is still so scared of humans that she won't come down off the mountains/moors to get shelter and food. She damn near dies in the snow, *Jinny* nearly dies trying to save her...

And then suddenly they are best buds. Shantih nearly dies, and when she's finally nursed back to health she seems to have forgotten all about the humans that made her life hell, and she lets Jinny hug her and ride her with no problem. ..... Whaaaaaat? How does that make any sense at all? Even if the horse finally realized that Jinny was trying to help her, there wouldn't be such a huge change so fast.
I know that the second book in this series deals with Shanith's wildness and how hard it is to ride her, so I'm very confused why this book would end with them being so close and her being so trusting.

I will not be keeping this book. What a disappointment. show less