A Good Horse

Pulitzer Prize winning author Jane Smiley continues to share her love and knowledge of horses in this moving sequel to "The Georges and the Jewels." Thirteen-year-old Abby Lovitt finds herself feeling protective toward Jack, a beautiful orphan colt who may be the offspring of a pedigreed stolen mare, and could be taken from her family ranch in 1960s California. Black George, another good horse, may also be sold to rich people on the show circuit, and when heartbreaking decisions must be made, Abby's love of these horses and her faith provide an anchor. Horse enthusiasts will appreciate the illustrations and long passages about riding, grooming, training, jumping and showing horses in this winning coming-of-age tale with memorable show more characters, both horse and human. show less

This book is about Abby Lovitt and her interactions with two of the family horses. The family buys, trains and sells horses. They have 9 at the start of the story. One horse Black George seems to love jumping and Abby is taking lessons with him at a Hunter stable. The horse gets better and better and suddenly gets a lot of interest. The other horse is a colt, Jack, that was born of a mare that her father purchased in OK at the same sale as Black George and 2 others. The mare dies after giving birth. She was in bad shape when they got her and didn't know she was pregnant. When they are contacted by a PI tracking a stolen horse there is some question as to whether the mare was that horse and who the colt belongs to. This is a quiet show more thoughtful book for young teens with a lot of information about horses, jumping and training. Abby is not portrayed very emotionally which left me feeling detached from the story.
This is #2 in the Horses of Oak Valley Ranch series. I didn't read #1 but you can read this without having read the first one. show less

Wonderful story. I loved horse books as a child. I'm delighted to find Jane Smiley creating more and with such full characters. A very worth while read.