Thursday, June 5, 2014

Horses Never Lie About Love, by Jana Harris

Jana Harris and her husband, one day 20 years ago, set out to start their own horse breeding farm. They had dreamed about it for a long time, and owned 2 horses of their own when they finally decided to buy several more horses.
Moving through the trials (and costs) of starting a breeding farm in the northwest, Jana Harris gives very vivid descriptions of all that they do to prepare, and everything afterwards.
After buying True Colors, a nearly wild Thoroughbred, they realize that maybe they are in over their heads with this crazy mare. She can barely be touched, let alone haltered, saddled, or ridden. Flinching at everything, keeping her in good health is also an issue; she won't stand having her feet picked up by the farrier. Her face is covered in scars from a fire that her previous owner lied about, and her weanling colt seemed nearly dead of dehydration when they first arrived.
What no one ever expected was for that mare to become a miracle; the local farrier calls her, "the anchor mare." The other horses depend on her, and become restless if she isn't around. She saves the other horses from a bad storm, and senses things that the other horses (or owners) don't. A loving mother, and mother to all the rejected or outcast foals and horses as well.
I really liked this story. My grandma gave the book to me after she was done reading it, and she highly recommended it. I really liked all the different descriptions, especially about the foals. It made me very interested in breeding, although it was pretty thorough in that aspect.
There were a couple bad words that she added in at sometimes random parts that weren't really necessary. Other than that, the author is good at including all the details, even all the horse people that enter, and exit, through the author's life. The author also included some details from her childhood, including how she got started with horses and how she came to acquire her own.
I couldn't help but laugh a little. Sometimes the author is just a little clueless, and very over-cautious, and worries about even the most far-fetched things happening. But what is funny, is even though they try and prevent every bad thing from happening, it usually does when they don't expect it.
One of my favorite parts was, in the beginning, two neighbor girls ride over on their ponies. It's pretty cold outside, but Jana looks down at the floor in her house and says, "I never liked this floor anyway," and lets the girls and the ponies inside the kitchen. Also the part where a rejected foal who can't seem to get along with anyone makes friends with a pigeon. The pigeon, every day, flies up and down the fence line, the poor colt racing after it. Every single day, until the colt moved away (the colt didn't belong to them).

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