Whistle Stopper - Chosen by a Horse

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Manufacturer: Harvest Books

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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.10019
EAN: 9780156031172
ISBN: 0156031175
Label: Harvest Books
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2007-06-04
Publisher: Harvest Books
Studio: Harvest Books

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Spotlight customer reviews:

Customer Rating:

Summary: Chosen by a Horse
Comment: Anyone who loves horses will also love this book! The author perfectly describes the personalities of her horses, and she weaves a lesson of personal growth into a moving story about an abused horse. It's great!

Customer Rating:

Summary: How About the HORSE'S Pain?
Comment: This is a moving story, and one which Richards tells well. Richards captures both the intensity of our love for our animals, and the pain we suffer at the ephemerality of their lives. The problem here is that Richards is essentially concerned with her own pain, her own suffering, her own vision of "knowing" when her beautiful horse Lay Me Down should be allowed to go. And her own vision of the appropriate time may be tragically mistaken.

Lay Me Down has a grotesquely invasive brain tumor. Richards doesn't know how large it's gotten inside the head, but on the outside it gradually bulges in a wet growth the size of an orange, beneath an eye. Early on, Richards makes slight mention, once or twice, of watching to see if Lay Me Down feels discomfort. She suspects that Lay Me Down is in pain but has adapted to it. She mentions with affection that it's hard to tell, because this horse has never been a complainer. And that is almost the last mention Richards ever makes on the subject.

What did this horse suffer during all the months Richards kept her alive because she couldn't bear to lose her? Was she on pain medication? Richards never mentions it. Lay Me Down was diagnosed as a hopeless case at the Cornell Equine Hospital in the middle of winter. Her aspect and behavior were different when she came home, significant signs that an animal is suffering. But as Richards saw her horse standing in the ice and snow of the winter pasture, she had a transcendent vision of Lay Me Down being allowed to live until she could experience a sunny day in spring. And so Lay Me Down was kept alive until Richard's vision could be realized in April. And not once in these latter pages does Richards ever mention pain management, or ask herself if her "vision" is a repulsively selfish one which does not take Lay Me Down's actual condition and suffering into account.

There are hard but necessary questions which Richards should have asked herself--primarily, was her gentle horse enduring agony in the months before that sunny April day?--but the answers never appear.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great book.
Comment: Very heart warming. The effect this horse has on her is just what they needed. Highly recommended.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Beautiful Simplicity
Comment: This book was an amazingly beautiful story about the love and courage a pet owner shares with their pet. I loved the simplicity of the story. It was very engaging. I laughed, I cried, and I found myself wishing I could own a horse. Animals are amazing. It's a story of love for animals, for yourself and others. Loved it.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Good book
Comment: It is a good book. Not great by any means. I was not aware it had a sad ending, so it loses lots of points with me for that reason alone. I don't like to cry when I finish a book, thank you.

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Editorial Reviews:

The horse Susan Richards chose for rescue wouldn’t be corralled into her waiting trailer. Instead Lay Me Down, a former racehorse with a foal close on her heels, walked right up that ramp and into Susan’s life. This gentle creature—malnourished, plagued by pneumonia and an eye infection—had endured a rough road, but somehow her heart was still open and generous. It seemed fated that she would come into Susan’s paddock and teach her how to embrace the joys of life despite the dangers of living.

An elegant and often heartbreaking tale filled with animal characters as complicated and lively as their human counterparts, this is an inspiring story of courage and hope and the ways in which all love—even an animal’s—has the power to heal.