I really enjoyed the first novel by Sara Gruen, Riding Lessons, is a deftly
woven tale of tragic loss and eventual redemption. At the age of eighteen,
at the apex of a promising career as an Olympic-caliber rider, Annemarie
Zimmer suffers a fall that ultimately claims the life of her beloved horse,
Harry, and leaves her struggling to recover from her severe injuries. Twenty
years later, her life is crumbling before her weary eyes. Annemarie is
downsized out of her job, her daughter is stirring up typical teenage
trouble, her husband leaves her for a much younger woman, and her father is
diagnosed with an incurable, debilitating disease. And believe it or not,
things deteriorate even farther from there.

Annemarie returns home with her daughter, Eva, to the place where her
Olympic dreams lay tattered on a shelf, heavy with dust and cobwebs. It isn'
t long before the past begins to haunt her, taking Annemarie back to the
beginning of the path she chose so long ago, but can see clearly now the
error of her decisions.

"Before the accident it had been so clear, but afterward, it was as if
someone had turned the pencil upside down, erased my future, then casually
brushed the crumbled remnants off of the page."
Then a horse turns up, courtesy of her former boyfriend-turned-veterinarian
and horse rescuer, that bears a striking resemblance to her beloved Harry -
a horse with one in a million coloring. What are the odds that another horse
bears such an unusual striped pattern? Thinking they are closely related,
Annemarie does some research. What she finds is enough to send her
teetering-on-the-edge life careening over the brink of her control.

Gruen does a wonderful job creating rich, complex characters in this first
novel. Either she is a first-rate researcher, or she has first-hand
knowledge of both the horse world and Lou Gehrig's Disease, because the
detail and emotional currents are too deep for mere guess-work. Together,
all of it makes a more-than-believable story - every sentence rings true to
the reader, the characters have deep motivation and emotionality, and the
setting is as vivid as a watercolor painting.

As a former horseback rider, who drifted away from the passion toward a life
of domestic responsibilities, I can empathize with Annemarie and the choices
she made along the way. Her plight is inspiring, and I find myself flipping
through the phone book for local stables in, looking for the right place to
start riding again. If Annemarie can find herself again amidst stall
cleaning and tending horses, then maybe there is hope for this old mom yet!
As the book says, "Horsepower is...the extraordinary capacity of a horse to
elevate the human spirit."



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> I am in the mood to read a really good novel, and would like one which
> includes something eductional/fun regarding horses. Does any one have a
> suggestion?
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> Barb McGuire
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