A Horse of Her Own by Annie Wedekind

Reviewed by Deb Taber, NWHS editor

Although I grew up on horse fiction, it has been a while since I've indulged in reading horse stories. Over time, I tried a few that seemed to be written with no understanding of a young horse lover, so I was hesitant when I picked up A Horse of Her Own by Annie Wedekind.

The premise is unsurprising: Jane Ryan's family can't afford to get a horse for her, and circumstances take away the school horse she has bonded with. That may be an old story, but it's still timeless...and besides, that's just the beginning. Jane and her family are all enjoyable, quirky, believable characters who are whole people, not clichés. The same goes for the other characters in the book, horses included. Sure, the nasty clique of rich girls is there...but one of them might be more human than she wants to think, and even the minor characters have distinct personalities that make them as real to the reader as they are to Jane. The best part of A Horse of Her Own is the down-to-earth feel, be it the bumps and bruises of training or a young girl's realization that some things don't matter as much as she once thought they did, and other things matter even more.

I enjoyed my visit to Wedekind's world very much, and learned a little about the mechanics of jumping and eventing along the way. Despite its designation as a young adult novel, I think readers of any age will enjoy this book just as much as a horse-struck young girl will; it's one to put up on the shelf with the Marguerite Henry and Walter Farley novels from our own younger years.