Book Review: A Girl & Five Brave Horses

So, I don't know if you remember me saying that I was nervous about reading this book. I honestly expected to read about questionable living conditions for the horses and dangerous things the horses were asked to do, but thankfully this book was the absolute opposite! Sonora's voice is so positive you can't help but feel the love and respect they had for their horses. 

She talks about how they trained the horses and everything she said still holds true today. Good horsemanship is good horsemanship. I also expected the writing to feel older since the story is based on 1920ish happenings and published in the early 60's but the book feels modern even though traveling acts like diving horses is nothing I've ever known.

This was an easy read, it took me two days to finish, but it wasn't just easy for the sake of simplicity, I got wrapped up in the chapters describing each horse Sonora rode and how detailed she was in sharing their unique personalities. I felt like I got to know each horse and really saw how the horse had a passion for their job just like any horse could have today. The horse's personalities shined through so well that I found myself actually laughing out loud that my husband asked what was happening. 

I also expected that the circumstances of Sonora going blind would have been from negligence or some scary disaster that I was hesitant to read about. But, in true horse person fashion, the incident that lead to her blindness is something I could see most horse people brushing off and continuing on like nothing happened. She actually continued her act for 11 years after going blind! Sonora was a true tough as nails horse professional that I see constantly in the industry today.

This book far exceeded my expectations and was very enjoyable! I'm looking forward to finding the movie made based on it (Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken) to watch as soon as possible!

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