Sequel to Riding Lessons. Things seem to be in a better place in this book- the main character is in a solid relationship with her boyfriend (but frustrated that it doesn’t seem to be moving towards a marriage proposal), the teenage daughter is showing a keen interest in horses that might help keep her out of trouble, the grandmother is a bit easier to get along with, having more to relate to now that her daughter’s grown and dealing with adult issues. I have to say, she still didn’t always handle them well, but didn’t strike me as quite so wrapped up in herself this time around. The horse that was center of the last book’s drama, is in the background now- he’s only in a few scenes, and then mostly standing in his stall when the woman comes to groom or speak to him for solace. There’s a tense incident near the beginning of the book, when a badly treated horse is rescued from an awful situation, but then he doesn’t feature much in the rest of the story. And another scene where protagonist has to attend a mare giving birth- on her own- and is freaked about about handling it properly- things get dicey but turn out alright. I think that was just to show her character growth, but dang it was the best scene in the book (if you like reading about animals). Teenage daughter gets accepted to a prestigious riding school, and goes off against her mother’s wishes- because she wants to compete as a jumper, and mother is terrified due to her own past accident. Most of the novel is about that- the mother struggling to overcome her fears in seeing daughter progress further in competitive riding. I have to say, I still felt her reactions to things like the rebellious teen going out with boys or getting a small tattoo a bit of overreaction, but I was full on board with how she responded to her daughter’s sometimes risky decisions with the horse.
I was hoping this book would be more about the horses, the difficulties of competition, the skills they worked on- but actually it was more about the family. Two-thirds in, there’s a sudden accident (not on a horse) that brings into sharp focus the need for family, and they drop everything to deal with that. The horses only come back into the picture near the end, and then it’s mainly figuring out: will the daughter still ride? how can she balance the rigors of training with her desire to be closer to family? will the mother finally let go of her reluctance to see her daughter participate in a dangerous sport? It ended well, I just wasn’t quite so keen on reading all the stuff about family tragedy when I thought it was going to be a book about competitive jumping. That’s okay, though. It was still a good story.
