A very rare book to find these days, made in the 1970's and never rewritten. But graphically accurate. A girl who is riding the family's Arabian stallion jumps over a fence while exercising him and the horse lands on broken glass, shredding his leg to pieces in the process. In desperation, she turns to the nearest farm to get them to help. A show stable who takes the horse in to heal, and the girl agrees with the owner to work at the stable until the Arabian is better to pay for the fees. This book is an eye-opener in many ways. I love riding and horses, and this book shook me to the core about what happens behind the scenes at many show riding stables. Granted, I've seen it a little myself at one stable where I rode at for about eight months before I left due to the cruelty of not only the riders, who were 12 at the time, but also done to the horses. The author, Jean Slaughter Doty spares no expense in diving into the immense industry of horse showing. It shows the goods and many evils of what happens to the horses and sometimes the children in this sport. Drugging, fraud, and at one point a child losing her pony because he would never win more than third place in the arena due to his looks is laced in the book. Interspersed with points about the bond of horses and their riders and the joys of winning. The book breaks your heart and at the same time lifts it. At some points, you wonder if there's no hope left in the show arena and then you see something where you wonder if there's hope after all. It's a must-read for any fan of horses, and a must-read for any parent who has their child involved in horse back riding. If you find it, it's a treasure for anyone to read.
