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Chosen by a Horse: a memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Susan Richards
Publisher: Soho Press
Category: Book
List Price: $20.00
Buy Used: $0.87
You Save: $19.13 (96%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  124 reviews
Sales Rank: 112367
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 1569474192
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.10019
EAN: 9781569474198
ASIN: 1569474192
Publication Date: June 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: No Dust Jacket Buy from the best: 4,000,000 items shipped to delighted customers. We have 1,000,000 unique items ready to ship today!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
"Proof that love for another animal can alone make one human and humane: wit and crushing sadness chasing each other all across the page; intelligence and bravery and perfect literary pitch... Damn great."-Melissa Holbrook Pierson, author of Dark Horses and Black Beauties: Animals; Women, a Passion "A bold and sensitive memoir of what it means to open one's heart to love... A magnificent read."-Adele von Rust McCormick, Ph.D and Marlena Deborah McCormick, PhD, authors of Horses and the Mystical Path; Horse Sense and the Human Heart "A triumph for all spirits."-Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of A Place in the Country "Should rank with the great animal stories."-Ann Arensberg, author of Incubus "Two kindred spirits find each other in this beautifully written memoir about the human-animal bond."-Temple Grandin, author of Animals in Translation When she agrees to take on the care of one of the abused horses just rescued by the local SPCA, a new chapter opens in Susan Richards's difficult life. She lost her mother at the age of five and was raised by uncaring relatives; married unhappily and divorced; and suffered from alcoholism. While Susan is trying to capture the horse assigned to her, Lay Me Down, a skeletal mare, walks into Susan's horse trailer of her own volition. Susan already owns one mare and two geldings-the diva-like Georgia, boyish Tempo and hopelessly romantic Hotshot-but it is with Lay Me Down that she forges a special, healing relationship that alters her life. Poignant and evocative, this is a book for anyone who has ever loved a horse, and for everyone who has ever lost a loved one.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 119 more reviews...
 Chosen by a Horse October 10, 2008
Anyone who loves horses will also love this book! The author perfectly describes the personalities of her horses, and she weaves a lesson of personal growth into a moving story about an abused horse. It's great!
 How About the HORSE'S Pain? October 8, 2008
This is a moving story, and one which Richards tells well. Richards captures both the intensity of our love for our animals, and the pain we suffer at the ephemerality of their lives. The problem here is that Richards is essentially concerned with her own pain, her own suffering, her own vision of "knowing" when her beautiful horse Lay Me Down should be allowed to go. And her own vision of the appropriate time may be tragically mistaken.
Lay Me Down has a grotesquely invasive brain tumor. Richards doesn't know how large it's gotten inside the head, but on the outside it gradually bulges in a wet growth the size of an orange, beneath an eye. Early on, Richards makes slight mention, once or twice, of watching to see if Lay Me Down feels discomfort. She suspects that Lay Me Down is in pain but has adapted to it. She mentions with affection that it's hard to tell, because this horse has never been a complainer. And that is almost the last mention Richards ever makes on the subject.
What did this horse suffer during all the months Richards kept her alive because she couldn't bear to lose her? Was she on pain medication? Richards never mentions it. Lay Me Down was diagnosed as a hopeless case at the Cornell Equine Hospital in the middle of winter. Her aspect and behavior were different when she came home, significant signs that an animal is suffering. But as Richards saw her horse standing in the ice and snow of the winter pasture, she had a transcendent vision of Lay Me Down being allowed to live until she could experience a sunny day in spring. And so Lay Me Down was kept alive until Richard's vision could be realized in April. And not once in these latter pages does Richards ever mention pain management, or ask herself if her "vision" is a repulsively selfish one which does not take Lay Me Down's actual condition and suffering into account.
There are hard but necessary questions which Richards should have asked herself--primarily, was her gentle horse enduring agony in the months before that sunny April day?--but the answers never appear.
Great book. October 1, 2008
Very heart warming. The effect this horse has on her is just what they needed. Highly recommended.
Beautiful Simplicity September 12, 2008
This book was an amazingly beautiful story about the love and courage a pet owner shares with their pet. I loved the simplicity of the story. It was very engaging. I laughed, I cried, and I found myself wishing I could own a horse. Animals are amazing. It's a story of love for animals, for yourself and others. Loved it.
Good book September 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is a good book. Not great by any means. I was not aware it had a sad ending, so it loses lots of points with me for that reason alone. I don't like to cry when I finish a book, thank you.
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