“From The Horse’s Mouth: One Lucky Memoir” By: Snoopy and Gayle Carline
By Susan Gambill-Read
From the Horse’s Mouth: One Lucky Memoir is a very special book. Both of my kids (10 and 12-year-old horse lovers) are reading it right now and loving it too. It is really the author’s memoir, as told by her horse, which makes a sweet, funny narrative and works as a great teaching tool.
As he tells his own story, Snoopy evolves from being a foal to a promising show horse, but he sustains an unexpected injury that changes everyone’s plans. Snoopy is sweet and a little bit on the dumb side but he doesn’t care, as long as he is loved. He is loyal, good natured and loves everyone, equine and human beings alike. He really wants to please people despite his enthusiasm for “fun games” such as resisting the halter, chewing on peoples’ clothes, and goat tossing (that is not a typo).
It is also about an owner who wants to show her horse but she struggles with confidence and balance and reaches some very low points in their relationship. As Snoopy grows and evolves, so does his owner, who keeps learning more all the time, adapts, adjusts and invests a LOT of money to give her horse a good life whether or not he can fulfill her hopes and dreams.
In the end, my eyes were moist and I admired everyone including Snoopy and the horses and people who taught him to be a good and useful horse (most of the time.)
Good memoirs can be so educational without even feeling at all pedagogical. Some things a person (adult or child) can learn from this book:
• Horses have very different personalities and respond to different people differently.
• Horses have a tremendous capacity for empathy and respond according to the moods around them.
• How young horses learn social behaviors from other horses.
• How young horses are trained by people.
• How horse shows work, especially from the horse’s POV.
• Horses can recover from foot and leg injuries and even be successful in shows again.
• Sometimes the pain of an injury or illness really is forever pain and the horses need people to help them pass on.
• The importance (as well as the endless expense) of veterinary care.
• People can adjust their/our expectations of individual horses and continue to love and work with them, even after being disappointed.
• Some horses have terrible lives because some people are not good for them.
• With good people making the right choices, horses can have wonderful lives even when they age, and they can have good passings when it is time.
For more information about this book contact Gayle Carline at http://gaylecarline.com/.
