Riding Lessons ©2004 is written by Sara Gruen, the same author who wrote Water for Elephants ©2006. I chose to read Riding Lessons because I very much liked Water for Elephants; but I did not care for Riding Lessons nearly as much.
The environment and background information in this book will definitely appeal to horse lovers. The author indubitably had an in depth knowledge of the subject. Riding Lessons contains an excellent description of equestrian terms and practices. But the main character, Annemarie, is repeatedly incompetent, and avoids conflict at all costs, even when it is necessary to resolve problems. Annemarie procrastinates to a ridiculous extent. She was such a dingbat that I found it hard to enjoy the book. She struggles in her relationship with her teenage daughter, is barely speaking to her mother, and is divorced from her husband. She nearly drives her parents' horse breeding business into bankruptcy.
I think my favorite characters were Highland Harry and his brother Highland Hurrah, two uniquely striped horses. I read this book several months ago and conveniently "forgot" to blog about it. Now it is faint in my memory except for my 2 star rating. Amazon readers gave it 4 stars. Why? Perhaps because of the intricacies and accuracies of the view within the horse industry, certainly not because of character development.
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