Winnie the Horse Gentler

I’ve done a lot of posts about books I’d recently read for the first time, but in this post I’ll be sharing one of my childhood favorites: Winnie the Horse Gentler by Dandi Daley Mackall.

Horses, Riding, and Books

Every kid has a horse phase, don’t they? When I was little, me and my sister would play ‘ranch’ and ride imaginary horses over jumps we set up around the yard.

Horse books are one of those things where they’re really good or really bad. In my experience, horse books fall into two categories:

• Accurate horse facts, likable characters, small farm, funny, good plot line.
• Unrealistic horses, annoying characters, big showy stable, boring, too much drama.

Winnie the Horse Gentler is a gem that is perfectly described by the first category.

The Plot

This 8-book series has a pretty simple, but very enjoyable, plot.

12-year-old Winnie’s mom died in a car accident a while back, and she recently moved to the small town of Ashland, Ohio. She is a skilled horse gentler, and quickly earns a reputation for it after training a wild Arabian no one else could get near. Each book features a new horse to gentle. And each book contains a thought-provoking lesson about God’s love.

That’s the basics. The series also includes an abundance of amazing characters, thoroughly-researched horse facts, and funny experiences.

I would LOVE to go into the characters. They each have names that describe the animal they love best (Catman, Lizzy, Barker…can you guess their animal?) and are all relatable, interesting, and refreshingly UN-dramatic.

But that would take a long time, so maybe I’ll do a separate post on characters.

My Thoughts

If you didn’t already catch on, the author is a Christian, and she incorporates a lot of her faith into these books. She wrote a kids’ devotional that I loved when I was younger.

One of my favorite things about these books is that they remind me about the basics of faith. Like God’s unfailing love. And that joy is a choice. And that there is so much to be grateful for. They are things I know in my head, but I’ve forgotten the depth of. That’s why I love these books.

There is a lot I love about these books, really. They’re nostalgic to me. And they are engaging. The characters are masterpieces.

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This is a gem of an animal-lover’s book. If you have ever loved horses, you will love it!