Chosen by a horse : a memoir / Susan Richards.

This is a lovely and touching book, an account of the life journey that Susan Richards took along with her horse Lay Me Down. There are some humorous moments in the book too, especially her descriptions of her dating experiences. Richards already had three horses when she went to see a group of 40 mistreated horses that had been confiscated by the SPCA, which was looking for suitable homes for the animals. Richards decided which horse she wanted, but ended up taking Lay Me Down instead. Lay Me Down had physical damage from being used as a racehorse before she was mature enough and was a walking skeleton. In addition, she had a foal.

Richards was herself mistreated as a young child. Her mother died when she was five and with her father sinking into alcoholism, she was shifted around to various unsympathetic and abusive relatives. Heartbreakingly, when she was eight, she was told by an uncle, "No, no, we didn't mean you" after telling the children to insert a piece of paper with their Christmas wishes into a box. Now at 43, she was divorced and a former alcoholic.

One of the few bright points in her childhood was horses. She was given her first horse when she was 5 and was trained to properly care for the animal. When she brought Lay Me Down home, she nurtured her carefully, even taking the quilt from her king sized bed, punching holes in the edge and lacing it onto the horse to keep her warm. The health of the new horse was only part of her problem. Now she faced the very difficult task of introducing the new animal to the three horses she already had. One of them, Georgia, a Morgan mare, was particularly hostile to the newcomer and there were many adventures and misadventures along the way.

Despite all that she experienced, Lay Me Down had a very calm and relaxed nature. "I'd never known a horse this obliging, this relaxed. It didn't seem horsey, this calm, endless good nature. It didn't even seem human. She had so many good reasons to be skittish or mean or difficult, but she never was... What exactly was it that enabled an abused animal, for lack of a better word, to love again?"