Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

In every generation, there is a legion of young girls that are head over heels in love with horses. For a lot of those girls, the closest they get to living their dreams is the pages of a book. Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, Walter Farley’s Black Stallion books, Margaret Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague, and The Saddle Club books by Bonnie Bryant, as well as titles by ghostwriters, are the closest those get to full blown equine addiction.

Quite a few of them trade in their dream ponies for dream men at about fourteen. Personally, I haven’t seen a great many men that can actually turn my head better than a gorgeous stallion, but there is no accounting for taste.

Our love affair with horses doesn’t end there, though, even if we give it up to seem more societally acceptable. For good reason, horses symbolize a wealthy life style. Take a survey of books, and if you want to show that someone has a ridiculously large pocketbook, they are often shown as riders and breeders. I’m not going to argue with the logic here, as I own four horses. In no way do I qualify as insanely rich, but they are insanely expensive.

The symbolism goes far deeper than that. Horses are often symbols of freedom, much like birds. The difference is that birds usually represent a freedom that is denied to us. After all, people don’t come with wings, and despite several literary attempts to make them so, we’d still need a keel bone (the sternum of a bird) that’s like 6ft. long just to support the muscles needed to lift our mass. Which means flight probably isn’t going to happen. Hand gallop a horse through a flat meadow in the morning, and you’ll be as close to actual flight as a person can get.

Which is why horses are often used to symbolize attainable freedom, like in coming of age stories. Training the horse, overcoming its fears, putting in the long hours of care needed to succeed, these things translate well to every aspect of growing up. All desires to the contrary, most people don’t just wish for greatness and have it happen. They wish, they dream, and then they work their butts off, because that’s what it takes.

Probably the least used, but deepest symbolic meaning for the horse is communication. It is true that members of the family equidae do not work cell phones well, nor do they troll the internet. They are, however, masters at teaching their riders to communicate clearly. The horse doesn’t care how much money is in your account, what color your skin is, or whether or not you know the mayor. He cares that you know what you are doing, that you are fair, consistent, and that you listen to him as much as he listens to you.

One of my favorite children’s books explores some of this, as well as cheerful themes like grief, regrets, and loneliness. The Stone Pony, by Patricia Calvert, is one that sticks with you. I read constantly, and I read to both my kids every night, so you can imagine that in my 45 years I have read a lot of books. That one touched me, and stayed.

For those people that don’t get nickers with breakfast, and who own shirts without pony nose prints, I am grateful to the authors that write great horse stories. Even with my own thundering herd, I still like to curl up with one.

Cheers,

Michelle