March 14th 2023 by Cameron Kids
Copy provided by Blue Slip Media
In the Netherlands, a horse is born early to Olina, whose heritage includes the famous Nimmordoor, who had a place in the Royal Dutch Warmblood Studbook. Named Trendsetter because of his early birth, Trendy shows great promise and is taken to a keuring to be officially inspected. Here, his chances for the future will be examined. At first, it looks like he will be a jumper like Nimmordoor, but when he isn't, he ends up with Cavalry Master Paula Butscher at a riding school in Austria, where famous Lippizaner stallions are trained. There are elite students at the school, and the one who is supposed to work with Trendy, Charles-Isaac, has some problems in his approach to dealing with the animals. Because of this, Trendy almost doesn't get to be shown, but the cavalry master believes in him, and he eventually is brought to the attention of horse trainer Beverly Moore. She has the horse flown to the US, but as he is getting off the plane, he trips and is injured and rendered unsuitable for competition.
In a parallel story, we meet Sarah, who lives in New York City and goes to an elite private school. Her grandmother survived the Holocaust and is a huge supporter of Sarah, who struggles with spelling and writing in school. While not named, it seems that she is struggling with dyslexia. She does well on multiple choice tests and class participation, but not with writing. At some point, she decides to quit doing her homework, since she doesn't feel that she can do as well on it as she would like to. Since she has made a deal with her parents that she can only continue riding as long as her grades remain good, this is a problem. The school eventually suspends her until she is caught up on her work; on the same day, her beloved grandmother goes into the hospital. While waiting for her to improve, Sarah writes her grandmother's story down, and her grandmother eventually brings this to the attention of Beverly Moore, who agrees to sell the injured horse to Sarah's family.
The editor's notes compare this to Sewell's Black Beauty or Henry's Misty of Chincoteague, and those are fair comparisons. Nir's language is very rich, and her descriptions, especially from Trendsetter's viewpoint, are poetic and lyrical. The book is a fun, small size with an appealing cover.
Fans of Random House's Horse Diaries (various authors) and girls with their own collections of Breyer's figurines will enjoy this based-on-a-true-story account of Trendsetter and Nir's journey to one another. There are plenty of equestrian details, especially about the sorting of animals in the Netherlands, that will be new and exciting to even the most dedicated horse enthusiast.
Even though Sarah is in 7th grade, this seemed slightly young, and I'm not sure how my readers will connect with Sarah's privileged New York City background. I'll try the book out with my horse fans and see what they think before ordering it, but it is available in hardcover through Follett and the second book in the series, The Jockey and Her Horse, about Black Jockey Cheryl White, looks interesting.
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