I have read a few horse books that I really liked. I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Wilson is a horse book I really enjoyed. This book, however, I had a hard time getting through. It has the most shameless, unadulterated, horse worship I have ever read. William lives in Northern England during the reign of Richard the Lionheart. As a young squire he falls in love with a red horse, named Hosanna. For the rest of the book, Hosanna is the end all and be all of creation. Hosanna passes, temporarily, from owner to owner, but each man who owns him decides to repent of their sins, and become a better person. In the final scene William is fighting a desperate battle during the crusade and men and horses are getting killed one after another. But when Hosanna gets wounded, both Christians and Serisans are so distraught, they stop the battle and work feverishly to save the horse. Admittedly, I am not a pet person. I have never had a strong emotional bond with an animal and maybe if I had I would understand the book better. Other elements of the story were fine. The characters were interesting and complex. Grant's portrayal of the Crusaders was well researched and close to historically accurate. The pacing of the whole book was a bit slow. I just couldn't swallow the fact that the main characters cared so much more about the horse than they did about the other people around them. (277p)
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