The Word Is "Friend:" If A Horse Had Words by Kelly Cooper and Lucy Eldridge

The foal is born on a spring morning of sunshine and snowmelt. She opens her eyes. If she had words, she would say willow, crocus, puddle, and sky.

Then she has a strange, overwhelming urge.

If a horse had words, the word would be...
UP!

Her skinny legs kick and flail and one back leg is stuck in a badger hole. She is terrified and her mother is anxious. But a truck approaches and stops and a big man and a small one come to help her get loose and stand.

If a horse had words, the word would be ...
BOY.

The mare nickers, the foal bounces, and the boy leaps as if he doesn't like to be held down by the ground either.

SEASONS pass, and the boy and the little horse grow. The boy names her for her color, Red Badger. One day he holds out something in his palm of his hand to share with her--a peppermint! Soon she remembers that smell that goes with the boy.

If a horse had words, the word would be ...
FRIEND.

But the time comes when the young mare must work, must be broken for riding, but when she leaps too high, the boy falls off and his father frowns. If she cannot be ridden, she must go away. The word for that is SOLD!

Time passes, and Red Badger finds a home in a rodeo where she becomes famous as the horse that can't be ridden. But for the boy and for the horse, their words are never forgotten. And one day when the boy has grown up, Red Badger smells something familiar as a new rider eases onto her back in the chute. Peppermints.

They both do their jobs.

They shoot into the air like fireworks. Red Badger whinnies. The word is...
JOY.

It's a joyous rodeo reunion for boy and horse, in Kelly Cooper's poetic cowboy story, If a Horse Had Words (Tundra Books, 2018), which celebrates the ties of kindness that bind the boy and the young colt, giving young readers a window into the way a horse would see the same events in a different way. Artist Lucy Eldridge adds lightness to the story with her whimsical water-colored illustrations that reveal the horse's nature and the boy's feelings perfectly as the two bond, separate sadly, and are reunited in a high-kicking happy celebration. This is a heartwarming book for anyone who has loved and lost (and perhaps found) a much-loved animal.