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.

Beauty Is Only Skin Deep! Fritz and the Beautiful Horses by Jan Brett

ONCE THERE WAS A WALLED CITY KNOWN FOR ITS BEAUTIFUL HORSES.

THEY WERE MAGNIFICENT JUMPERS AND SPLENDID CHARGERS. IT WAS DECREED THAT ONLY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOULD BE ALLOWED IN THE CITY.

FRITZ WAS NOT BEAUTIFUL.

Fritz is small and shaggy, built low to the ground for pulling, with an always tangled mane and tail and mostly muddy hooves.

But Fritz is gentle and always willing. He watches the beautiful horses in their elegant trappings going and coming and wishes he were as graceful and lovely as they. He tries to take long strides and lift his hooves prettily like the fancy horses. But day by day, he works hard and grows very strong and sure of foot.

But the children of the town are terrified of the beautiful horses. They are scary to ride, always prancing, easily startled, and tossing their heads and whinnying fearfully.

Then one day the river suddenly rises from torrential rains in the hills. The bridge that linked the walled city to the land around it falls under the force of the roiling waters, leaving the children outside the city for a riding lesson on their magnificent mounts. But the beautiful horses spook and refuse to cross the rising water. The children cannot get back to their homes.

"WE MIGHT ALL FALL OFF!" THEY CRIED.

THEN THEY NOTICED FRITZ.

FRITZ WAS NOT BEAUTIFUL. BUT HE WAS GENTLE AND KIND AND SURE-FOOTED AND ALWAYS WILLING TO WORK. ONE BY ONE FRITZ CARRIED THE CHILDREN. HE CALMLY STEPPED THROUGH THE RIVER FROM ROCK TO ROCK AND UP THE OTHER SIDE.

Fritz is the little pony who could, in the newly revised edition of Jan Brett's [ [ [ Fritz and the Beautiful Horses [ FRITZ AND THE BEAUTIFUL HORSES ] By Brett, Jan ( Author )Mar-23-1981 Hardcover (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2016 rev. ed.), a lovely republishing of her 1981 story that reaffirms the belief that beauty isn't everything in this world. Even in this early effort, Jan Brett's illustrations are lovely, with jewel-like artwork worth of a valued tapestry, with deep colors and elegant line and with her trademark borders which are both decorative and functional, acting as foreshadowing for what is to happen next in the story. A fine cautionary fable, well restored for the modern child.