Horses & Us by Johanna Emeney

In Horses & Us, Johanna Emeney has written twenty-three heartwarming and inspiring stories to celebrate the special bond that exists between horses and their humans and of the many amazing things they can achieve when they work together. Thanks to a Creative New Zealand grant, she travelled across the country to gather these captivating tales.

A very special part of this book is the poems, artworks, photographs and many illustrations by award-winning artists. As each chapter has its own theme, a different illustrator was chosen for each one to be a perfect match!

At the beginning of Horses & Us, Johanna Emeney reminisces about how she first fell in love with horses when she was 13 years old and went on a mission to find a horse of her own. When she found her dream pony, Billy (the Amazing Blazing Billy), it was love at first sight! She was able to trace the two young girls who had owned Billy before her and had loved him to bits until they outgrew him, and includes their stories, too.

Then follow further chapters on:

Unbridled Creativity: Contemporary stories from NZ artists who have explored the relationship between humans and their horses in their art (both visual and written), including Stacy Gregg, who a great many young readers will know through her popular horse stories. Stacey says she was mad keen on anything equine from the time she was a kid, and she shares one of her earliest memories: stroking a horse's muzzle for the first time when she was just two years old.

Rising Fast: Here we meet some very successful young equestrians who have a passion for horses and have a drive to compete. All are grateful to both the humans who have mentored them and the horses who have taught them to succeed.

Bloodlines. For many families in Aotearoa, New Zealand, horses are in the blood, and riding, competing, horsemanship, or moving stock across hilly farmland are skills passed down over generations. We meet the family who run the Ashburn Stud and are breeding Clydesdale horses. Their children were part of the Stud from the time they were born. All are passionate about inspiring others to breed these splendid horses, as only about 750 of them remain registered in New Zealand.

A truly inspiring story in this chapter comes from Louise Duncan, a girl from a horsey family who was already an award-winning equestrian when she caught meningitis in her last year of school. She became desperately ill and suffered a stroke and seizures. A hospital specialist told her to forget horse riding and to concentrate on relearning to walk and talk again, but Louise was determined to get back on the saddle. Eventually, with the support of her Mum as her coach, she went on to become an award-winning para equestrian on Spirit, a magical chestnut gelding. Then she made it to the 2024 Paralympics on his younger half-brother, Showcase. She says:

“It must be most people’s dream to one day represent their country. I got to do that- with one of my best friends and I couldn’t be more grateful.’

Healing Horses.  Horses can help heal humans and improve both their physical and mental health.  And conversely, humans can help horses to heal too, and not just through veterinary medicine. There’s a lovely story in this chapter about Ellie O’Brien, a young horse trainer who is exploring using Māori music and medicine to resolve tension and trauma in horses.

In the Afterword, we meet Johanna Emeney’s beloved Billy again, now 22 years old, and there is a heart-wrenching story of how his knee became infected after a steroid injection and eventually an agonising choice had to be made as to whether he should undergo a second very serious surgery or be put down. I don’t want to spoil anything here and will leave readers to discover for themselves whether they went ahead and whether Billy made a miraculous recovery.

Anyone, both young and old, would enjoy this beautiful book and be inspired and uplifted by reading it, including youngsters who have grown up in the city and only seen horses grazing in paddocks when taken for a drive in the countryside. The stories, so well told, will open a whole new window for them into the bond between horses and their owners and the amazing things they can achieve when they work together. It’s a great read!

Reviewer: Lyn Potter

Massey University Press