Big Guy: A School Horse Story

by Celia Ryker, Kathy Connell (illustrator)

For fans of Black Beauty and A Horse Named Sky, here's a new middle grade novel by award-winning author and former horse trainer Celia Ryker with illustrations by Kathy Connell. Big Guy is about a show horse who has big changes to face, and who learns that friendships can last beyond the time you share together.

Big Guy is a big horse dealing with big changes. His looks and talent have helped him win blue ribbons at the biggest horse shows in the country. But when old age and injury make him unfit for winning prizes, his owner retires him to a position as a school horse, giving riding lessons to children. At the school horse barn, Big Guy meets Shorty, Kaiser, Slippy and many other horses who teach him about running in wide open fields and being part of a herd. Uplifting, funny, and sweet, Big Guy is a simple story told from the horse's point of view that reads like a night under the stars, or an afternoon racing to a hay field.

184 pages, Paperback

Published June 18, 2024

Reviews

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book to review. It is a cute book told through the eyes of a horse. If you like horses you will really enjoy this book. The adventures the horses get themselves into will show you just how intelligent animals can be.

[Christina Getrost · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fun middle grade book about a show horse, stable name "Big Guy," a Thoroughbred who is now suffering from arthritis and is too old to keep showing with "his person." She arranges for him to become a school horse, used for riding and jumping lessons. He has to adjust to his new situation being let out in a field instead of always in a stall, and new stallmates, and putting up with little kids and amateur riders. Bug Guy tells his story from his point of view (like the classic Black Beauty), with several flashback sequences as he recalls his days as a foal and his showjumping days. The other horses are all interesting characters, of different breeds, ages, and they share their past experiences too, and have fun quirks to their personalities--from Kaiser, the former ranch horse who kicks saddles off the wall at night, just for fun, to Slippy the circus horse who breaks the fence and leads the herd on adventures. Big Guy starts out a loner and makes friends as he goes, enjoying becoming part of a herd family. It's a sweet story for horse lovers, with realistic equine behavior (other than the fantasy element of them all talking to each other, of course). Tons of horse facts and info about riding and barn life, and the reader is swept along into believing the horses know the human vocabulary about most things. Nice realistic black and white spot illustrations throughout are perfect. The author's note reveals that the characters are all based on real horses from her experiences, and I enjoyed that--there's nothing more disappointing than a horse book that doesn't get the horses right.