The Blueberry Stories continued with “Valegro: The Early Years” by Carl Hester. The reader follows along with Blueberry as he returns to Hester’s barn and continues with his training.
This chapter of the story focuses on Blueberry’s early training, culminating in his first show. The other horses in the stable play a bigger part this time, adding Regency and Uthopia to the cast. Blueberry also makes friends with the cats Bonnie and Clyde as he learns more about the world around the barn. Finally, he goes to his first competition with his stablemate Uthopia, the black stallion who is a year older.
This book really focused on building the foundations of training a horse. It was definitely written more for a budding horseman rather than the casual reader. Hester tries to keep it entertaining with the introduction of Regency and the cats and somewhat succeeds. I personally enjoyed it as it went into detail about the training that Hester does at his barn. One note I will make is the difference between the British terms that he uses that the reader picks up.
The series continues to be a great read for horsey kids in explaining the foundations of training a dressage horse. I enjoyed it and will be finishing the series, but for those who just want to learn about Valegro, you may want to pick up the adult books about him instead.