Horse

Rinaldi’s opening spread shows fields suddenly lit by a sun just out of view, barely penetrating the drifting clouds. A little further on, a mare appears in the field, belly heavy, and glowing, almost golden. This is the story of her foal, from the moment of his birth to the morning when, as a yearling, he wears a head collar for the first time and a girl leads him from the field to be trained to be ridden. Not that we see that process. Rather, we are granted a glimpse into an imagined future as the girl rides him in the sunset along the waterline of a deserted beach. This book is a companion piece to Cow, Doyle and Rinaldi’s earlier collaboration. Once again, the restraint of Doyle’s plain and simple text is accompanied by Rinaldi’s sumptuous painting, in which a precision of animal portraiture and movement is combined with an impressionistic richness of landscape and light. But there is a different mood here. While Cow had its hooves firmly in the mud of the farmyard and its udders ready for the milking parlour, Horse is more a glimpse into a young girl’s soft focus fantasy, going for the epic gesture – the horse alone on a rock, silhouetted against the sky, monarch of all he surveys; and the sentimental moment – girl and horse in close embrace. Hard to disagree with the blurb: ‘A stunningly beautiful book – perfect for all pony fans!’