Booktalking "Rein It In: An A Circuit Novel" by Georgina Bloomberg and Catherine Hapka
A Circuit—one of the most competitive horse show circuits available. Teenagers who are both horse crazy and relationship crazy, sneaking quick kisses and dating in between all of the preparation for horse shows and competition. The time commitment makes it rough and difficult to stay on top of schoolwork, as well. In the world of the super-rich, riders have many competition horses. One for equitation, etc., etc. In the middle of all of this: HorseShowSecrets, a blog that contains all of the latest gossip and speculations that one could want to know about all of the players in the horse show scene: riders, trainers, horses and owners. For the teens, this is all the rage, but the adults in the barn seem oblivious to the blog's very existence.
Told alternately from the perspectives of Tommi, Kate and Zara, these youngsters train the horses in order to sell them for a profit, deal with their quirkiness and zany behavior, and have a bunch of fun in the process. So many horses with different personalities and athletic strengths and weaknesses. It takes finesse, fortitude, and savvy to ride each one to his or her personal best.
Rein It In by Georgina Bloomberg and Catherine Hapka, 2013
I was interested to learn that this book is co-written by Michael Bloomberg's daughter. I was not aware that she is a professional equestrienne, but she has a fine sense of horse behavior, and it is terrific and very fun for me to be able to relate to the horse behavior since I am a rider and horse lover myself. Also, it was neat to learn about what the horse show circuit is like. Bloomberg owns multiple competition horses. I thought that it was sweet that she thanked particular horses in the Acknowledgments.
Certain elements of the book were semi-autobiographical. Kate is a teenager who wants to train and show horses full time, which is what Bloomberg ended up doing. Also, Joy is a 30-year-old pregnant horse trainer, which is what Bloomberg was when the book was published.
My only criticism of the book is that I wish that it had focused less on gossip and more on horsemanship.
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