... deeply moving ... Maum's journey of healing and salvation in reconnecting to equine culture--including riding lessons and pursuing competitive polo--is wittily engaging and uncompromisingly forthright. In surmounting personal obstacles and fears, she confronts the past, while also braiding in delightful flourishes regarding the metaphorical meanings of horses and the universal role they have played throughout history and in the arts.
You don’t need to know anything about the titular subject of Courtney Maum’s The Year of the Horses to appreciate this candid and engaging memoir of how rediscovering a long-abandoned passion helped lift her out of a crisis. ... While Maum’s prescription isn’t for everyone, her story reveals how 'what pulls us out of darkness can be surprising.' The Year of the Horses shows how the willingness to put aside fear and take on a new challenge in adulthood can unlock a happier life.
The crux of this memoir is in the strength of a mother developing her own self outside of the cultural rigidity of motherhood, and then bringing her child into that space. When Maum nurtures her inner desires, her mothering doesn’t suffer. It improves ... The commentary woven throughout moves this from a story about a woman and horses to become a conversation on how parents, especially those socialized as women, are still fighting to build identities as selves beyond their roles ... we ride with Maum and celebrate her using horses to redefine what it means to be a mother.
... wry and tender ... Interspersed throughout are entertaining morsels of horse culture history ... Her account of recovering that voice is vivid and exuberantly cathartic.
