Review by Wildone
Status: Complete
Length: 132,747

Relatively new member and Author here at GA (Beginning of this November), Andrew Todd, joined GA and began to share a story that he was posting over at another site .

After reading the first chapter of Riding Lessons I was instantly hooked.

Zac, the 15 year old loner, had big plans for the summer working at the library helping kids out with reading and other tasks to be looked after. This was right up his alley as he tended to shy away from kids his own age, adults, and I would even say himself. Like all great plans by a teenager, they are quickly ruined when his mother announces that he will be working at a local ranch helping out with the care of horses and doing trail rides for customers.

Being that Zak had never even owned a dog or any other pet in his life had him doubting that he would last the first day. Not having the least interest in learning anything about horses found him promising his mother that he would give it a try at least, but in his own mind he knew it wouldn’t last.

The first day arrived and he found himself getting up early, his mom giving him a ride to the Triple J Ranch. Needless to say, the idea of shoveling horse manure doesn’t have him too ecstatic of the looming summer job. Mom dropped him off, then after getting knocked on his ass by a greeting from the ranch dog-a golden retriever named Ember-he meets Mr. Jones to find out his fate. Mr. Jones is a nice enough man Zak confesses to that he has never been around animals in his life. Mr. Jones questioned this immediately with the way that Ember took to Zak. After looking back at the story, I don’t think either could predict what was in store.

After an explanation of what he would be doing that left Zak wondering about a horse with 17 hands , Mr. Jones has to leave Zak to go tend some chores in another barn. He was to wait for another ranch hand by the name of Dusty to show up for work and get acquainted.

When Dusty appeared and introduced himself to Zak, sparks began to fly. The 16 year old half Native American Kiowa and half Anglo-Saxon with the long black hair tied back in a ponytail made Zak swoon. After Dusty got his hand back from the slack jawed Zak, Dusty went to check on Mr. Jones who was tending to a mare who was about to foal.

Zak, curious, walked around the main barn and slowly becomes acquainted with some of the horses living there. Finally walking down one wing, he found a lone stallion being kept by himself. Zak, not knowing any different, approached the horse and noticed the water bucket turned over. Slowly Zak entered, grabbed the bucket and went to fill it up for the horse. Coming back to the stall, Dusty returns and was shocked to see Zak about to re-enter the stall. Yelling for Zak to stop, Dusty was extremely concerned, as the last person to enter the stall of Onyz, the stallion, spent the night in the hospital.

Without giving away the whole story, which I could easily do, I will let you find out how the summer turns out .

Several things appealed to me throughout this story. First off the rural setting and the involvement of horses made me yearn for a childhood that I never had myself. I’ve always been drawn to horses as I know nothing about them myself. The depth of knowledge the author has of horses is amazing. Second, the easy going ‘simple’ nature of the story drew me in. I don’t mean simple as a put down. More so the flow of the story with the characters being easily developed and the conclusion of each chapter making you feel like you are on the ranch with the boys. Lastly, there is enough romance in the story to keep you interested in a way to not be overdone and does not take away from the plot and characters.

Riding Lessons is now complete and is a very enjoyable read. I would highly recommend it to any reader who wants to be captivated by the story and the characters, even if you don’t think of yourself as a horse person. Richard Todd’s descriptive nature of writing can make even the most dedicated urbanite escape to the reality of the Triple J Ranch.

I sincerely hope that he has more ideas for stories that he will share with us. If Riding Lessons is any indication of the quality of work we will see in the future, then my click on Follow This Author was definitely worth the effort