This is a story of “divine” love, which, I believe, God sends to each of us when our heart needs help healing. For Susan it was a horse named Lay Me Down. Both had been deserted in life. Susan’s mother died when she was young and her father, a drunk, turned his back on her. She ended up bouncing from one family home to another because no one really wanted her. Lay Me Down, no longer needed or wanted after her racing days were over, was rescued along with about 40 other race horses, and fostered out through SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals). Susan had chosen a horse to foster just by the cute name of one horse over the phone. But when she arrived, it was raining, cold and chaotic and they couldn’t single her horse out from the others, who were becoming frightened and rambunctious. She shouted out that any horse would do. So, she ended up with Lay Me Down Lay, who taught Susan, then in her 40's, how to trust and love again.

Susan describes each of her four horses’ personalities very well. You will feel like you really get to know and love Lay Me Down, but because of a brain tumor that was growing behind one of her eyes, she had to be put to sleep. On her last day, Lay Me Down was found lying alone on the ground, taking in the last of the early morning spring sun instead of eating with the others as usual. Susan knew the day had come. Even the other horses knew there was something wrong; they had gathered together and were feeding away from her off in the distance. Susan grabbed her camera to capture a lasting memory of Lay Me Down, then walks you through the excruciating pain of putting her beloved horse down. Tissues are mandatory! I love that she included this photo of Lay Me Down at the end of each chapter. ( )

I didn't expect this book to be so enjoyable and brutally honest. This is not just another feel good horse book. This is a book about life and how we can be awakened to a deeper meaning through unexpected people, events or animals such as Lay Me Down, the horse. What an unhappy life Susan Richards had and the mare Lay Me Down helped her to come to an understanding of her past. A very good book! ( )

so touching...cried like a baby ( )

Susan Richards has survived an abusive childhood and a bad marriage, and now, in her forties, is living on a small farm with her three horses, working as a social worker, and determinedly protecting her independence. Having given up alcohol, casual sex, and in fact men altogether, she may be lonely, but at least she’s safe.

Then she gets a call from the local SPCA, which has taken in more than forty horses from an abuse case. Their barn was already full; they need foster homes immediately. Against her better judgment, Richards agrees to take one of the horses.

She gets a Standardbred named Lay Me Down, a 16-year-old broodmare who is terribly thin and who has pneumonia. With Susan’s care, Lay Me Down gets back to a healthy weight, recovers from her pneumonia, and gets successfully integrated into her existing herd of one Morgan mare and two quarter horse geldings.

And then she discovers that Lay Me Down has an eye tumor. In the position it’s in, it can’t even be biopsied safely, but it’s almost certainly cancerous.

Susan Richards, whose heart broke at age five when her mother died a lingering death from cancer, and who has steadfastly avoided any emotional commitments that would lead to loss, finds herself committed to a beautiful, sweet-natured horse who has had a life as hard as her own, and who is going to die. Susan struggles with Lay Me Down’s illness, her own conflicted feelings, and her first stumbling efforts to rejoin the human race. This truly is a deeply moving story about a horse, a broken heart, and the beginnings of healing.

Highly recommended.

I borrowed this book from a friend.
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Touching and poignant. ( )