Survival, Healing, and Human-Horse Bonds: A Story of Family Love in New Mexico

About this book

With flames consuming the house and barn and gunfire behind him, Carlos has only one way to escape- on the bare back of Ben, the family's aging plow horse.Leaving behind a shootout in the violent drug-smuggling world of his father and brother, nineteen-year-old Carlos and Ben plunge into the vast expanse of the Chihuahuan Desert night. Injured, terrified, and without water or even a shirt on his back, Carlos knows well they could perish in the heat of the coming day.The will to survive drives this young man and this old horse onward. What follows over the next twenty years is an unpredictable journey in which Carlos encounters an unforgettable cast of characters, both human and equine, who not only transform his life but who are, in turn, healed and transformed by his growing capacity to love. Is it chance or destiny that leads him to a ranch in San Miguel? Who could predict he would be adopted by Helen, a schoolteacher who provides the education he was denied as a child.? Or that her husband Tom would not only teach him everything about the love and care of horses, but also restore the confidence and self-respect his birth father had tried to destroy?Could Carlos ever imagine that one day he would be called upon to save Tonya, a deaf teenage, from a violent assault? Or that she would have an unspoken capacity to communicate with horses, especially with Pinto, a spirited American Paint who would allow no one else to place a saddle upon his back, let alone ride him?How could he have foreseen that Lulu, the powerful but tender partner of his Uncle Pedro, would inspire him to overcome his childhood fears of rejection and begin to realize his potential to become the artist he yearns to be? Or that Alice, Lulu's eccentric, fast-driving, deeply thoughtful friend, would be the one to finally bring this unlikely family together? From the bonds of his new family, Carlos learns to believe in himself and to trust others. He falls in love. He paints. His developing character and capacity for love are forged by the personalities of the people and animals he meets throughout his odyssey. The terrified young man who escapes parental abuse and an early death, develops into a man with great capacity to love and protect others. Even when confronted with disease and more violence, the love of the family he now leads triumphs.Set beneath the immense skies, blazing sunsets, and distant mountain ridges of New Mexico, Survival, Healing, and Human-Horse Bonds is a transformational novel about resilience, chosen family, second chances, and the mysterious ways in which humans and animals communicate. This is a book for readers who love emotionally rich horse fiction, family stories, inspirational journeys, the beauty of the American Southwest, and the extraordinary bonds between humans and horses.

Details

Format

Paperback

ISBN-13

9780998961781

Publisher

Josef Arnould

Published

August 20, 2026

Pages

378

Weight

16 oz

Subject

Fiction