Saddle Up and Read [January 2026 Challenge]

Russell, Rachel, and Rachael chat about our January reading challenge, books featuring a horse. They discuss the Chinese Zodiac which inspired the challenge, share a glimpse behind the scenes into the creative process and bond over the nostalgia of childhood trauma.
If you have a favorite literary horse we somehow missed, let us know on social media!

Books we discuss include:

• “The Neverending Story” by Michael Ende
• “Animal Farm” by George Orwell
• “My Friend Flicka” by Mary O’Hara
• “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving
• “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien
• “The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” by Don Rosa
• “Casper and Nightmare” comics
• Barney Google Snuffy Smith
• “The Princess Bride” by William Goldman
• “The Horse and His Boy” by C.S. Lewis
• “Horse” by Geraldine Brooks
• “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse” by Charlie Mackesy
• “Seabiscuit: An American Legend” by Laura Hillenbrand
• “The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America” by Elizabeth Letts
• “Misty of Chincoteague” by Marguerite Henry
• “The Perfect Horse: the Daring U.S. Mission to Rescue the Priceless Stallions Kidnapped by the Nazis” by Elizabeth Letts
• “Ghost Riders: When US and German Soldiers Fought Together to Save the World's Most Beautiful Horses in the Last Days of World War II” by Mark Felton
• “The Unmothers” by Leslie J. Anderson
• “Wild Horse Country: The History, Myth, and Future of the Mustang” by David Philipps
• “Black Beauty” by Anna Sewell
• “National Velvet” by Enid Bagnold
• “The Black Stallion” series by Walter Farley
• “Joe Pickett” series by C.J. Box

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