The Horse Whisperer by Nicholas Evans

The Horse Whisperer

The Horse Whisperer novel was written in 1995 by Nicholas Evans and the movie was released in 1998 directed by Robert Redford.

The horse whisperer is about a young teenage girl named Grace Mclean who sadly had lost her leg after a horse accident riding with one of her friends. The accident had severely hurt her horse Pilgrim and herself. Grace didn’t only lose her leg but she lost her friend who had been killed during the accident. Grace’s parents Annie Mclean and Robert Mclean are both torn about what had happened to their daughter but are grieving and dealing with it in their own different ways. The people who found Pilgrim after the accident suggested to put the horse down but Annie wouldn’t let them do it, she told them to help Pilgrim as much as they can. Annie tracks down a guy called Tom Booker who is a horse whisperer in the Montana Mountains, she tries to convince him to help but is too far away from where he is working. Annie decides to put Pilgrim on the float and drive with Grace all the way to Montana. Grace after the accident started to become bitter and didn’t want anything to do with her horse, she also didn’t want to go on the trip with her mum. After a few days at the ranch, Tom has gotten Pilgrim to start trusting people again and helps Grace get her confidence back with Pilgrim.

Throughout their time at the Montana Ranch there has been different relationships that have sprouted. At the start of the movie, Graces bond with Pilgrim seems to be unbreakable but after the terrible accident Pilgrim was uncontrollable and their bond torn apart, this is when Annie decided to call Tom Booker to see if he could help Pilgrim trust anyone again and to rebuild the bond between Grace and Pilgrim. Eventually Grace bonds with Pilgrim again but it took them both time to learn to trust each other again and get her confidence back. Also with Tom helping Grace through this hard time, they create a strong bond that helps her to believe in herself and gives her self-confidence. During the time Grace and her mum have been at the ranch, Annie and Tom also start getting close and Annie cheats on her husband with Tom.

At the start, Grace is a sweet, loving daughter that loves riding her horse but after the accident, Grace becomes bitter and hateful. Pilgrim after the accident was uncontrollable and traumatized, he wouldn’t let anyone near him and he was scared to be near people. Both Grace and Pilgrim changed after the traumatic hit they had, they both lost something that day. Annie saw this and wanted to help her daughter to get better and that’s when she called Tom. During their time at the Ranch, Grace slowly turns back to her normal self with the help of Tom. On the other hand, Pilgrim learns to trust people again and he starts to become the way he was before the accident.