and "A new chapter opens for Susan Richards when she agrees to care for an abused horse rescued by the local SPCA. and " and "Her life has been difficult: her mother died when she was five and she was sent to live with unsympathetic and abusive relatives; she married unhappily and was divorced; she'd been an alcoholic. Now, at the age of forty-three, she lives with three horses who keep her company: diva-like Georgia, a Morgan mare, and Tempo and Hotshot, both quarter horse geldings. and " At the SPCA Susan finds twenty sick, exhausted mares, together with their foals, milling about the muddy paddock. The horse she selected by name is impossible to find among the panicked herd. So, when an emaciated bay mare stumbles up the ramp to the trailer, followed by her foal, Susan agrees to take her. The mare's name is Lay Me Down, and with her arrival, Susan finds that she has acquired more than a horse: she has found a friend whose unstinting love makes it possible for Susan, in turn, to heal from the wounds that she has suffered, and respond to love.