One Hundred and Four Horses: One Family's Fight to save Their Horses, Their Lives and Their Way of Life - Softcover

Retzlaff, Mandy

4.06

1,039 ratings by Goodreads

9781443413657: One Hundred and Four Horses: One Family's Fight to save Their Horses, Their Lives and Their Way of Life

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1443413658 ISBN 13: 9781443413657

Publisher: Collins, 2013

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A memoir, a love story and a thrilling account of dramatic escape and survival, an epic tale of human and animal fortitude

On an early summer morning in 2001, Mandy Retzlaff received the phone call that she and her family had been dreading. Her farmhouse in northern Zimbabwe was being decimated at the hands of an angry mob of Robert Mugabe’s war veterans, who had been tasked with driving white farmers from their homes. In just a few short days, forty-five of Mandy’s neighbours narrowly escaped with their lives and decided to leave Zimbabwe behind.

These families would forge a new life overseas, safe from the recriminations of Mugabe’s warmongers―yet, as they fled, they left so much behind, not least the beloved pets and farm animals to which they had devoted their lives. Mandy knew that her life, and that of her family, had changed forever. As her friend fled Zimbabwe, she had only oneparting request. “We need your help,” she said. “It’s our horses. Something has got to be done about our horses.”

It was in this moment that Mandy, along with her husband, Pat, made the decision not to shrink into fear but to reach out and help. Over the following months, they rescued a group of 104 horses from the violence of the home invasions and, in one case, quite literally from the jaws of lions. As they moved across the Zimbabwean countryside, seeking ever more remote enclaves of safety for a herd of horses, it became clear: it was not just the family who were rescuing the horses, but the horses who were rescuing the family.

One Hundred and Four Horses is the story of an idyllic existence torn apart, and a story of incredible bonds―a love of the land, the strength of a family, and the connection between man and the most majestic of animals, the horse.

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About the Author:

Mandy Retzlaff is a lifelong horse lover and farmer. Today, Mandy and her husband, Pat Retzlaff, run a horse safari company on the Mozambique coast, taking tourists on rides through the wild and wonderful country that they now call home.

Review:

“[A] dramatic, emotionally charged book.” (Daily Mail (UK))

“[A] heartwarming memoir. . . . The author offers a behind-the-headlines view of the Zimbabwean struggle, which accentuates the true gruesomeness and folly of war.” (Kirkus Reviews)

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