Topanga, California is the summer destination for young Matt Barrett from Chicago. His mother, a troubled woman with ambitions to be a singer at Las Vegas, packs Matt out of the way of her violent boyfriend. She sends him to stay with his grandfather Silas Phillips in TOPANGA CANYON: FIRE SEASON.
Right from the start we see Matt alone and without guidance except his inner convictions. He tells a bus driver his name but cavils at going off for a meal with a total stranger when the ranch pickup isn’t there to meet him. Matt at first resents being sent to stay with people he doesn’t really know, in a place without phone reception. He is made to do hard dirty work all day. The only woman on the ranch is the capable cook, Esmerelda. Everyone else is a grown man who just gives him orders. But there are horses, including Black Water, a fiery stallion.
Several Tennessee Walking Horses are bred, trained, and sold from the ranch, and Matt – at first nervous – comes to like and appreciate the mounts. Matters change when he is told to assist a horse trainer named Robert Sinclair who rents barn space on the property. Robert’s methods are unethical, and Matt sees them become downright cruel. But nobody seems to want to know.
Cruel practices like horse soring are explored by author Barbara Bryan, who wants to shine a light on such abuse and end its days. The story is aimed at Young Adult readers but could upset the tender. The idea is to raise a better-informed young generation who can and will speak out against harming beautiful horses in the name of prestige and money.
Ariel, a girl who takes riding lessons on a nearby farm, becomes an ally, but the young teens are in the awkward position faced by many young people in the horse world. They are unpaid labour, with no control over their lives or the actions of wealthy adults. Since his mom made it clear she prefers Las Vegas to her responsibilities, Matt doesn’t have any adult willing to listen – he thinks. As the Santa Ana winds blow hot, and the local Native American tribe enlists Matt’s aid to construct a sweat lodge, the heat, and stress spiral out of control.
TOPANGA CANYON: FIRE SEASON is a searing indictment, not only against cruelty but against the established horse set who look the other way, saying a man can do what he wants with his horses. And it shows us that young people often have it right.
Matt, a teenage boy from Chicago, is exiled to his grandfather's horse ranch in Topanga, California by his alcoholic mother. There, he must learn to adapt to an alien lifestyle filled with strangers and animals he finds terrifying.
As Matt's new life unfolds and his love for horses grows, he realizes that his grandfather is in danger of losing his beloved ranch due to outstanding debts. Desperate to keep the ranch, his grandfather leases out one of the barns to an unscrupulous horse trainer named Robert Sinclair.
Matt soon witnesses the antiquated and brutal methods of training Sinclair uses on his Tennessee Walking Horses. Confronted by an unwillingness by everyone at the ranch to oppose Sinclair and his use of horse soring, Matt searches for a way to make the outside world aware of the horse's needless torture. With the help of his friend Ariel, they devise a plan to expose Sinclair and his brutal methods. But will the fury of the yearly Santa Ana winds ignite a devastating fire and give Sinclair his chance for revenge?
Topanga Canyon: Fire Season by Barbara Bryan weaves a tale that reignites the essential truth that we all intrinsically possess the courage to face the myriad of challenges in today's world and restores the knowledge that, through us, change is possible.
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