Readers Favorite five star review, Wishing Shelf cover finalist, Penncraft Award for Literary Excellence

Finding Gideon: A Broken Dream, a Missing Horse, and the Faith of a Mustard Seed

A horse, a dog, and a longtime dream coming together—what more could a girl want?

Since the day I read my first Thoroughbred series book in fifth grade, I imagined crouching over the withers of a racehorse, feeling its muscles bunch together and release with each stride. But I wanted more than an image in my mind—I wanted it in real life.

It was my junior year of college when I left home to chase that dream, and for a minute, I had it between my fingers. Gideon rode in the horse trailer, and Sandi was curled into a ball in the backseat when I moved to Louisville. Within two weeks, I was pounding down the track on young Thoroughbreds, impressing trainers with my bravery and skill. But soon, piece by piece, it began to crumble. Holding onto the dream, and my faith, was like grabbing water by the fistful and watching it slip between my fingers.

How could I keep going in this land of strangers and broken dreams? How could I trust the God who gives when He’s also the God who takes away? But how could I quit when the dream still stirred in my bones and Gideon was out there somewhere?

About the Author

a girl smiles for the camera while a horse stands behind her looking into the distance

Sarah Hickner hails from Mississippi but has spent the latter half of her life as a resident of Virginia. The in-between, her two years spent in Kentucky, are the ones that led to her writing journey. The summer before her junior year of college, she loaded up her horse Gideon and her freshly adopted dog Sandi and struck out to chase a dream of riding racehorses in Louisville, Kentucky. Piece by piece, against all effort and understanding, the things she loved most crumbled around her. An accident on the track landed her in the hospital, and two weeks later, her beloved Gideon disappeared. What followed was a journey of determination and faith where God shone through every single detail.

Sarah’s favorite thing about writing is walking with her Creator as He creates through her. She hopes her stories do more than just entertain and inspire. Hickner prays that people are changed because of her books, and that they turn the last page with a deeper faith in God than when they started.

Finding Gideon in the media:

Blog post: Musical Theologian

Blog post: The Backyard Horse Blog

Saddle Seeks Horse blog

What people are saying:

Amazon review: 5 STARS I picked up this book hoping for a horse story from a Christian worldview and got so much more. Thanks to Sarah Hickner’s persistent faith and her willingness to tell her story I got a glimpse of the eternal value of a life lived for her Savior.

Amazon review: 5 STARS I LOVED this story. I had heard about it and knew I would read it, but I’ll be honest— I was a little unsure of the memoir aspect. That was out the window the moment I opened the book and was swept into the world of a story.

Amazon review: 5 STARS Sarah is an amazing storyteller. I was hooked on this book from the very beginning. I love that it’s a book that was genuinely interesting, helpful and compelling for me to read, but also totally appropriate and encouraging for my 11 year old daughter – I can’t say that about very many books these days! Highly recommend.

Amazon review: 5 STARS I picked up this book initially as a favor to a friend. I’m ever so grateful for the recommendation. I love horses, dogs, and a good love story. This creative memoir, as Sarah Hickner calls it, has all of that and more.

Amazon review: 3 STARS I picked this up to read about a person’s experience with racehorses and got that and a lot of religious silliness. I am quite aware that religion plays a big part of the author’s life and this is literally about her life, so I skipped or skimmed past those parts. I only mention it as it was an annoyance to me and to save any other like minded person from buying if that is a problem.

(Check out my 3 star review. ha!)