Pretty normal thing for little girls - the fascination with horses, but Em had it bad - real bad. Later, in Rhode Island, she did years of show riding and jumping.
But for the purposes of our story, what's key to know is how her stable of horses got her through all manner of very bad times. They were her totems, talismans, whatever you want to call them.
Find all the pix from Chapters 5-6 (summer of 1995 and deep into the chemotherapy protocol) here.