SOLVED. YA novel about a Horse. Title: contains Tangles. [s]

[Cindy]

This was a YA fiction book I read in the late 70s to early 80s, prior to 1983 because that's when I moved. It was about a young girl who was questioning her sexuality. The plot centers around the girl's relationship with another girl, both of whom are interested in riding horses. I believe the name was Tangles, but I have been unable to find any reference to it.

[Rainbowheart]

Flick

An arrestingly impressionistic portrait of 14-year-old Nana's fascination with Felice, or Flick--a beautiful older girl with a magnetic appeal and a laugh ""so bewitching and so cruel."" ""Everything she did had an unearthly grace. . . . And she always won."" Flick is first introduced via a photograph; there is another photo later of the two girls hand in hand at the water's edge during their most intimate time together; and the novel is marked by rapt moments seen as if in freeze-frame: coming upon three wild mares at the school's horse camp in Wyoming; where all the girls are in love with half-Indian wrangler Sam; sitting with Flick in the closed-in berth on the train back home, where Nana has been singled out to hear of Flick's secret meetings with Sam; running with Flick on the dunes at Nana's family's summer place at Turtle Beach; or, back at school in the city after Flick has dropped her, coming upon her in the cloakroom, ""standing in front of the mirror, combing her hair."" Kesselman also makes use of the fuzzy fadeout in the bedroom scenes between the girls at Turtle Beach. . . after that first night when Nana feels the sexual tension between them as a silence in the room, creeping toward her bed and over her body, pressing down like a great weight. In such separate, softly spotlit scenes, shaded by the different milieux and marginal characters that frame their relationships, and marred just a momentary bit by Flick's too-explicit self-justification in a good-bye visit, Kesselman creates a sharp and affecting picture of Nana's attraction and the spellbinding, unyielding presence of Flick.

[Rainbowheart]

Still out there, Cindy?

[Cindy]

Yes! this is it, I think. Thank you so much!

[Kris]

Cindy, just to confirm, should we mark your request as Solved? Flick by Wendy Kesselman

Here are a few quotes using the snippet search (for "horse") on Google Books - https://books.google.com/books?id=VO1...

"Figured he needed a little rest today, so I left him up on Blue Mountain. He's just an ugly old pack horse anyway. What do you want an ugly old pack horse for?" | "Old Robber ain't a horse to be ridden," Sam said. "He's a horse to reckon with. And look what you did to Smoker, the finest singlefooter on this ranch. Or used to be, anyway..."

[Rainbowheart]

Awesome, glad to help out!

I think this is the only lesbian horse book from that era, lol.

[Cindy]

Yes, please, mark as Solved. Thank You!

[Kris]

Great. Glad found your book, Cindy. Thanks for the update.

[Rainbowheart]

Just in case anyone else ever comes searching, there is a horse book from that era called Tangles, although I don't think there's any lesbian content.