Fourth-grader Ellie can�t stop daydreaming about her beautiful horse�the one she�s been praying about for many years. She finds out that God does answer prayers, but often in different ways than we expect. Instead of the black stallion that races across her imagination, she gets to keep a spotted pinto horse in her backyard and tries to train her to peep through her bedroom window. God does more than Ellie could have imagined or dreamed. The theme of the Backyard Horses series is that being beautiful on the outside is not the most important quality to develop. Our inward appearance is much more important to God (1 Samuel 16:7). Through a series of events in each of the four books, Ellie and her friends/family learn this lesson as they embrace horses that are better kept in backyards than in exclusive stables.