Bridled Passion: A Horse Trilogy

By Hilary Walker

This short anthology contains three true stories about an old mare who becomes a superstar and her son who takes over where she leaves off. Contains the stories:

Kelly: The Horse I Didn’t Want: Kelly was already eighteen years old when she arrived at my barn as a thin, nervous Thoroughbred ex-racehorse with a host of bad habits and behavioral problems. Little did I know she would become my equine soul-mate within six months of being given to me for free. She won numerous dressage, show-jumping, and eventing competitions until her death many years later.

Kelly Comes Through: The story of how Kelly comes to the last minute rescue of a courageous teenage girl in the bid for her Pony Club badge, when her original mount went lame on test day.

Kelly’s Son: After a rocky birth and a youth filled with accidents and injuries, Kelly’s son Cruz Bay develops into a consistent winner of blue ribbons. But not without more setbacks along the way!

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Oct 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781611522112

Hilary Walker

British born bestselling author Hilary Walker writes uplifting Christian fiction that transports readers into the healing world of horses. She lives on Hilton Head Island with two British bulldogs and her husband, who hopes she'll get interested in golf.  No luck so far. Instead she rides competitive dressage on her homebred Welsh cross gelding, and enjoys taking him on the trails.

Book preview

Son

Kelly: The Horse I Didn’t Want

Would you be interested in buying my mare? a neighbor asked.

No, I replied.

My previous encounters with equine females had been disastrous and I wasn’t exactly winning all the ribbons with my gelding, either. But to soften my terse response, I added, Give me her details, and I’ll ask my friends if they know anyone needing a horse.

Thanks, my neighbor replied. She’s an Irish thoroughbred ex-racehorse. Fifteen three, sixteen years old, chestnut, and going cheap because she cribs and windsucks.

Great! I thought, every horseman’s dream! Cribbing and windsucking—gripping any available surface with the teeth then swallowing air—are two vices which reduce a horse’s value considerably. They wear down the front teeth, allegedly cause colic, and common wisdom has it that stable mates catch the habit.

I tried to sound polite. What’s she done?

Only trail-riding…and she’s really good in traffic. Oh, but she hasn’t been ridden for two years.

Terrific! A must-have horse.

We lived in England at the time. I casually mentioned our neighbor’s ‘desirable’ mare to my husband and a visiting friend, Don.

The latter looked at me. How much does she want? he asked. Initially baffled at his question, I remembered he was soon to lose his chestnut mare in a pending divorce.

Warily, I answered, Eight hundred pounds, including tack. Why?

Ring her back. I’ll try the horse tomorrow.

Like McEnroe, I yelled, "You cannot be serious!" I knew where that horse would live if he boarded her at our place.

The following morning Glen, my husband, drove our mad friend to see Kelly. She was hastily being shod while windsucking for England. An hour later Don rode her into our field, where the chestnut promptly bucked him off.

I had never seen such an ugly horse. Ribs poked through her worm-ridden belly, her lower lip protruded, her tongue