The Horse Who Went to Church

By Hilary Walker

A rider faces a difficult situation, as she must attend church then almost immediately get her horse to a dressage show. There’s very little time after Mass to go home, hitch up the trailer, load up the animal, and be punctual for her first class.

To make life easier, she decides to haul her gelding to church. Firecross is munching hay in his trailer in the parking lot as she sits in her pew waiting for Mass to begin.

But the service never starts. Hooves suddenly clatter up the center aisle: they belong to Firecross, and pandemonium ensues.

Will the horse trample the parishioners? What will Father Frank’s reaction be? Will he throw the owner out of his church with her horse? And, most importantly, will they still be able to make it to the dressage show in time to compete?

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Oct 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781611525779

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

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Prologue

Firecross was already galloping up the church aisle.

It was too late to rethink how I should have planned the Lord’s Day: with my horse running loose inside God’s House, things weren’t looking favorable for a punctual arrival at my dressage competition later that morning.

Chapter 1: The Initial Dilemma

I’d been asked to set up the show arena the previous day. I’m not good at many things, but over the years I’ve become quite the guru at measuring out the dressage rectangle and telling people where to put the letters, cones and boundary chain.

Ergo, I’m in huge demand during show season. (But not, I’ve noticed, when dressage teams are being picked.)

However, the other volunteers and I couldn’t begin on time because a Saturday jumper show was running late in the arena we needed to prepare for our Sunday shindig. The horses and their fences weren’t even out of there until 4 P.M.

Normally we’d be finished by that hour. And since the clocks had just changed to winter time, darkness descended early. We’d have to work really fast.

This caused an additional problem for yours truly: I was going to miss the 5 P.M. Saturday Vigil Mass, and would have to go on Sunday instead. The schedule would be very tight: my first dressage test was in the morning, with another in the afternoon. Which Mass could I fit in?

One option was to attend the early morning service, rush home, hook up the trailer, load the horse and hurry to make that first class.

I could have scratched that A.M. ride—it would have made my life

Reviews for The Horse Who Went to Church

[Nancy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a cute and hilarious short story about a horse who went to church and the chaos that ensued.