Heart Horse: A Natalie Story

By Kelsey Abrams and Jomike Tejido

When Natalie saves enough money to buy Apocalypse, she's certain she has found her heart horse: a horse that's so special it's as if they're a part of your heart. She hopes he's the horse to help her win a barrel-racing title too. But Eleven arrives at the ranch the same day as Apocalypse. Eleven suffered abuse and needs proper care. Natalie finds herself caring for Eleven when she should be barrel racing with Apocalypse. Will Natalie become a barrel-racing champion? Which horse will truly capture her heart?

At Second Chance Ranch, the Ramirez family works to find homes for all kinds of animals on their 200-acre ranch in Texas. Sisters Natalie (12), Abby (10), and twins Emily and Grace (9) all do their part to give each animal the second chance it deserves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: North Star Editions
• Release date: Jan 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781631632617

Book preview

A Natalie Story

Heart Horse: A Natalie Story © 2019 by North Star Editions, Mendota Heights, MN 55120. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, including internet usage, without written permission from the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Book design by Jake Nordby

Illustrations by Jomike Tejido

Published in the United States by Jolly Fish Press, an imprint of North Star Editions, Inc.

First Edition

First Printing, 2018

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Abrams, Kelsey, author. | Tejido, Jomike, illustrator.

Title: Heart horse : a Natalie story / Kelsey Abrams ; illustrated by

   Jomike Tejido.

Description: Mendota Heights, MN : Jolly Fish Press, [2019] | Series:

   Second Chance Ranch | Summary: "Natalie spends a lot of time

   caring for abused Eleven when she should be practicing barrel

   racing with Apocalypse"—Provided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018032132 (print) | LCCN 2018039522 (ebook) |

   ISBN 9781631632617 (e-book) | ISBN 9781631632600 (pbk.) |

   ISBN 9781631632594 (hardcover)

Subjects: | CYAC: Horses—Fiction. | Barrel racing—Fiction. | 

   Rodeos—Fiction. | Responsibility—Fiction. | Animals—

Treatment—Fiction. | Ranch life—Fiction. | Hispanic Americans—

   Fiction. | LCGFT: Fiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.A18 (ebook) | LCC PZ7.1.A18 He 2019

   (print) | DDC [Fic]—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018032132

Jolly Fish Press

North Star Editions, Inc.

2297 Waters Drive

Mendota Heights, MN 55120

www.jollyfishpress.com

Printed in the United States of America

A Natalie Story

Kelsey Abrams

illustrated by Jomike Tejido

Text by Whitney Sanderson

Mendota Heights, Minnesota

Chapter One

Natalie pushed open the pickup truck door and slid down from the high passenger’s seat. Liz, a volunteer at the Sugarberry Animal Shelter, got out of the driver’s side. With her hair tucked into a baseball cap and big sunglasses shielding her eyes, Liz was hardly recognizable.

It was an undercover mission. Natalie had never been to Ingotts’ Farm before, so she didn’t need a disguise. But she knew all about the family’s shady livestock auctions. Their animals were bought cheaply and resold for as much profit as possible. Some were sold to summer camps or dude ranches. The less fortunate ones went to meat buyers, who paid for the animals by the pound.

That was upsetting, but not illegal. But forging vaccination papers for horses and cattle was illegal, and Ingotts’ had been caught doing it before.

Liz and Natalie were here to check things out and report back to the animal shelter. Natalie’s family owned a rescue farm, Second Chance Ranch. The ranch worked closely with the local animal shelter to provide care and homes for animals of all kinds. Liz, a pre-vet student, was doing an internship at the animal hospital where Natalie’s mom was the head veterinarian.

Natalie and Liz crossed the dusty parking lot, which was filled with cars and stock trailers. The bone-dry ground shimmered with heat under a cloudless sky. They headed for a covered arena where an auctioneer’s voice crackled over a loudspeaker.

The arena was packed with people sitting on rows of folding chairs in front of a long fenced-in chute that led into a square pen. Inside, a teenage boy was putting a pinto pony in Western tack through its paces. He wore a red T-shirt with the Ingotts’ Farm logo on it.

Next to the auction pen was a raised platform with a table and microphone. The auctioneer sat on a folding chair behind it. He had a shiny, flushed face and thinning blond hair plastered across his head. He wore cowboy boots with a fancy pattern engraved on them, and his stomach bulged over a huge silver belt buckle. Next to him sat a woman who looked a little like him, except she was wearing so much makeup that Natalie thought she looked like a rodeo clown.

That’s Chad Ingott and his sister, Marlene, Liz whispered. The two of them run the place, along with their other brother, Brad.

Natalie and Liz took seats in a middle row, trying to blend in. They watched the teenage rider in the auction pen. When the rider jogged the pinto pony past the gate, its strides got sluggish and reluctant. The pony bulged its neck sideways like a stretched-out rubber band and tried to duck out of the arena. The rider gave him a prod with his spurs, and the pony bucked. It was clear that he didn’t have much training, or else he was used to riders who let him get away with misbehaving.

Here’s a perfect family pony for the kids, folks, said Chad Ingott. Who needs a babysitter or lawnmower when you’ve got a pony like this? Who’ll start the bidding at five hundred dollars? He spoke in a singsong voice so quick that his words blurred together. No one bid, so Chad lowered the opening price to four hundred and then two hundred dollars.

A man leaning against the fence raised a piece of paper with a number on it.

I have two hundred, two hundred, who’ll give me twofifty? warbled Chad.

A short, stocky woman in a tan cowboy hat raised the bid by fifty dollars. Those were the only two bids. Chad Ingott banged a wooden gavel on the table and said, Sold!

The woman in the cowboy hat got up from her seat and went over to the edge of the arena, where another farmhand wearing an Ingotts’ shirt helped her fill out some paperwork.

Liz nodded with satisfaction. I know that woman, she said, leaning over so Natalie could hear her over the noise of the auction. She runs a lesson program out in Lone Star Heights. It’s not a fancy place, but she’s a good trainer. That pony could have done a lot worse.

The pinto pony was followed by a buckskin mustang with a barcode-like brand on its neck. After that was an elderly draft horse trained