The Colt That Could: A Horse with Show Jumping Dreams.

By E.L. Goodwin

This is the story of Jumping Jack, a colt born with Grand Prix show-jumping dreams, told in his own voice and from his perspective. Young readers see how he sets his goals high, believes in himself, overcomes adversity, and perseveres. He contemplates advice from his mother, his trainers, and other horses. He overcomes obstacles such as impatience, bullying, and injury. He shows everyone that he is the colt that could and that any horse that sets their mind to it can make their dreams come true.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781504924894

E.L. Goodwin

This is E.L. Goodwin’s second children’s story. Her first children’s story is The Colt That Could about a horse with show jumping dreams. She is a graduate of Wheaton College in Massachusetts. She has worked in marketing and business management capacities for financial and publishing firms in New York City and resides in the suburbs. In this story, E.L. Goodwin explores aspects of healthy eating, exercise, and a green lifestyle. While also emphasizing the importance shopping local, organic foods, and preserving the environment through lifestyle changes for future generations.

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This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

© 2015 E.L. Goodwin. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 08/21/2015

ISBN: 978-1-5049-2490-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-2489-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015911849

Any people or animals depicted in illustrations provided by Susan Shorter of Authorhouse are custom illustrations and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

1 Born in the Barn

2 Which Kind of Horse?

3 The Wall of Ribbons

4 Grant My Wish

5 Who Are Those Horses?

6 Lead Me, Please

7 A Bit and Bridle Later

8 Questions before Bed

9 Being Schooled

10 A New Field

11 The Main Event

12 The Practice Ring

13 One Meter and More

14 The First Jump

15 Sneaking Out to Practice

16 Recovery Ward

17 A No-Bullying Zone

18 Wish Granted

19 High End to Low End

20 Time to Go

21 Well in Wellington

22 Back Home

PREFACE

This story came to life through my travels to local and international horse venues, show jumping events, and breeding farms with my husband who is a lifetime equestrian and horse breeder. Through numerous glimpses of this world, it became more and more and captivating for me to write this story to inspire children and young adults to work to accomplish their goals and dreams much like these amazing horses do to get from the fields to the show rings.

Experiencing newborn and older horses out in the fields, practice rings, and show rings is an invigorating and inspiring adventure. Seeing some of them finally compete in the international shows made it all come full circle. There is a lot of time and effort involved in this fine sport by the horse, rider, trainer, breeder, and owner. It is a dream everyone follows that starts with these incredible horses.

My husband’s horses are bred in the Netherlands. The newborn horses are raised out in the fields scattered with peonies and tulips where they can just be horses eating the grasses and playing in the fresh air. At six months the new horses are separated from their mother’s into herds of new baby horses and separated yearly with their age groups where they continue to do the same.

Around three years old these horses advance to another farm that trains them further. Here, they learn to get used to the bit and bridle, the show ring, having a saddle and a rider on them, moving over the rails, and learning to jump in the practice rings. This is where it becomes known if they will make a solid show jumper based on their breeding, lineage, size