By: Wendy Stevens

I slit open the letter and spread the horse pictures out on the table. My first sight of the Morgan Stallion I’d been commissioned to paint was an exciting one. He was beautiful. Then my eyes rested on his owner, and a sadness washed over me. The young lady in the picture was dying, cursed with a fatal illness. I knew sadness was not the emotion she wanted to come through in the painting, however, so brushing the emotion aside I concentrated on the work at hand. After studying the photos for hours, I selected a head-on pose, a quarter turn, and a side view to work into sketches.

By: Nancy Pugliese

I am the mother of a daughter with special needs. About 6 years ago my older daughter had been taking riding lessons for more than a year and we decided it was time to start looking to purchase a horse of her own. Her sister Toni-Anne was non-verbal at this time and petrified of the barn and the horses. She would spend the entire hour or her sisters lesson screaming. She would prefer the discomfort of bathroom accidents to entering the barn to use the facilities.

By: Samantha Musgrave

I heard you were looking for some horsie stories for your new chicken soup book (I loved chicken soup for the teenaged soul!!) Well i’ve been riding and showing for the past 10 years and although i’ve had quite a few fancy hunters, one horse comes to mind, and one day in particular.
It all started when i was 5…i wanted to take riding lessons so badly so i told my mom and she said she would sign me up.

By: Karen Tellef

I had just stormed out of the first good job I had since graduating high school. For the past year, I had assumed the duties of the vacated position of Finance Statistician while still performing my duties as secretary to the department head. It meant longer hours with no extra pay, but I wanted to land that job!

By:Rene Miller

Let me take you back to my childhood, to my life without a horse, to my life with only a dream….

For as far back as I can remember, and from stories that my mother has told, I have been a horse lover. As a toddler I would ride on the rocking (wonder) horse for so long that I would fall asleep. Just to give you an idea of just how horse crazy—games played with or without friends were centered around horses, at the toy store I could be found in the model horse section looking for the next member to my collection, my favorite shows on T.V. were the westerns with horses in them, favorite movies and books were of horses, if I saw a horse anywhere, I would have to run up and pet it.

By: Julie Luedtke

The first time I rode Skyflight I was fourteen years old. I had been training since I was eleven, perfecting and fine-tuning my skills. One lesson a week for three years had finally paid off.

By: Hallie McEvoy

Recently I went back to the Hall of Fame of the Trotter in Goshen, New York, to touch a fleeting hour of my childhood. It was a time when I not only thought, but knew my parents could make my dreams come true. I returned to the Historic Track to listen for the hoofbeats of the ages and the cheers of a crowd long since departed. Most of all, I went back to find myself, or perhaps to look for the child I was.

By: Noreen Evans

This was the moment. He was sure that no other horse felt the same way he did. Nervous excitement charged through him like an electric shock. He could feel his Jockey Balancing tensely upon his back. He could hear the other horses snorting, their Jockeys whispering encouraging words to their mounts. Breathing in deeply he could smell the sweat that was surfacing upon the other horses shoulders and flanks as well as his own. The smell of the Jockeys’ boot polish also filled his nostrils and he exhaled to rid himself of the unpleasant odor.

By: Kelsey Miller

I bought Blaze when I was 8 years old. He is a little quarter horse/ pony. Sorrel in color and has perfect blaze. He was trained for games when I bought him and he was in his early teen years. He was and still is the best thing that ever happened to me. He has taught me everything I know about horses and will ever know. He won me a state fair trip every year at our county fair. And at shows was always placed no matter what.

By: Lindsey Jolliffe

I was ten when this all took place in a town called port orchard. I had two horses that I loved truly one was diamond who I had been currently riding in 4-h he wasn’t the best but he was mine & that’s all that mattered. My other horse was a 26-year-old pony named brownie he was the best ever & he liked coke. One mooring a couple of months after fair I woke up to my moms tears. I asked what’s wrong she said its diamond he got hurt really bad. I asked is a vet here she said no I couldn’t get a hold of one. She said I tried to get a hold of Deanna (are best friends) but the line is busy she said wait by the phone incase the vet calls.