Standing Ovation

This is the story of a girl who is horse crazy. She is an only child, lonely, with no one to play with, who is abused and cursed by a mother who is jealous of the time her father spends with her. After years of playing alone with only her pets to keep her company, the family moves up to a small farm of ten acres and a larger house out the country. She and her dad build a barn. Her father goes to the nearby country town to a horse sale, where he purchases her an old white mare to learn to ride on. The horse is the girls salvation. She can escape the cruel and unhappy mother for hours now. She has many adventures on the mare, learns to ride, and although she loves the horse very much, her dad sells her because of the horses age and buys the girl a new horse. She eventually meets the boy she falls very much in love with, does not ride as much, and as a young woman, spends most of her free time with the boy. They marry and have children, but in the back of the girls mind, there is much room for another horse. She begins with ponies for the girls and moves up to a horse for her. The family moves to a farm, and she upgrades to more and better stock as she can afford to. Although she wins as much as she can with the poor quality and problem horses she is able to work with, they all improve to a point till she takes in other peoples horses to train. She wants very much to prove that she can do things as well as men can, and although the horse show world is a man's world, she wants them to know she can take their rejects and beat them with them. After years of second and third place wins, her husband buys her the most expensive horse she has ever purchased. The mare is dirt cheap compared to most, she is small and skinny. The mare not yet 2 years old is just started enough for Walking Horse trainers to know she is a Racking horse not a walking horse and something they dont want. She works the mare, trains her, and just when she has her going good, the mare comes down with an illness. Months of nursing and retraining later, she begins winning her classes. Competition is fierce and dangerous. Everything comes to a head at the Racking Horse World Championships. A horse dies suspiciously in Ovations stall. But for once in her life she shows just what a winner is and Wins 3 world Titles in 1 week at the World Championships. Although her winnings are protested, she comes out on top. (Ovations story is to be continued in the next book.)