School Horses

Beloved School Horses (and others)

by Sharon Miner

"Beloved School Horses" is a collection of true short stories featuring the unsung heroes of the horse world and the students who blossomed while riding them.

Stories include an autistic child who smiled for the first time when on the back of a horse, a double amputee Viet Nam veteran who wanted to prove to himself he was a still a cowboy, a trick pony who performs at camp, and a creative Costume Class. These anecdotes will amaze, amuse and inspire horse and animal lovers of all ages. This is the first book of a series.

features horses in diverse equine competitions. Some are ridden by Olympic level riders, such as Katie Prudent, while others are owned by backyard horse enthusiasts. But, as Alexa Dixon in the final chapter explains, the greatest memories are not always found in the show ring, but during the journey to make it there.

A collection of illustrated true stories from a variety of locations featuring horses that are comics, emotional healers, providers of insight to life, and fulfillers of dreams.

Sharon grew up in Connecticut, the middle child of eleven. An avid horse lover at an early age, she would beg her dad to find horses during the family's drives in the countryside on Sundays. She collected glass horses and kept a scrapbook of horse pictures. As a teenager, she learned to ride and care for horses while a working student for Lee's Riding Stable in Wilton and later in Litchfield.

She graduated from Norwalk High School, Norwalk CT, in 1972 as a junior so she could move with the stable. At 15, she purchased her first horse, a weanling colt named Charcoal, with her babysitting funds. He died before he was a year old but that didn't deter Sharon from saving for her next horse, a pregnant mare. She sold the foal and traded the mare for another pregnant one. The result was Fawn, born April 21, 1972. Fawn's life, and death 18 years later, was the reason that Sharon began writing.

Sharon wanted to share Fawn's story because the mare was very near and dear to her heart. So she took writing courses from the Institute of Children's Literature, West Redding, CT and graduated in 1991.