Maestoso Petra

by Jane Kendall

  “Airs Above the Ground”

  Lipizzaners are compact—they stand between 15 and 16.1 hands—and extremely muscular, with powerful hindquarters that enable them to perform the “airs above the ground” for which they are famous. (The stallions’ center of gravity is also further back than that of other breeds, which means they can stand on their hind legs without tiring.) These amazing moves, which no other breed can do, include the levade, in which the horse strikes a rearing pose and holds it; the courbette, in which the horse balances on his hind legs before hopping forward; the capriole, a jump in place during which the horse kicks out his hind legs in midair; and the croupade, in which the horse jumps up and tucks all four legs under his body. These difficult moves grew out of dressage—not, as legend has it, from evasive tactics used in battle. Most Lipizzaners can perfect only two moves during their careers.

  Taking Their Time

  Lipizzaners live a very long time. It is not unusual for them to perform well into their twenties and live well into their thirties. Like Maestoso Petra, most stallions of the Spanish Riding School perform until they are about twenty-three years old, and then retire to stud. Everything takes time with these noble creatures: they are born coal black and it can take as long as five or six years for their coats to fade to white. They are not ready to begin training until they are four, and they are not considered fully mature until they are seven. The training to perform in the Spanish Riding School exhibitions is gentle and gradual and takes six years to complete. When their time in the spotlight has ended, these majestic horses live out their days in comfort, honored as elder statesmen and national treasures.

  Oregon, 1790

  Golden Sun is a chestnut snowflake Appaloosa. In summer, he treks through the mountains with his rider, a Nez Perce boy named Little Turtle, as he gathers healing plants. But when Little Turtle’s best friend falls ill, Golden Sun discovers his true calling. Here is Golden Sun’s story … in his own words.

  About the Author

  Jane Kendall is the author of the critically acclaimed historical novels Miranda and the Movies (which was a Junior Library Guild Selection for Advanced Readers) and Miranda Goes to Hollywood and the serialized time-travel fantasy All in Good Time. She has also illustrated more than two dozen children’s books, including The Nutcracker: A Ballet Cut-out Book, Laurie Lawlor’s Heartland series, and The Alligator in the Closet by David L. Harrison.

  Ms. Kendall lives in Greenwich, Connecticut, and has been a senior writer for Greenwich magazine since 1992. She has written for the New York Times on film history, currently teaches a college-level writing course for the Institute of Children’s Literature, and collects vintage hats (which she wears!). She was an enthusiastic rider growing up, and on one memorable occasion went Christmas caroling on horseback. “Give me a crisp New England fall day,” she says, “and I still long for a chestnut horse and a quiet trail through the woods.”

  About the Illustrator

  Ruth Sanderson grew up with a love for horses. She drew them constantly, and her first oil painting, at age fourteen, was a horse portrait.

  Ruth has illustrated and retold many fairy tales and likes to feature horses in them whenever possible. Her book about a magical horse, The Golden Mare, the Firebird, and the Magic Ring, won the Texas Bluebonnet Award in 2003. She illustrated the first Black Stallion paperback covers and a number of chapter books about horses, most recently Summer Pony and Winter Pony by Jean Slaughter Doty.

  Ruth and her daughter have two horses, an Appaloosa named Thor and a quarter horse named Gabriel. She lives with her family in Massachusetts.

  To find out more about her adventures with horses and the research she did to create the illustrations in this book, visit her Web site, www.ruthsanderson.com.

  This is a work of fiction. All incidents and dialogue, and all characters with the exception of some well-known historical and public figures, are products of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

  Where real-life historical or public figures appear, the situations, incidents, and dialogues concerning those persons are fictional and are not intended to depict actual events or to change the fictional nature of the work. In all other respects, any resemblance to persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  Text copyright © 2010 by Jane Kendall

  Illustrations copyright © 2010 by Ruth Sanderson

  Photo credits: © Associated Press; © Kolvenbach/Alamy.

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Kendall, Jane F.

  Maestoso Petra / by Jane Kendall ; illustrated by Ruth Sanderson. — 1st ed.

  p. cm. — (Horse diaries ; 4)

  Summary: Maestoso Petra, a Lipizzaner stallion, trains to perform in the Spanish Riding School and is hidden away during the German occupation of Austria in World War II.

  eISBN: 978-0-375-89314-8

  1. Lipizzaner horse—Juvenile fiction. 2. Spanische Reitschule (Vienna, Austria)—Juvenile fiction. [1. Lipizzaner horse—Fiction. 2. Spanish Riding School (Vienna, Austria)—Fiction. 3. Horses—Fiction. 4. Horsemanship—Fiction. 5. World War, 1939–1945—Austria—Fiction. 6. Austria—History—1938–1945—Fiction.]

  I. Sanderson, Ruth, ill. II. Title.

  PZ10.3.K32Mae 2010 [Fic]—dc22 2008039713

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