Koda
Page 5
In 1860, the Pony Express began. Quarter horses were a good choice for this endeavor also. Whereas the oxen and wagon would take almost six months to complete the journey from Missouri to Oregon, the quarter horse on the Pony Express made that journey in just eight days! (Of course, he had no weight but the saddlebags and the rider.)
Quarter Horses Today
Today, there are many events besides simple racing in which quarter horses continue to compete—barrel racing, cow roping, and team penning, among others.
Quarter horses were not recognized as a breed until 1940. Before that, they were considered rather like dogs without a pedigree—the mutts of the horse world. But like many mutts, the quarter horse was a wonderfully mannered and pleasant creature. In fact, today, its gentle disposition is one of its characteristic features.
So how do you know if the horse you are looking at is a quarter horse? Besides its great speed and gentle demeanor, you will note heavy muscling and powerful, rounded hindquarters. Its head is small and its eyes are wide and pleasant. Some say that one can see kindness in a quarter horse’s eyes. At one time, only solid-color horses were recognized as true quarter horses, but that has changed, and the registry allows certain other markings. There are now over three million quarter horses in the world, and they are universally known and loved by their owners—as the best horses in the world!
Vienna, Austria, 1938
Maestoso Petra is a world-famous Lipizzaner stallion. He has spent years in the Spanish Riding School, training to perform the complex airs above the ground that only Lipizzaners can accomplish. But when World War II breaks out in Europe, he learns to think less about performing and more about survival. Here is Maestoso Petra’s story … in his own words.
About the Author
Patricia Hermes is the author of over forty novels for children and young adults and two nonfiction books for adults.
As a child, she fell in love with horses and spent many a day (and night) “stealing” rides bareback on a neighbor horse who grazed in a nearby field. However, since she grew up in and around New York City, and since horseback riding was an expensive proposition, there weren’t many opportunities for lessons. Later, though, when she got older and moved, there was much more opportunity to connect with her beloved horses, especially in places like Virginia and Connecticut. She no longer had to “steal” rides, but began taking riding lessons, and was particularly attracted to—and challenged by—a classically beautiful type of riding called dressage, also sometimes called horse ballet. Although she has never “owned” a horse, many horses have owned her heart.
A resident of Connecticut, and the mother of five, she frequently speaks at schools and conferences around the country.
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. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2009 by Patricia Hermes
Illustrations copyright © 2009 by Ruth Sanderson
Photo credits: © Filmfoto/Dreamstime.com; Library of Congress; copyright © North Wind/North Wind Picture Archives.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hermes, Patricia.
Koda / by Patricia Hermes ; illustrated by Ruth Sanderson. —1st ed.
p. cm. — (Horse diaries ; #3)
Summary: Traveling with his owners from Missouri to Oregon in 1848, Koda, an energetic two-year-old quarter horse, finds the long journey increasingly tedious and tiring until his young owner goes missing on the trail and he must use all his skills to find her.
eISBN: 978-0-375-89296-7
1. Quarter horse—Juvenile fiction. 2. Oregon National Historic Trail—Juvenile fiction. [1. Quarter horse—Fiction. 2. Horses—Fiction. 3. Oregon National Historic Trail—Fiction. 4. Overland journeys to the Pacific— Fiction. 5. West (U.S.)—History—To 1848—Fiction.]
I. Sanderson, Ruth, ill. II. Title.
PZ10.3.H466Ko 2009 [Fic]—dc22 2008034836
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