I believe I was born loving horses. I always wanted one but sadly, it never happened when I was a child. My daughter was also born loving them (is that a genetic trait maybe?) and I made up my mind that I would make it happen for her. At the time, I was writing short stories for a magazine and getting paid rather well for them (that was another time and place!). I decided to use the money from one of those stories to buy a horse for us. And I did! Staccato was a great horse, and we had him for ten years until he passed away one day very unexpectedly. We were all crushed.
Though we didn't get him at Christmas, this story, The Christmas Wish, grew out of our experience, and it will always remind me of our little Arabian, Haf Staccato.
Ever since Hope could remember, Caitlin had wanted a horse. When her daughter could only toddle, she would clamber aboard the mechanical pony at the supermarket and refuse to budge until her mother dug for change in her purse. Three rides satisfied Caitlin then, that and the stuffed pony she got when she turned five. A few years later, she graduated to collecting model horses. Now Caitlin was 13, and this Christmas she wanted the real thing.
Along with two other holiday stories in the collection, The Christmas Wish is featured this month of August in the For the Love of Horses Book Fair. I hope you'll stop by and check out all the other great horse stories and maybe want to read the rest of Hope and Caitlin's story.
https://books.bookfunnel.com/horse-themed_novels/o7cdst2m7d
