This short anthology contains three true stories about an old mare who becomes a superstar and her son who takes over where she leaves off. Contains the stories: Kelly: The Horse I Didn’t Want: Kelly was already eighteen years old when she arrived at my barn as a thin, nervous Thoroughbred ex-racehorse with a host of bad habits and behavioral problems. Little did I know she would become my equine soul-mate within six months of being given to me for free. She won numerous dressage, show-jumping, and eventing competitions until her death many years later. Kelly Comes Through: The story of how Kelly comes to the last minute rescue of a courageous teenage girl in the bid for her Pony Club badge, when her original mount went lame on test day. Kelly’s Son: After a rocky birth and a youth filled with accidents and injuries, Kelly’s son Cruz Bay develops into a consistent winner of blue ribbons. But not without more setbacks along the way!

Bridled Passion: A Horse Trilogy

On the morning of Friday, May 12, 2000, I got a phone call from the barn. “There are two heads poking over Kelly’s door this morning!”


Ha! I’d been right to pooh-pooh the warnings.


But I found a little brown colt with swollen eyes and hocks and shoulders, whose dam kicked him every time he tried to suckle. Here was no idyllic scene to drool over. I had to separate the pitiful foal from his rotten mother and call the vet. 


She discovered a uterine infection in the mare which she addressed immediately. Untreated it would have meant the end for Kelly.


As a result, the colt needed a plasma transfusion. After being the meanie who’d taken him from his mom, I now sat on his neck, forcing him to lie down and have a needle stuck into his veins. He was nevergoing to like me! I cried as I straddled the thin little body covered in feathery pony hair inherited from his sire, a half Welsh Cob.


Chapter 6