Summer of the Spanish Horse
by
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Airyn knuckled her swollen eyelids and wiped the last of her tears on her faded Levis. Dejectedly, she dropped her chin into her hands. Her straight, blonde hair fell over her face, but she didn’t care. All she could think about was the scene that had just taken place in the kitchen. It was at least the hundredth time she’d had this same argument with her father. As usual, he had said, "No," his expression cold and final. Most of the time, she would just become quiet, resenting his authority and silently hating him until her conscience got the best of her. It would take at least a month for her to get up enough courage to ask again, but she always did. This time, in frustration and despair, Airyn had blurted out some angry, ugly words. As soon as they were spoken, she wanted to take them back, bite off her tongue, disappear... "If you hate horses so much, why do you keep all that junk out in the tack room?" she had suddenly shouted at him. Instead of the icy, impersonal stare she expected, she had seen a great sadness appear in his eyes. It was sadder than anything she could imagine. Even Gran was shocked. "Airyn, I--uh," Andy Murdock had stammered, searching for words that just wouldn’t come. Then he rose quietly from the table and went out the front door. Embarrassed to see her father so vulnerable, Airyn had turned a bright shade of red. Her face felt hot and her heart was pounding frantically against her rib cage. Knocking over a chair, she had fled outside to the safety of her hideaway in the barn. Now, feeling guilty and defeated, she wandered aimlessly around the pine-paneled tack room, trying to figure out what had upset her father so. She had always accepted his moodiness, the gloomy silences and the sudden anger, but this was new. It scared her. His look of pain and Gran’s astonished face were still imprinted on her memory. What did it all mean? The Murdocks had a ranch. They had a nice, roomy barn with a manager’s office and a spacious tack room. They also had ten big, though slightly neglected, box stalls. Airyn had almost eight hundred dollars in her savings account especially earmarked to buy a horse, and Andy owned a feed store. Why wouldn’t he even discuss her having a horse? It didn’t make any sense at all. Picking up a small white towel, Airyn mulled these questions over and over in her mind, searching desperately for an explanation. It wasn’t that Andy was a bad father really. She had everything she needed, and as long as she didn’t bring up the forbidden subject, they got along pretty well. She knew he talked about horses at the store because she had observed him with his customers. He would gladly advise them on feed or vitamins, suggesting this brand or that, and he was always willing to help them with any horse-related problems. That was at the store. At home, he never mentioned horses, and he turned quiet or left the room when anyone else did.
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About the Book
Fifteen-year-old Airyn Murdock wants a horse more than anything in the world. She lives on a ranch in Southern California, and her father even owns a feed store, but after he mother is killed exercising a racehorse, the subject of horses is forbidden on the Murdock ranch. When her Mend, Jennifer, dares her to ride a racehorse at a nearby stock farm, Airyn takes that dare -- and gets caught. But all is not lost. The farm’s owner is an old friend of the family, and he talks Andy Murdock into letting Airyn work off her punishment at the farm. Punishment? No way! Airyn is delighted to be working around the animals she loves, and when a newborn foal is left motherless, she volunteers to help. Airyn and the colt spend a magical summer together as she tries to find out more about his unusual way of going and the old Spanish-speaking gentleman who left the mare at the farm and never returned. When her uncle sends her a carved wooden horse from Peru, Airyn sees a resemblance to her colt. She writes to her uncle asking for more information and is introduced to the world of the Peruvian Paso, horse of the conquistadors. Happy to learn what kind of a horse she has, she is suddenly faced with the sad reality that the real owners may some day show up to claim him
About the Author
Nancy Sanderson grew up in
the suburbs of Chicago reading horse books and dreaming of the day she would
get a horse other own.
“I remember clomping around
in my mother’s old English riding boots when they came well up of her knees,”
said Sanderson. “I read King of the Wind,
and The Black Stallion and My Friend Flicka and every other horse
book I could find. The librarian at the Des Plaines Public Library used to have
new horse books put aside for me when I came in every Saturday.”
Sanderson finally realized
her dream when, with their three young children, she and her husband, Tom,
moved to Southern California’s “horsiest” town, Norco, in Riverside County.
“It’s a great place to raise
kids,” said Sanderson. “Everyone’s got a mini-ranch, and there are bridle paths
all over town instead of sidewalks.”
As a professional journalist
and photographer, Sanderson began to write for horse magazines. She published
over 300 articles in such nationally known magazines as The Western Horseman, Horse
of Course, and The Appaloosa Journal.
Currently, the Sandersons
live in another small town in Riverside County, San Jacinto, where she writes
for The Press-Enterprise newspaper.
Weekends, however, are spent back in Norco, watching her daughter and
granddaughter compete in horse shows.
“It’s a great life,” said
Sanderson. “I can ride and photograph and enjoy the horses, and someone else
gets to clean the corrals.”