Horses and Heartbeats

About the Book

In Horses and Heartbeats, Polly Thompson brings you into the lives of the elegant contestants at a hunter-jumper show; the schooling mounts at a boarding stable; and the horses in various states of conditioning that come through a Connecticut auction. One of these, a young mare fresh off the Dakota plains, is destined for Bailey Mason, a green but gutsy teenager. In a summer filled with upsets and success, Bailey and her friends cope with each other’s and the horse’s idiosyncrasies and pool their resources to make ready for a challenging gymkhana. The practical details of horse-handling woven into this story give it the realism that will appeal to who ever has wished for a horse.

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About the Author

Not until Polly Thompson was in her thirties did she at last have a horse of her own. Besides participating in suburban New York and Connecticut horse shows and Pony Club events, she furthered her Cornell University-Nursing School education with courses in horsemanship and stable management. Thompson coached young and adult riders and school groups in dressage, hunt seat equitation, and jumping. She boarded her horses out until, in her forties, she and her family moved from the East Coast when her husband, Peter, bought a farm in southwest Minnesota. She conducted clinics in Minnesota, judged horse shows, and broke and trained the fillies and colts raised from her sporthorse breeding program. Polly Thompson lives with her husband in Mountain Lake, Minnesota, and Palm Desert, California.