Horse Tales for the Soul

Here is How the Whole Thing Started!

History of the Series

The idea for the Horse Tales books came in 2000 while writing one of my two syndicated monthly columns for the horse industry.  The column focused on one of my school string horses named "Leo".  He was an ex-Polo Pony/now school horse who had a heart of gold and was so generous and laid back that, as I mentioned in the column, had he been a guy, he would have been the kind of guy you went out for a beer with on Friday nights. After that column appeared in magazines around the country, among my normal reader mail, I received two very special letters from readers that touched my heart and changed my life.

These two letters stood out because both of them included stories about the special horse in their life and ended with a similar statement, "after reading your column, I knew you would understand my story." And they were right, I did.   

Each of those stories had been written by a normal, caring horse lover who had lived through an amazing, life changing event with their own horse and had never shared the story with anyone before.   Both stories were overflowing with life lessons that anyone could relate to (whether you were into horses or not).  Both stories were so heartwarming and wonderful that no one would have read them without CRYING!  After having a good cry, I wondered how many other fabulous stories were out there that no one knew about because no one was sharing them? That was the day the Horse Tales for the Soul books were born!

At Least, That was the Plan!

In addition to sharing great stories, the books focus on the character building life lessons that we learn through the time we spend with the horses in our lives.  My teaching philosophy was always focused on teaching more than just where are the buttons or the gas pedal on the horse.  I always recognized that this horse/rider combination was the perfect venue for teaching character building life lessons and so it made perfect sense to bring true stories together that focused on just that.

In the process of publishing the first book, I discovered that I was learning as many life lessons as I was sharing through these wonderful stories.  These books are proof-positive that even if you don't have a master plan, if you are willing to move forward and keep moving forward, you will eventually get where you are supposed to be!  That was the case for me when we published volume one in the series. 

My goal was to publish ONE book that was filled with great stories and the ONE book would be divided into chapters that focused on specific life lessons like learning to be grateful, or learning to say good-bye, or learning to overcome adversity.  At least, that was the plan!

I sent out press releases to horse publications around the world announcing the project. I secretly worried that we wouldn't get ANY stories at all.  After all, no one who was a professional horseman had ever done such a book before and the horse world is a relatively small world when compared to the world of dogs or cats- so I worried.

After the first publication ran that press release, the stories started coming in like a trickle and then like a soft shower and then like a monsoon.  Suddenly, I went from being afraid there wouldn't be any submissions to the opposite problem - what to do with all those fabulous stories?  While we had to return about 30% of the stories to their authors because they didn't match the criteria for the book, that still left us with an overwhelming number of amazing, true stories from horsemen around the globe.

Because we couldn't possibly fit all the selected stories into one book, and I knew that in many cases, I was the first person the authors had shared these personal stories with - I felt a responsibility to honor their openness. As a result, we decided to move forward with volume two but this time, we wouldn't run any press releases, we would just wait - at least, that was the plan!

Life is What Happens While you are Making Plans!

As you will notice, I have a couple of my own stories in Volume One and NONE in Volume Two.  There is a reason for that.... I got bumped out of my own book because the overflowing stories that were coming in were so fabulous.  Even by eliminating my own stories out of Volume Two, we still had more stories that we could fit in the book and that led us to the realization that this series had taken on a life of its own and it was just my job to be a good steward for all of these authors and their stories and that is what I have focused on ever since.

Click Here to order your copies of

Horse Tales for the Soul TODAY!

Horse Tales for the Soul, copyright (c) 2008.  All rights reserved.  All members of the media have full and complete authorization to use any materials from this site for Print, TV, Radio or web-related use.  If you find any links on this site that are not operational, please contact webmaster@horsetalesforthesoul.com.