Caroline’s Purpose is in the top 50 today on Amazon for Teen and Young Adult Clean and Wholesome Romance and Teen and Young Adult Nature! You can order the ebook for just $.99 all of July!
Luna, the weanling Caroline and Connor are assigned to work with in Caroline’s Purpose, is also based off of one of my personal horses. Goldee was my assigned horse in the University of Arizona Equine Sciences program. Goldee is a Thoroughbred, and can be as sweet and sassy as Luna in the book. In Chapter 2, Luna is introduced as ”the dark bay thoroughbred filly with the crescent moon shaped marking on her head.” You can see here in Goldee’s pictures that she looks exactly like Luna in the book.
To learn more about Luna, and her place in Caroline’s story, order the ebook edition of Caroline’s Purpose now on Amazon, Kobo, or Apple Books for $.99. This sale ends soon, so make sure to get yours today!
Hoof beats pounded outside the barn. Everyone crowded into the doorway, straining to see the loose horse.
Caroline followed, thinking this would be her moment to get to the stallion barn unseen. But when the flash of red streaked by the door, panic filled her stomach.
She pushed her way past everyone to the front of the crowd, confirming for herself that Edison was the loose horse. Connor, his dad, and a few stable hands were already at work, trying to catch him.
He was beautiful. He moved with beauty and grace; his tail arched over his back as he avoided the men with ease.
Edison paused for a moment, letting Connor get closer. He had a halter in his hand, and Caroline watched as he approached him like she had that first day, extending his arm out, letting Edison smell him. But Edison wasn’t ready.
He spun away from Connor, leaping in the air and kicking out, missing Connor by inches, sending him to the ground. Caroline ran from the barn, heading for Connor, but Edison saw her first.
He whinnied, galloping straight for her. Caroline froze, fearing that he was going too fast to stop, thinking he would run her over for sure. She lifted her hands out to her side, hoping that would help. “Whoa,” she breathed.
Edison skidded to a stop in front of her. Caroline kept her eyes down, and her voice low, as she stepped to the side, approaching his shoulder. “Easy, bud. Just relax. No one is going to hurt you.”
Caroline stretched out her arm and rubbed him with her knuckles, as she had before. Edison twitched and arched his neck, but he didn’t run. “Thatta boy. Just stay with me here, okay?”
Connor walked up behind her. “Caroline, here, you better put it on him. I don’t think he’ll let me.”
Caroline reached behind with her free hand, opening her palm for the halter. When she felt the leather in her hand, she closed her fingers around it. She pulled it around in front of her. Edison snorted.
“Hey now, it’s okay. It’s just me. We’re gonna put this on you and get you back to your stall.” Edison looked at her sideways as she guided the halter onto his head, buckling it by his ear. She took a step back and started to walk him towards his barn.
Edison tossed his head in protest to the pressure on the lead rope. Caroline looked up at his eyes and saw a familiar expression. Anger and panic filled his face and he jerked, pulling at the rope in her hand, trying to regain his freedom. He reared, pawing at the air. The sudden movement knocked her off her feet.
“Edison, whoa!” Caroline gripped at the rope as she struggled to get up. She managed to stand as Edison landed, and put her hand on his neck to calm him down, to keep him from going up again.
“Caroline, are you okay?” Connor put his hand on her shoulder.
Her throat was closing, and no audible words came out of her mouth. Dark circles closed in around her, impairing her sight. She tried to blink them away, but a picture from her past flooded her vision.
The horse’s emotions were the same, but he was grey instead of red. He was lying on his side, thrashing and screaming as he tried to get up. Caroline was on the ground next to him, struggling to get up herself, but she couldn’t. His weight on her legs was too great, and her left foot was caught in the stirrup underneath him. She tried to soothe him, but their pain had been too extreme…
What happened to the grey horse? Will Caroline ne able to help Edison? Order an ebook edition of Caroline’s Purpose for $.99 on Amazon, Kobo, or Apple Books to find out.
One of the fun parts about writing is being able to combine fiction with real life. In Caroline’s Purpose, Caroline and Connor work with an abused Thoroughbred stallion named Edison. In real life, Edison is one of my horses. He is not an abused Thoroughbred stallion, but is a very well loved Saddlebred gelding. I chose to base the stallion off of Edison because of how important the real-life Edison is to me. He helped me overcome a lot of fear and showed me what it means to trust again.
To learn more about the fictional Edison and his journey with Caroline and Connor, you can buy the ebook version of Caroline’s Purpose for $.99 this month on Amazon, Kobo, or Amazon Books for this month only.
One Word at a Time 