Winnie
Judy Sims
"Winnie" A wonderful naustalgic true story. It's set in the late 50's and revolves around a year in the lives of two teen-aged girls and a magnificent horse.

The horse, known only to them as Winnie, was the grand-daughter of Man O'War. Man O'War just happened to be the greatest race horse in U.S.

Price:  $7.95

book excerpt

Thirteen years old and ripped up from a known world, and then brought into an unknown world called ‘country’. An undiscovered world lay before me. My life was about to change forever. I stood on the front lawn, near the road, watching my father and a friend, lift the couch into our new home. I wasn’t quite sure why we had moved to the valley, but then my parents were always moving. ‘The Valley’, that’s all people called it........................... One of the girls, at our school, had a Shetland pony that she insisted no one could ride. We got into an argument one day, about the possibility of a Shetland pony being such a twit. I said, “Are you kidding me? I mean, you’re feet are still on the ground! What’s so impossible about that?” Everybody was laughing and so you know, I had to take my turn at it. The next day, after school, the bet was on. I only had $2 but I put it up for grabs, if I couldn’t ride that tiny little pony. About five of us girls, all went straight to Shelly’s back yard, where she kept this little pony. He sure looked docile enough. With nothing more than a bridle, I straddled that pony. Both my feet were on the ground, I still had clearance between his back and me. I just stood there a second and then turned to say something to the girls, when all of a sudden I was face down on the ground, 3 feet in front of this little pony. “How did that happen?” I got up, dusted myself off and turned around to stare at that ‘short piece of nothing’, grazing off a patch of grass. “What the….” Naturally, you know how it goes; I had to run that one through again, if for no other reason than to find out what had happened the first time. I straddled that little stinker again. Both feet were still firmly on the ground. I slowly lowered my weight onto this pony’s back. Just as I was seated, that little power-packed dynamo, raised up his rear so hard, it jet propelled me out and over his head again. A third try and I gave up the $2 and walked away, scratching my head.................. A sudden, sideways jolt and Winnie was plunging into the sunflowers and ran the full length of the field, coming out on the other side. I happened to be wearing shorts and a sleeveless blouse. The plants stood as tall as my shoulders and prickly little spurs on the stems, clawed my skin nearly off. My skin was red and burning like fire. You probably already know that as we disappeared into the sunflowers, my screams and curses could be heard a block away. I still don’t know why she did that. It must have been something I did. She was always giving me ‘what for’......... I rode down the street to the highway, crossed over the pavement, headed for that wide dirt shoulder. Just as we stepped off the pavement, Winnie jolted into a dead run, ran straight toward the clear ditch. Just at the edge of the ditch, she stopped short, ducked her head down and pitched me straight off her back, landing me dead center of the ditch. At this time of the year, tumbleweeds filled the ditch, clear to the top. At the bottom, was muddy ice. I plunged down the center, all the way down through those tumble weeds, landing with my bottom in nasty, black sludgy ice. I looked up through the hole in the weeds that I had just created, dreading the trip up the side of the ditch. Not knowing what Winnie was up to, and the knowledge that we were right next to a busy highway, drove me to climb out, as fast as I could get it done. I put my head down to protect my face, against those prickly tumbleweeds, and started climbing. As I reached the top, pushing tumbleweeds up at the surface, I raised my face to view Winnie’s nose. She stood there waiting and watching.