(Photo
compliments of Creative Commons via Flickr)
As
I’m writing and revising the second book of the Silver Wind Trilogy, I realized
how important the horses in the books were. They play just as if not more of a
role then the main characters themselves to help tell the stories.
Several weeks ago,
you read the story of Mandy and her adopted rescue horse Prince Fox. While the horse in
Forgotten Reins was a fictional horse inspired by the true
story of
a rescue horse, I wanted to introduce you to the horse in the second book of
the Silver Wind Trilogy, Unbridled.
We
met “Apple” as Jenny likes to call him, in the first book, when Josh brought
him to the rescue along with another horse.
Apple
Jack is a buckskin stallion.
I
know most of you have heard of buckskin clothing. If you read any historical
fiction with cowboy and Indian’s they wear a lot of buckskin. That comes from a
deer, not a horse.
In this case, buckskin refers to the color of the horse. It’s a gray/ yellowish
color and they always have a dark line down their back.
Now
Apple Jack is a stallion, but he’s also wild.
What
you don’t know about this horse is where he comes from. Josh doesn’t exactly
tell Sarah where he found him. If you know, feel free to share what Josh tells
Sarah when he brings Apple to Silver Wind in the comments below.
Beyond
that short scene, Apple isn’t part of Sarah’s story.
But
this buckskin stallion plays a large part in Jenny’s.
I
love this picture of this buckskin horse above. It’s the eyes I think that draw
you to this horse. There’s a lot of sadness.
Jenny
named this horse “Apple” because the only thing he’ll eat is apples, and even
then he won’t take them from her hand, just from inside his feeder.
When
Cade comes along, he feels “Apple” isn’t really a good name for a stallion and
dubs the buckskin “Apple Jack” because “Jack” just sounds so much more
masculine to him. He also once had a horse named Jack, but he never tells that
to Jenny.
If
you know much about horses, then you’d also know that a “Jack” is a male donkey
and “Jenny” is a female. Just something quirky on my end, like in
Forgotten Reins when you see that Sarah’s rescue horse is named Bonnie and
Micheal’s horse is named Clyde. (I know … the things we writers come up with.)
So
the more you get to know Apple Jack in this story, the more you’ll find out
three things.
1.
Apple Jack doesn’t like women
2.
Apple Jack is wild and ran free reign until he came to the rescue.
3.
Apple Jack has a sweet spot. Can you guess what it is?
