Meet Apple Jack the rescue horse in Unbridled

(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?