I always knew my girlfriend was into riding, but it wasn't until we moved near Wellington, FL that I was unknowingly pulled into the vortex of the A-circuit hunter/jumper equestrian world. By the end of the Winter Equestrian Festival there, she had quit her job to visit horse shows all over the east coast and blog about them. I made the decision to go along and logged over 20 weeks at horse shows in 6 states, observing everything from FEI 5* Grand Prix events to Cleveland Bay classes. I realized eventually to justify it all, especially Pony Finals, I would need to write about my trip. This is an account of the places, horse shows, and the people I observed and experienced. It is written for those who want to know more about the sport, as well as for seasoned riders to read and give to friends and loved ones who think that they race horses.

Tough-as-nails fourteen-year-old Sid may not have expensive boots like the privileged teen riders in Virginia, but she knows her way around horses. Working with her Uncle Wayne since childhood, she’s learned to evaluate horses, break and train them, care for them . . . and ride like a professional. Amid turmoil at home, she dreams of becoming a catch rider—a show rider who can ride anything with hooves. In this salty, suspenseful teen novel, an unexpected opportunity to ride a top-notch horse in an equitation show takes the small-town girl all the way to Madison Square Garden.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A STARZ ORIGINAL SERIES Unrivaled storytelling. Unforgettable characters. Rich historical detail. These are the hallmarks of Diana Gabaldon’s work. Her New York Times bestselling Outlander novels have earned the praise of critics and captured the hearts of millions of fans. Here is the story that started it all, introducing two remarkable characters, Claire Beauchamp Randall and Jamie Fraser, in a spellbinding novel of passion and history that combines exhilarating adventure with a love story for the ages. One of the top ten best-loved novels in America, as seen on PBS’s The Great American Read! Scottish Highlands, 1945. Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon when she walks through a standing stone in one of the ancient circles that dot the British Isles. Suddenly she is a Sassenach—an “outlander”—in a Scotland torn by war and raiding clans in the year of Our Lord . . . 1743. Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of a world that threatens her life, and may shatter her heart. Marooned amid danger, passion, and violence, Claire learns her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior. What begins in compulsion becomes urgent need, and Claire finds herself torn between two very different men, in two irreconcilable lives. This eBook includes the full text of the novel plus the following additional content: • An excerpt from Diana Gabaldon’s Dragonfly in Amber, the second novel in the Outlander series • An interview with Diana Gabaldon • An Outlander reader’s guide Praise for Outlander “Marvelous and fantastic adventures, romance, sex . . . perfect escape reading.”—San Francisco Chronicle “History comes deliciously alive on the page.”—New York Daily News

“A wild, rollicking ride into the heart of horse country—these essays get at what it means to love horses, in all that love's complexity.” —Anton DiSclafani, author of The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls A compelling and provocative essay collection that smashes stereotypes and redefines the meaning of the term “horse girl,” broadening it for women of all cultural backgrounds. As a child, horses consumed Halimah Marcus’ imagination. When she wasn’t around horses she was pretending to be one, cantering on two legs, hands poised to hold invisible reins. To her classmates, girls like Halimah were known as “horse girls,” weird and overzealous, absent from the social worlds of their peers. Decades later, when memes about “horse girl energy,” began appearing across social media—Halimah reluctantly recognized herself. The jokes imagine girls as blinkered as carriage ponies, oblivious to the mockery behind their backs. The stereotypical horse girl is also white, thin, rich, and straight, a daughter of privilege. Yet so many riders don’t fit this narrow, damaging ideal, and relate to horses in profound ways that include ambivalence and regret, as well as unbridled passion and devotion. Featuring some of the most striking voices in contemporary literature—including Carmen Maria Machado, Pulitzer-prize winner Jane Smiley, T Kira Madden, Maggie Shipstead, and Courtney Maum—Horse Girls reframes the iconic bond between girls and horses with the complexity and nuance it deserves. And it showcases powerful emerging voices like Braudie Blais-Billie, on the connection between her Seminole and Quebecois heritage; Sarah Enelow-Snyder, on growing up as a Black barrel racer in central Texas; and Nur Nasreen Ibrahim, on the colonialist influence on horse culture in Pakistan. By turns thought-provoking and personal, Horse Girls reclaims its titular stereotype to ask bold questions about autonomy and desire, privilege and ambition, identity and freedom, and the competing forces of domestication and wildness.

Stevie is excited about a great new sport--polocrosse. When she learns that the Horse Wise Pony Club will be playing against her boyfriend's team, she's thrilled. Now she'll finally have the chance to show him what a good rider she is! Her best friends, Carole and Lisa, are enthusiastic about anything that has to do with horses, but they don't share Stevie's fierce drive to win. Carole would rather spend time with their new friend Marie, who was injured in an accident. Marie needs help, and Carole knows that horses are the answer. If she can interest Marie in riding again,she'll be on the road to recovery. When Stevie sprains her ankle, her determination is as strong as ever. Carole and Lisa thought she was a terror as a player, but they can't believe what she's like as a coach! Her competitive spirit is starting to threaten their friendship. What will it take to get the Saddle Club team spirit back again?

Phil Marsten isn't just Stevie Lake's boyfriend. He's a fellow rider and he knows how to push all Stevie's buttons. When he issues a riding challenge that she can't turn down, Stevie starts training Belle intensely. In fact, her workouts threaten to make even good natured Belle balk at going into the ring. Mrs. Reg, the manager of Pine Hollow Stables, thinks Stevie and Belle need a break, so she takes the Saddle Club to Chincoteague and Assateague islands. Will seeing wild ponies running on the beach remind Stevie what riding is all about?

Some will question what kind of man would volunteer during war time to enter into the United States Air Force in a law enforcement field and remain until retirement at age thirty-seven and help form a new United States Air Force while in conflict with North Korea, Vietnam, and the Bay of Pigs. Some will say that it’s barbaric even to temporarily adopt the characteristic of barbarism working undercover as a deputy United States sky marshal flying all over the world on Trans World Airlines, (TWA), owned by Howard Hughes, to protect our largest commercial (747) aircraft with three hundred fifty passengers and crew aboard from air piracy. We visited a different country every twenty four hours. They would also say the same for assuming a similar role as an undercover narcotics agent in the Bureau of Narcotics, Pennsylvania, office of attorney general, retiring again at age sixty-five with twenty-five years of duty. The barbarian role was assumed so often that sometimes it was difficult to put it down. There were critters (that’s not nice), people that I had to work with; rats (that’s not nice); and animals (that’s not nice either) that had to be arrested because they were very dangerous to our society. Sometimes my role was so important that I got arrested right along with everyone else during a big drug raid, just to protect the identity of the barbarian. I have to own the name of the barbarian—that’s obvious, but you’ll have to read on if you’re interested in a career that I’ve described to find out why it’s also provocative.

Saving a champion show jumper from a burning horse trailer gives young rider-trainer Robb Slaughter one job: finding out who tied that horse in that trailer and making them pay. For Robb, avenging that horse means atonement. Sure, he was just a kid when he left his mother screaming while her lover killed her, but that doesn’t mean he ever quit hearing those screams. It’s the horses who’ve saved him from the torrent of unanswered cries inside his head. Clearing the big jumps on horses he cares about has given him a hard-won mental peace. He has built a good life for himself as a professional show-jumping rider, on his way to Grand-Prix stardom . . . Until that fire. You were crazy to jump into that trailer to save that horse, everyone tells Robb. But for Robb saving the horse like he did is just the beginning. Let the police solve it, everyone says. But Robb knows no cop will ever deliver the right kind of justice. Only somebody brave enough and driven enough can hunt down the killers and exact true justice. Somebody with a visceral need to right wrongs and find peace from his own torment. Somebody like Robb. Set against the daily background of a hunter-jumper show barn in rigorous international competition, Three Strides Out pits a young rider’s life against fraud, money-laundering, blackmail, and murder. Like a Grand Prix class that asks horses to jump fences they can’t see over, Robb’s quest to bring killers to justice demands an ultimate commitment—and an ultimate sacrifice.

With the date for the horse show drawing near, Stevie plans to win as many categories as possible, Carole vows to beat Cam Nelson, and Lisa is determined to ride Prancer.

In Chasing Blue, Sasha and her horse, Charm, have proven that they’re worthy competitors for the elite Canterwood Crest equestrian team. Things are definitely looking up . . . until Sasha finds out who her riding partner for the semester is: her archnemesis, Queen Bee Heather. Not. Good. And when Heather starts spending a little too much QT with Sasha’s almost-boyfriend, Jacob, the partnership is put to the ultimate test. The tension builds in Behind the Bit when Sasha and her team are accepted to a prestigious horse clinic. Can Sasha and Callie work together when it counts?