Category: Horses

A New Sinclair Island Romance, Christian fiction, Christian inspirational Fiction, Christian romance, Contemporary Christian Fiction, Horses

Coming Soon! Rachel’s Risk: A Sinclair Island Romance Book 4

Hilary Walker

Available for pre-order!

As I was finishing Friday’s Folly, I became aware that in the first three Sinclair Island Romances, my heroine was the Christian influence on the man in her life.

I was hoping nobody else had noticed this, but one of my readers (you know who you are!) also spotted it. The time had come for my next hero to be the one to bring his lady love to faith in Jesus.

The heroine of Rachel’s Risk – whose name, you guessed it, is Rachel – is a very difficult convert. Having started out as a determined atheist, she takes a lot of convincing about the truth of God’s Existence and His Redeeming Love.

Following her story, you’ll understand her distrust in the idea of God; when things aren’t going well in our lives, it’s tough to believe in His Goodness. But when we meet someone joyful, whose faith is so strong that even loss and hardship can’t shake it, we want to know where that strength comes from – and how to attain it for ourselves.

But Rachel is in turmoil; when her bitter atheism meets Gordon’s powerful Christian love, she is afraid to believe in it.

Their story is intertwined with the Pearls – beautiful palomino horses running wild on Cuddie Island, introduced in Friday’s Folly.

Rachel has many adventures with these stunning animals, especially one young stallion, as she navigates the choppy waters of true love and discovers that what really matters in life is not as she first thought.

Set to the beat of thundering hooves and hearts, Rachel’s Risk is now available for pre-order!

Correct riding, Dressage, Horse riding, Horseback riding, Horses, Riding dressage, Riding horses

A Glimpse into my Horse World

Hilary Walker
Cruz Bay looking alert and ready for work!

During the first two weeks of May, my German friend and erstwhile riding instructor came for a visit to Hilton Head Island from her native Frankfurt.

It was her first time here, so we did a lot of sightseeing. But she was very interested in helping with my riding and I was thrilled to receive the much-needed training!

Cruz and I are like a long-time married couple: we’ve adapted to each other without realizing it. As a result, I’ve got used to his crookedness and he’s learned to cope with mine.

Enter Ingrid.

When your horse doesn’t give to the left, the temptation is to bend him even farther left. But that just puts him off balance and makes him move yet more crookedly.

You can see how Cruz resists giving to the left: Ingrid worked with me on straightening him first and driving him forward, so he could give equally on both sides.

Ingrid had me let go of my stranglehold on the left rein and concentrate on driving Cruz forwards in a straight line. In any case, I should only see his inner eyelash when he’s bent to the left, not his entire neck!

Here’s a link to the video of us cantering between markers to the left – our worse side. You can see his haunches swing out to the right until I improve my leg position.

CLICK ‘WATCH ON FACEBOOK’ IN THE BLACK BOX TO VIEW.

In this video I’m cantering to the right. This used to be my ‘bad’ side, but somehow we’ve switched over!

AGAIN, CLICK ON ‘WATCH ON FACEBOOK’ IN THE BLACK BOX TO SEE THE VIDEO.

In addition to creating forward impulsion, I was to make sure I could always see the top muscle in his arched neck, to denote that he was using himself correctly and enable him to carry me better.

He didn’t have to be ‘reeled in’ to achieve this: I could do it on a longer rein, too, allowing him to stretch into my contact. As a result, she assured me, he would not be so tired nor ache so much from using the wrong muscles.

So I’ve taken a photo of his neck and will get another shot of it in two months’ time. Hopefully the before and after pictures will show a significant increase in his upper neck muscle and a huge decrease in his lower neck muscle. (I’m too embarrassed to let you see the before photo right now!)

If all goes according to plan, I’ll post them both!

Next week my great friend Maggie McGuire, of https://maggiemcguiredressage.com/ is coming to give a clinic next and I hope to post some great photos and videos from that.