October 7 2019
Victoria Hardesty and Nancy Perez are pleased to announce the release of their fifth book Freedom – Wonder Horse Five, the fifth book in their series about Arabian Horses and the people who love them. Victoria will be at the American Endurance Ride Conference National Championships in Ridgecrest, CA from October 30 through November 2, 2019 to launch their new book. The AERC Championships will start from the Desert Empire Fairgrounds at 5205 Richmond Road, Ridgecrest, CA 93555 (760-375-8000). Victoria will be joined over the weekend by Vera Kalilla, founder of Love This Horse Equine Rescue in Acton, CA, the rescue that saved Freedom’s life; Gayle Pena, a devout follower, rider, and crew person at Tevis, and Virginia Jablonski, a nationally known Animal Communicator who actually communicated with Freedom when he first came into rescue.
Synopsis: Freedom was abused and betrayed by every human he came in contact with as a young horse. Despite his promise to his mother to grow up and become a “good horse,” he distrusted all humans while harboring the hope he would find his “Heart Human” someday. Nathan was born with Autism. He was brilliant but lacked the skill to communicate. His parents tried many forms of therapy to help their son and couldn’t find one that worked for him. He grew up isolated, passing his time on a computer learning about things he’d never be able to do. Freedom’s owner donated him to a therapeutic riding center. Nathan’s mother got an invitation to a fundraiser for that center and investigated equine therapy for her son. Something finally worked for Nathan. Then Nathan met Freedom and magic happened. Nathan wanted to ride the Tevis Cup Ride, the toughest 100 miles in one day ride in the world. Freedom’s previous owner conditioned Freedom for that ride before she donated him. Four new friends stepped up to help join the horse with the boy and help them make their dreams come true.
Per Victoria, their ideal reader is someone who loves to read a story about a horse that will make you laugh and make you cry and make you feel good you read the story when it ends. They initially wrote for the YA Market (12 to 18-year-old horse-crazy girls) but find their readers are 25 and older women who used to be them, and a surprising number of older gentlemen as well. One of their best reviews came from Paul Husband, son of Dr. Burt and Ruth Husband, breeders of the immortal Khemosabi++++////. Paul has read all four of their first books and says, “it is the best thing that has happened to Arabian Horses in North America in a long time.”
Victoria and her husband have owned, shown and bred Arabian horses since the early 1980’s. They owned and ran a small training/breeding/boarding facility for a number of years. Victoria says many of her stories come from the horses and the young people at their ranch as well as stories she’s heard over the years.
Nancy Perez worked for AT&T for more than 30 years selling, writing, editing, and proofing advertising copy. She wrote for herself from childhood, but never tackled something as difficult as a novel before the two paired up to write as a team. She was a city girl, through and through, except for the times she spent at Victoria’s ranch. She took over for them during vacations and holidays and discovered the joys of hay in your bra and mud on your boots for several days to a week at a time.
Nancy Perez and Victoria Hardesty have been friends since early high school years. (They will admit to 55 years of close friendship). They both suffered a life-threatening health crisis and decided to team up to write as they worked through them. Their first book was released in December 2017, their second came shortly after in April 2018, their third came out in July 2018 and their fourth was released in December 2018. Per Victoria, the first four books pair up four horse friends and four young human friends who will go on throughout the series to help other horses and their special young people.
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