A Book About Horses By Layla Bellissimo

Dedications  This book is dedicated to my best friends Avery, Shea, Kate, and Lily. They all love horses like me.  I also dedicate this book to my best friends who might not like horses so much but helped my along the way. My friends Talia, Lauren, Jordyn, Anna, Kate, Dhara, Caroline, Emma, Leila, And Molly.  The next people I dedicate this book to is my whole family, (even the ones who aren’t bellissimo’s) for giving me the chance to go and met horses for the first time.

About The Author  Layla lives in Beverly Hills, Michigan. She loves horses and goes to a horse camp in the summer called Black River. She loves to ride and knows all the stuff about horses. She told herself that in the future she would buy a ranch and own a horse. She likes to play tennis and sing to. She now is 11 and wishes to work in the yard to earn money to buy a horse. She also really hopes you enjoy her book!

Information Page Copy Right Published in 2011 By Mrs. Cook Author Layla Bellissimo. Suffer 2 years of Federal Prison if copied by whomever. Most pictures from Google images.

Chapter 1-From Sprinky To Jack  “Oh my god” I screamed as I saw that ad in the paper. The ad was for a 2 year old horse. A black Stallion named Sprinky. “Man that name really stinks” I frowned. “Don’t worry we’ll see if he’s still for sale right now”. My dad exclaimed. Later at about 10:00 we went to the owner’s house to see if Sprinky was there. He sure was! My grandma Ruth came down state to help me pick out a horse. “Yeah he sure looks mighty fine” said my grandma “you should get him…. but change the name” She whispered. My dad talked to the owner and she said she’ll give the trailer for free and all the other stuff today and Sprinky too.

Chapter 1-Cont. We were driving back up north with Sprinky in the trailer. We were driving grandma back to her home and all the sudden I found a name. A new name for Sprinky that is. “Black Jack”! I hollered, “Black Jack”! “I’ll call him Jack for short”. I said a little softer. “You can ride him on grandma’s field” My mom offered, a little frazzled. “YEAH!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “To break him into riding” I said to have some reason to go outside. Once we got there I hoped out of the truck and took jack out onto the field. I did some lunging (on the ground controls using a rope) to watch Jack’s skills. He was pretty good for a horse that just learned!

Chapter 2- Horse Show  Another time I was with Jack was for a show. Jack and I were there at the show and I started. The jumps were raised up so it was hard to get over them. First jump flowerbox. The flowerbox is the jump that has water by it so it makes the horses want to refuse the jump. “Go jack” I said as I counted strides in my head. “Yes” he did it! “Good Boy” I eased. Next jump 3 rails one. Jack cleared it by a mile. Next jump, Hay bale. A hay bale jump is 2 or more hay bales stacked on top of each other. Jack made it over without hesitation. I told him that he was doing a good job and we got trough the rest of the course in the nick of time. Jack and I finished in… FIRST PLACE the leader board said next to my name. My name next to the first place! Yes I had done the intermediate show! Next up advanced. I screamed to my friend Lily and we had a great day grooming our horses Jack and Well- wisher.

Chapter 3- Get Real As you know if you really want to have a horse you have to learn how to take care of it. Some basics we’ll cover are:  Food  Stables  Daily Riding  Grooming  Vet Check Ups  Water  Grazing Place  Tack These things are in a daily life of a horse. You probably want to learn how to do this stuff.

Chapter 3- Get Real Cont. Jack and I were out on a sunny Saturday. After riding in the blazing sun we decided to go inside. When we got to Jack’s stall we found his water bucket (usually filled by the stable workers) was empty. “What the heck?” I said to myself “ The bucket should be filled, I’ll check in with TJ. (By the way TJ is one of the stable workers.) “Hey TJ what’s the problem with the water and the food?” I said to him while he was working. “Oh didn’t you hear the water is out and the truck with the grain foods didn’t come”. “oh, so should I give Jack…” “ The pony nuts right over there”. TJ said finishing my sentence. I grabbed the bucket of new pony nuts. ( Pony nuts is a combination of grass and molasses gross!!) Once I poured the weird looking food in Jack’s food bucket he sniffed it a backed away. Now I know that he really hates Pony Nuts!

Chapter 4- Stables  Well to start off you’ll need to have a stable to keep your horse in. There are three types of stables:  A stable where they keep your horse but you have to ride, feed, give it drinks, e.t.c.  A stable where you do half the work like riding your horse. Then they do the things like food and water.  A stable where they do all the daily work for you. So when you come it’s all done. Those are some of the stables you might want to have.

Chapter 4- Stables Cont. My parents and I were looking for a stable to let Jack stay in when Grandma wouldn’t be able to keep him in her field. We finally agreed on a “Half” stable. (where they do some of the work and you do the other half). I really thought that Jack might be scared to go to a different place other than grandma’s ranch. He would probably miss it at Grandma’s because Jack liked the open space and part of the woods to run in. (which made him good at cross country.) So we let him get used to his new home which was called Sunny Acres Stables.