Wellington, FL – It’s no mystery why bestselling author Tami Hoag has written the foreward for a new book on Shetland Ponies and Miniature Horses – Hoag is a fan of small equines. Hoag, who has 14 New York Times bestsellers to her name, penned the foreward for the new book The Big Book of Small Equines: A Celebration of Miniature Horses and Shetland Ponies. (Skyhorse Publishing, $29.95 Hardcover).
“I asked my parents for a pony every chance I got when I was growing up,” Hoag said, adding that her dreams came true when her parents bought her a Shetland Pony named Dan. “He was my best friend and my confidant and he taught me joy and confidence.”
In the foreward to The Big Book of Small Equines, Hoag writes that Dan was the dream pony that every horse crazy kid imagines. “My very first horse show was with Dan. I drove him in a homemade cart with wheels salvaged from a Model-A car. We placed fifth out of five, but I got a big pink ribbon and never looked back.”
Today, Hoag competes at the highest level of the sport of dressage and in the book’s foreward she says, “My mounts are taller at the shoulder than I am, and graceful beyond imagining. But they owe a debt of gratitude to their much smaller cousins for helping to shape me into the rider I am today. Ponies taught me responsibility, compassion, and sportsmanship. Ponies provided the opportunity for family togetherness and the basis for building friendships. Ponies were my partners, my companions, my confidants. I remember them all fondly and with a warm heart.”
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The Big Book of Small Equines: A Celebration of Miniature Horses and Shetland Ponies, written by Johnny Robb and Jan Westmark, details the love affair America has with Miniature Horses and Shetland Ponies. The book is filled with colorful stories of small equines, as well as beautiful full-page color photographs from some of the country’s most recognized equine photographers.
Hoag, who will always have fond memories of her early days on the back of a Shetland Pony, has incorporated her love for equines of all sizes into two of her bestselling novels. Dark Horse and Alibi Man take place amidst the exciting action of the show jumping world and are based in Wellington, Florida, home of the Winter Equestrian Festival.
While Hoag fans will be pleased to read her account of growing up on the back of a Shetland Pony in the foreward of the small equine book, they will also be thrilled with Hoag’s latest mystery. Deeper Than The Dead will arrive in bookstores on December 28, 2009. For more information about Tami Hoag, or to see a list of her novels including Kill The Messenger, Cry Wolf, Still Waters, Lucky’s Lady, Dust To Dust and Ashes To Ashes, visit her website at www.tamihoag.com.
