My passion for both horses and writing inspired me to write and illustrate my very first book, a self-published children’s picture book, The Horses I Love, http://www.alexandragritta.com/early_works.html, when I was seven years old. It was about my favorite horses at a barn where I first learned to ride. The horses I knew and wrote about then were well cared for and much loved animals.
Several years later I wrote another book about horses, Mystery at Silver Key Stables. I wrote this mystery chapter book about stolen horses when I was thirteen years old. When I first began writing this book, I had no idea that tens of thousands of horses really are stolen in the United States every year and seldom recovered. It is a crime that most often goes unsolved. I discovered, while doing research for this story, that stolen horses can end up at auctions and ultimately at slaughter houses. (See the message from Debi Metcalfe, Stolen Horse International/NetPosse.com and visit her website at www.netposse.com for more information). Some of what I learned was very disturbing to me and, consequently, it changed the way I look at my world and all of the horses in it. I began to understand the transitional nature of many horses’ lives.
Horses typically have several different owners in their lifetimes, and it is not uncommon for the various owners who sell the horse to have no idea where the horse eventually goes. Sometimes the horse can end up in very sad circumstances. I have personally witnessed young, beautiful, healthy horses being bought at auction by "killer buyers", whose sole intent is to ship the horses either to Mexico or Canada to be slaughtered for human consumption in foreign countries. It is the only time in my life that I can remember wishing that I was rich, just so that I could save all of those horses from that terrible fate. I sometimes wish that I didn’t know about the horrible things that can happen to horses. But I do know. and once you know a thing, it becomes part of you.
I decided that I wanted to write lots of stories (because I love to write) about horses (because I love horses). I hoped that horses could benefit somehow from my writing about them, so my parents helped me create the Charity Book Series®. Every book in my series will be about different horses and their lives. I donate the net proceeds from the sale of each book in the Charity Book Series® to charities that help rescue horses from slaughter, neglect and abuse, and provide safe habitats for them. I picked these charities myself and you can get more information about them here on my website: http://www.alexandragritta.com/book1_charity_recipients.html
Here is a link to purchase a book from the Charity Book Series® (http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Silver-Key-Stables-Charity/dp/143923017X). Remember, it’s for a very good cause; 100% of the net proceeds from the Charity Book Series® are donated to charities that help rescue and provide safe habitats for horses. I hope you will take a moment to, "Buy a Book – and Save a Horse".
For the love of all horses,
