Escape from MaxSec Stables

Book excerpt: The lives and adventures of a Gang of eleven horses and ponies in the tradition of Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty. This 21st-century-style story is recounted by Sir, a 14-year-old dapple-gray Arabian. The Gang is serving a lifetime sentence at Forsaken’s Maximum Security Equine Correctional Facility, where the fiendish warden Hagar Horowicz is in charge. The inmates are led by El Profesor, a brilliant Andalusian gelding. During the long waiting hours in their cells, the horses reveal secrets of natural horsemanship, unfold their dreams and debunk popular horse myths. With wit and sarcasm, they discuss their predicament and comment on typically human behavior. Damy, a beautiful blonde Haflinger mare, is keen on overhearing the riders’ stable gossip. After a fatal field accident in which a convict tragically dies, the Gang members unanimously vote to flee from Forsaken’s prison. El Profesor is commissioned to devise a daring escape plan. The Gang manages to pull it off and remain at large in the wilderness. Soon, the herd adapts to feral life, freely foraging in the thicket. But the idyll will soon be disrupted. Unknown to the Gang, this wilderness hides a far greater danger than wolves, bears, poisonous plants, slippery slopes, and treacherous precipices. The equine escapees' lives are under imminent threat.