I just finished proofreading "Smoke Rings," by Dorothy Lyons, and it should be entering the collection shortly.
I want to recommend this excellent older book to anyone, not just teens, who enjoy novels on horses and equestrian events. The author understands her topic thoroughly (Ms Lyons bred Connemara ponies, and was the president of that breed association), and always tells a good yarn, but this book goes beyond the ordinary "horsie" novel.
"Smoke Rings" is a bold book for its time, because of the topic about which it was written: equal access for qualified female equestrians to compete at International and Olympic events.
The young woman in the book trains for years and tries out for the Olympics three-day event riding team. She succeeds in becoming one of the team qualifiers in the Olympic trials. Ginny is, however, then barred from competing by the International Olympics committee, because women weren't allowed to compete in that event prior to the 1960s (although the USA itself did allow women to compete in three-day-eventing at the time). Olympics teams, however, while barring the female riders could use these women's horses (with their permission) for the male riders to compete with!
The story tells how Ginny (and other women who qualified with their horses, and were barred), use a rule that allows them to compete in the open stadium jumping event at the Olympics and further the pathway to full Olympic participation.
"Smoke Rings" was published in 1960, concurrent with the 1960s Olympics. The fictional events in the book paralleled the actual experiences women equestrians encountered prior to and in the 1960 Olympics. The events described were in fact those that laid the groundwork to convince the International Olympics committee to eventually allow female equestrians to compete in all events.
Happy reading! smile. Judy s.To unsubscribe from this list, send a blank Email to bookshare-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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