Two Young Adult Horse Novels: Crown Prince and Crown Prince Challenged
“Can Sarah…keep the horse she loves against all odds?" I anxiously read the beginning chapters in Crown Prince and wondered. The galloping scene down a rutted camp road was ever so frightening and real. How many of us drive dirt roads every spring to camps on the lake and wonder about all those potholes from icy runoff?
Author Linda Snow McLoon wrote a follow-up book as well, Crown Prince Challenged: “Can Sarah…and the horse she loved…escape a deadly plot of revenge?”
It is about time I read these 2012-published paperbacks, since the author worked in the Belgrade Historical Society for years. Her power point lectures about Whisperwood Cottages on Salmon Lake in Belgrade and also about the Lakeside Advent Christian Camp on Snow Pond in Oakland were history at its best. The author grew up living at Whisperwood Cottages year round and attending local public schools.
I picnicked with Linda at Whisperwood by the lake in 2023. Why has it taken me so long to read and enjoy learning about horses and the fine arts of training and riding?
Carrots were always fun to feed Runoia Girls Camp horses near my place on Great Pond in Belgrade, but I did not know one’s hand should be flat. The horse may find a finger to be a carrot. This is in Crown Prince. Northwood Farm horse training center was also on Point Road near my Great Pond summer home. One morning the owner invited me in to visit the brand mew foal born during the night. What a sight to see it standing tall on all fours already! Such beauty.
I can’t help but think of the cars lined up on Point Road when friends and family visit the various shows and daily lessons at Northwood. Maybe you have some summer horse rings near your camp? I saw one years ago on Hathaway Lane near Great Pond and also saw some horses grazing on McGrath Pond Road near Whisperwood.
Crown Prince is a huge beauty which everyone noticed. Sarah is offered a special gift of ownership because of her handling of horses during her many lessons, when her parents would drive her and pick her up and because of her interest in and love of horses.
Several times her riding instructor addressed Sarah, telling her Gray Fox needed impulsion. A new word for me, so I went to the dictionary. Soon an old tractor backfired and set off Gray Fox with Sarah hanging on for dear life down the bumpy dirt road full of dangerous potholes.
A fast paced horse could easily lose balance or break a leg. Such descriptions kept me reading about a new skill I never have experienced.
Young adult books maybe, but I recommend both novels to almost any age if one cares to learn about horseback riding. Just the complicated process of selecting a horse to own was far beyond selecting a car or boat. I am savvy on those two forms of transportation, running all over Maine to every lake imaginable to buy a used boat. Automobile buying? Don’t get me started.
These two paperbacks are in our Belgrade Public Library. Go find a book or something else with the helpful staff. Don’t forget to look at the sunrise or sunset on the water, maybe while dreaming about horseback riding.…
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