I've loved horses for as long as I can remember. Even though my grandparents, who lived next door, had a barn and fourteen acres, and my grandfather offered to house a horse there, my parents balked at letting me have a pony. For one, they couldn't afford to buy one, and secondly, they thought I would lose interest.

I never did. As soon as I could afford to buy a horse of my own when I was in my early twenties, married with one child, I did. My father agreed to fence in the back quarter of their wooded acre, with access to my grandparents' fields, and I bought Moe for $100. He'd been bought, along with many other abused horses from several stables by a horse dealer who was a friend of our friends. I could have bought livelier horses than Moe, but my riding experience at that time was close to zero, so I chose a horse I was sure wouldn't run away with me.

Moe was a chestnut. We looked at him at a horse sale in early spring, so he he still had his full winter coat. Under that coat, he was skin an bones and lice infected, although I only discovered that later. But with good feed he immediately became more lively. We kept him at a friends' place until the accommodations at my parents' place was ready. This was after my grandfather had died, and his offer of the use of his barn was no longer an option.

I did turn Moe around and had him fit and looking beautiful by summer. My younger cousin who had riding experience and rode at the Fairfield Hunt Club, gave me advice, and by the end of summer, I had Moe jumping.

But Moe hadn't forgotten his quarter-horse ancestry, and if we let him loose in one of our grandparents' fields, he would try to herd us, circle around us, until we were all in an imaginary pen.

I had to sell Moe when I was hugely pregnant with my second child and couldn't care for Moe anymore the way I should. My ex-husband, Kenny Campbell traded him to a farmer with kids for a motorcycle. Does that make me want to cry? YES

After my divorce from Kenneth William Campbell, Sr., father of my two children, Kimberly Ann and Kenneth William, Jr., I decided to take the riding lessons my parents had always been unable to afford. Fortunately there was a riding stable in my neighborhood, Comstock Farms, and I ended up taking open jumping lessons there for four years, and I have to admit, was getting pretty good at it.

During this time in my life, I was also writing books in the evenings after spending my days working a full time job for a small corporate importing company. I'd written my first book, Love Once In Passing, an adult time travel romance, in the late '70's. It was published by Avon Books in November 1981, after which I was contracted to write several more time travel adult novel.

In the meantime my agent, knowing my dire financial straights, suggested I write some young adult horse books because of my love and experience with horses and riding.

In the following years while I was still writing adult novels, I wrote several horse books for Bantam. Because of the success of my Bantam books, A Horse of Her Own, and The Wild Mustang, I was approached several years later to write a four book series about Thoroughbred racing. The outline submitted to me for the four book series was garbage. I drastically rewrote it and said that I'd write the Series only if the Series adhered to my new outlines.

They agreed, and thus began the Thoroughbred Series.

The Series has received a hugely positive response from young horse lovers, and I just want to tell you all how touched and gratified I am that my words and my love of horses has connected with you.

As much as I was originally skeptical about my ability to write for young adult readers, you readers have proven me wrong, and I thank you for your overwhelmingly positive response to the Thoroughbred Series and my other horse novels. May the Horse be With You!

Joanna