Horses Of The Sun (The Outback Riders) [Kindle Edition]

Leanne Owens (Author)

Book Description

A wonderful adventure story for children set in the outback of Australia. Also suitable for adults who like an inspiring story about the outback, horses and children achieving their dreams. Beautifully written by an English teacher/ journalist who lived in the outback for many years.
Sunhaven Downs, a drought ravaged cattle station in outback Australia, is the home to Dane, Lani and Matthew Winter, three young outback riders whose lives centre around their horses. When their city cousin, Amy King, is left there for a year and declares that she hates horses, they know their lives are ruined. What they don't know is that Amy has a secret - a secret she is desperate to keep from her outback family, something that will ultimately save their lives – but not all of them - on the night the drought breaks.
This is the first book in The Outback Riders series which follows the lives of these four children and their friends as they grow up in the outback with their horses and, ultimately, represent their country in their chosen horse sports (eventing, polocrosse, jumping, reining, cutting). It is approximately 36,000 words or just under 100 print pages and, as the introduction to the series, is the shortest of the books.

Book Two, "Horses Of The Light" is now available and is 70,000 words and filled with excitement, adventure, some sadness and the start of a life-long romance.

Author, Leanne Owens, is an English teacher with a Masters in Education and she been writing for horse magazines on and off for over thirty years. She lived in the outback for many years and currently owns and operates the Horses Of Gold Stud in Queensland with the famous Quarter Horse stallions, Days Of Gold and Nights Of Gold.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Author Leanne Owens is well qualified to write about the outback, horses and children. In the early 1980s, Leanne moved to the Muttaburra region near Longreach in outback Queensland after finishing university. There, she trained horses, helped her husband manage his family's sheep and cattle property and did freelance writing for horse magazines. After leaving the outback, Leanne completed a Masters in Education and taught English and History at high school. She established the renowned horse stud Horses Of Gold and, with her husband and daughter, campaigned their horses around the country winning over thirty national titles. A well known and respected identity in the horse industry in Australia, Leanne continues to write for horse magazines, teach part time at high school, compete with her horses at national level and has even worked on a horse themed television series.

Product Details

• File Size: 201 KB
• Print Length: 99 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1467987344
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B006DRR020
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,070 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #23 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Science > Biological Sciences > Animals > Horses

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The kids loved it - so did I. December 4, 2011

By Ann Speare

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I began reading this on my Kindle to make sure it was suitable for my children (9, 13 and 16) and after the first few chapters I couldn't put it down myself. I started them reading it on the iPad (it has a Kindle app) and it was the first book in months that actually had them arguing over whose turn it was to read. My daughters have fallen in love with Matthew and Dane and want to meet outback boys just like them.

The first few chapters nursed me into a comfortable sense of being part of the family in the outback of Australia, with that typical Aussie humour bubbling through on almost every page. When it became apparent that Amy nursed an enormous secret I guessed wrong at first. I felt for her as she grieved for all that she had lost and felt like standing and applauding when she saved the day. And I cried; I didn't expect such sadness but it was beautifully handled.

I can't write too much without giving the twists of the plot away except to say that I don't know why a book like this isn't being featured in book stores as it really packs a punch. I'm looking forward to the rest of the Outback Riders books and hope it ends up as a movie or tv series.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Horses of the Sun (The Outback Riders) by Leanne Owens June 13, 2012

By S. Warfield TOP 500 REVIEWER

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've always loved horses and good horse stories, and this is one of the finest of its kind I've read in years. "Horses of the Sun" might be labeled for Young Adults, but this book is for everyone everywhere, even if horses aren't your favorite thing. It is written with such good examples of how family members show and maintain their love for one another through the best of times and the worst of times, and shows excellent examples of how to treat people and how to treat animals, always with kindness and patience.

When cranky,snobbish, city dweller cousin Amy comes to Sunhaven Downs, her aunt's, uncle's and cousins' cattle station in the outback of Australia, she is very unhappy and can only be nasty to her relatives who have taken her in for the year that her mother and step-father are on an archeological dig in Turkey. The Winter kids, Lani, Dane and Matthew center their lives around horses, and for their ages, they are fairly accomplished riders and compete every year right before school starts. Amy claims that she hates horses, they smell bad and she wants nothing to do with them. For all the fussing that Amy does, her Aunt Eleanor and Uncle Geoff remain patient and positive with her while the cousins are exasperated. They do try to engage her in their usual summer activities such as swimming, but Amy says that she is only used to swimming in nice chlorinated swimming pools, not in the creek or her cousins' favorite swimming hole.

Like the other reviewers, I couldn't stop reading this once I started it. The characters are so likeable and the family as a whole that I just wanted to slip into it as another long-lost cousin or auntie. It is written with compassion and a message for living life to the fullest. I'm very anxious to read the next in this series. There is a lot to learn about Australia, determination, kindness and horseback riding.

Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous read! April 30, 2012

By Reb Brooks

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a superbly written story about the Australian outback, horses and riders. I loved it (and I am in my 20's!) and will definitely be giving this book to my nieces and nephews.
Horses Of The Sun should be in bookstores - I would have loved to have had something like this to read growing up.

More About the Author

Leanne Owens is an Australian writer who is also an English teacher with a Masters in Education. She has written for horse magazines for over thirty years and has also worked on a horse based tv series. Her school years were spent in Victoria and then she made her home in Queensland, first in the far outback where she met her husband and helped run his 36,000 acre sheep and cattle property, and then in the beautiful Lockyer Valley region where they raised their three children. Leanne is a well known and respected identity in the Australian horse world, having won over 30 national titles with her horses, including the famous Quarter Horse stallions Days Of Gold and Nights Of Gold (you can google them!) and also being responsible for running, on a volunteer basis, some of the premier horse shows in the country.

Leanne says she has procrastinated for over 35 years about completing all the novels in her head and it was the realisation that when she dies, the people and animals in her novels will die, too, unless she gets them into print where they can continue to live without her. It was her love of these fictional characters that finally forced her to give them the chance they deserve: to live on forever, for as long as words can live, they will give life to them (with apologies to Shakespeare).

Starting with things she knows best, children, horses and the outback, Leanne's series Outback Riders kicks off with the first book, Horses Of The Sun.