Getting It Right

                                                                    Milton C. Toby photograph

By Milton C. Toby

Writing nonfiction is, for me at any rate, a very research-intensive pursuit. I learned the ropes from Kent Hollingsworth and Ed Bowen, my editors during a dozen years at Blood-Horse magazine, and they both were sticklers for accuracy in reporting. I took their lessons to heart, to the point that I typically spend at least as much time researching a topic as I do writing about it. Sometimes the ratio of research-to-writing is skewed heavily toward fact-finding.

When the research goes well, the writing usually moves along at a relatively smooth and comfortable pace. When the writing bogs down, on the other hand, the reason often is that I don't have enough information. This is when I stare blankly at my computer screen and envy my fiction author friends who have the luxury of making something up to write themselves out of a corner.

After Dancer's Image was disqualified, owner Peter Fuller put
 up a bill board in a pasture at his New Hampshire farm
proclaiming that his horse remained a Derby winner.
The billboard is still there. Photo by Roberta Dwyer,
copyright 2011, all rights reserved.

If it sounds as if I'm knocking the research skills of fiction authors, I'm not. Many fiction genres require extensive research and my hat is off to authors who can weave a batch of sterile facts into a compelling story. I try to do the same thing with my nonfiction, to make the usually difficult leap from reporting to storytelling. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. The balance between success and failure often turns on research help from an unexpected source.

The story of Dancer's Image and his controversial disqualification for a drug positive in the 1968 Kentucky Derby focused on the proceedings at a lengthy hearing before the state racing commission. Without the transcript of the hearing--some 400-plus pages--there were serious gaps in the story and how I could tell it. The problem was that, more than 40 years after the fact, none of the usual sources had a complete copy of the transcript-- not the attorneys involved, not the appellate court, not the state racing commission, not the court reporters.

Working at the Keeneland Library with a deadline looming for my book about Dancer's Image, I found myself trying to write around the gaps in what I knew about happened at the racing commission hearing. The Keeneland Library is a wonderful treasure trove of information about Thoroughbred racing. Director Becky Ryder and Librarian Cathy Schenck are among the most knowledgeable and helpful people on the planet. A few months ago, Cathy was named winner of the prestigious National Turf Writers and Broadcasters 2015 Joe Palmer Award for meritorious service to racing. Way to go, Cathy!

Winner of the Dr. Tony Ryan Award for
the best book about Thoroughbred racing and an
American Horse Publications Editorial Award
for the best equine book of the year.

Another of the librarians, Phyllis Rogers, asked what I was working on. I explained about the Dancer's Image book project. She nodded, said there was "something you probably need to see," and vanished into the cavernous back part of the building reserved for storage. She returned a few minutes later with a battered cardboard file box covered in dust. It was apparent that no one had opened the box for years, probably for decades.

Inside was the complete transcript of the hearing. I was flabbergasted. I had given up on ever seeing the entire transcript and for some reason it never occurred to me to look in the most logical place of all, a library devoted to preserving the history of Thoroughbred racing.

Conventional wisdom holds that writing is a solitary activity, and that's true. Writing this, I'm sitting at my computer in the company of Plumpkin and Sherlock, our two rescue cats. (I count this as a solitary activity due to the almost complete disdain shown my work by the felines.) Effective research, on the other hand, takes a village. For me, The Keeneland Library and the staff are essential parts of my village.

Finding True Stories

by Diana Kimpton

Being commissioned to write a book is an exciting event, but, once the immediate thrill has worn off, the prospect can be daunting. That’s what I found when I was asked to write Horse Stories That Really Happened. It was going to be the only horse book in a "Stories that Really Happened" series and I was required to provide 6 exciting horse stories set in a variety of time periods. To help with marketing, the publisher wanted at least one story to be set in the USA and one in Australia. 

 

As soon as I started planning the book, I realised I had a problem. Dog Stories that Really Happened would have been easy, because dogs do brave things all the time. They pull babies from burning buildings, capture criminals and discover people trapped in rubble after earthquakes. Horses, on the other hand, are timid creatures who run away from plastic bags, lions and all dangers in between. That’s why the only horses awarded the Dickens Medal for Gallantry in World War 2 got it for not running away.  

Eventually I found 5 stories that gave the variety I needed:

• How Alexander the Great tamed his famous horse, Bucephalus.
• An Australian heroine’s daring horseback rescue of survivors from a shipwreck
• The wartime rescue of the white stallions of the Spanish Riding School.
• Foinavon’s amazing victory in the Grand National when no one expected him to win.
• The rescue of a horse from a river by a brave RSPCA inspector

At that stage, the American story was going to be the crossing of the Sierra Nevada mountains in a snow storm during the first run of the Pony Express. However, that was eventually replaced by a much better one that I came across by chance.

 

As part of my research, I’d joined a discussion group for horse lovers and early in January someone asked what presents people had had for Christmas. One answer from a lady called Angie stood out from all the others. "We got a mustang foal who collapsed in our yard on Christmas Eve" she said. . "We’ve called her Annie and are nursing her back to health.” 

I immediately wrote asking if I could put the foal’s story in the book. Her rescuer agreed and I set about piecing together Annie’s story through an email conversation that spanned the Atlantic. As it was difficult to get permission to include the various humans in the story, I decided to write the account from Annie’s point of view.  

But there was one big problem. Annie had hurt her leg and was very lame. Because mustangs are protected by law, Angie needed permission to keep her and she would only get that if the foal was free of pain. So several anxious weeks went by with my whole family biting our nails as we waited for the results of each vet’s visit. If the foal couldn’t recover, it wouldn’t just my story that would be ruined. Annie would have to be put down.  

Eventually there was a happy ending. Annie got the all clear, her adoption went ahead and so did my story. Luckily mustang supporters in her area had been watching the foal ever since her mother was killed in a car accident so Angie was able to fill in the details I needed. After she was orphaned, other mares had suckled Annie until the winter came and their milk supplies ran low. Then she’d spent a while with her older brother and some other colts, learning to fend for herself and eat the hay put out by horse-lovers.

But when she injured her leg, she couldn’t keep up with the other horses any more. All alone and growing progressively weaker, she was totally reliant on the donated hay. Then on Christmas Eve, she plucked up the courage to go down to Angie’s house where she knew the hay came from. That’s where she collapsed and her new life began.

The story of Annie remains my favourite from that book because I became so involved in the events. When the book went out of print and I got the rights back, I gave the copyright in Annie's Story to Angie so it could be used to help mustangs.

There are still some second hand copies of Horse Stories That Really Happened on sale if you want to read Annie's Story yourself.

 

The three historical stories  from the original book live on in Perfectly Pony: my ebook anthology of pony facts and fiction.  

Try to get it Right the First Time

by Christine Meunier

Do you Research for Your Writing?

Although a lot of what is written for enjoyment is fiction, there are areas that should be factually correct.  I think this is especially true for horse books where people read to enjoy, but also to learn about an animal they love.

It’s important that what they read is information they can put to use with their own horses - or once they get a horse!

Perhaps it’s tempting for someone writing a book to not double check information they’re not 100% certain of.  A book is written once and then provides you a return any time it is read or bought – it is worth getting it right the first time.

With our current digital age, the great news is that if somehow facts change and your book is no longer current or correct about a particular thing, you can easily update an eBook and republish it.  Do your homework and try to get it right from the start, but keep up to date in your field and don’t shy away from revising an edition of your book if you need to.