Judy Andrekson

Canadian author. Judy grew up in Nova Scotia with a pen in one hand and a lead rope in the other. At the age of twenty, she moved to Alberta, where she could pursue her great love of horses, and there she found her dream job managing a thoroughbred racing/breeding farm. By her thirties, Judy had also begun to write seriously. Now she combines both of her passions in her new series for young readers, True Horse Stories. Judy also works as an educational assistant. She, her husband, John, and their daughter, Kate, live in Sherwood Park, Alberta, along with a constantly changing assortment of animals.

Sources: This biog is from the True Horse Stories paperback editions

True Horse Stories Series:
Although these are essentially non-fiction books for children and are well-researched and true to life, they can be read as stories rather than non-fiction as are written in a slightly fictionalised style. They are all stand-alone stories which do not need to be read in any particular order.

MISKEEN: THE DANCING HORSE
(TUNDRA PB (CANADA) 2007)
ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID PARKINS
In print.
SUMMARY: Warning: contains upsetting parts where a horse is hurt. Miskeen is trained as a liberty and dressage horse and becomes a top performer in a travelling Russian circus. But when he attacks a boy who has viciously beaten, him he is punished cruelly and ends up disabled and unable to work. He is rehabilitated by a young British woman who hopes to restore him to his former glory.

LITTLE SQUIRE: THE JUMPING HORSE
(TUNDRA PB (CANADA) 2007)
ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID PARKINS
In print.
SUMMARY: Set in the 1930s in Ireland and America. Little Squire is born in Ireland. He is very small and it seems he will never amount to much. But then he is discovered to have an amazing jumping ability. He ends up in America where he meets fellow Irish immigrant Mickey Walsh and enters the show jumping circuit.

JB ANDREW: MUSTANG MAGIC
(TUNDRA PB (CANADA) 2008)
ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID PARKINS
In print.
SUMMARY: Story of a wild mustang who went on to become the only horse of his breed to be a top dressage horse.

FOSTA: MARATHON MASTER
(TUNDRA PB (CANADA) 2008)
ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID PARKINS
In print.
SUMMARY: Australian-set story about one of the country's top endurance horses who was at first dismissed as being too small to be of any use in the sport.

BRIGADIER: GENTLE HERO
(TUNDRA PB (CANADA) 2009)
ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID PARKINS
In print.
SUMMARY: The story of Brigadier, a Mountie police horse, who won a nation's hearts when he was killed by a reckless driver. This story focuses more on the training and early life of the horse than on the accident so is not too morbid. Though hankies may be needed for the more soft hearted!

GUNNER: HURRICANE HORSE
(TUNDRA PB (CANADA) 2010)
ILLUSTRATED BY DAVID PARKINS
In print.
SUMMARY: Gunner is a top paint show horse. But when Hurricane Katrina strikes the farm where he lives he ends up missing. Three months later his owner Heather finds him a hundred miles away in a terrible state. However she nurses him back to health and hopes to prove he can be a champion show horse once again.

Collector's Info:
All paperbacks. All in print as of 2014, and available new and second-hand in USA and UK, and presumably Canada.