Book Description

Mares, Foals & Ferraris is a rather convoluted and hilarious tale of one man's quest to quit driving a school bus and become some sort of farmer. Like most quests, this one went a little sideways. Instead of turnips, he got racehorses. But underneath this story is another: a child trying to grow up in a violent world, a young adult trapped between a reluctant acceptance of what is and the seemingly desperate pursuit of the elusive what if. And most importantly, the endless conflicts, both political and personal that wander through each ensuing generation - the restless ghosts of the what was. Two puzzling questions the book may finally answer: why do some children run away to live with animals, and, on the more capricious side of life's mysteries: why do some people breed racehorses when they could just as easily afford a Ferrari? Maybe two. A. Allan Juell has been writing about horses and the people...well, those folks that tend to hang around with large hairy mammals for roughly thirty years. His work has appeared in periodicals such as Washington Thoroughbred, EQUUS, Chronicle of the Horse, Western Horseman, Thoroughbred Times, Anvil Magazine and others, both regional and international. He picked up a few obscure literary awards along the way, as well as copious amounts of 'enlightened' criticism. He spent his first thirty years working as a farrier and farm manager and about fifteen years as an itinerant journalist, wandering most of the world's habitable continents and questionable bars. He holds a degree in history and sometimes attempts to further confuse the world's problems at Histryonics.com. His early years were spent in the urban rainforests of Seattle, though currently he hangs out in Redwood City, California. And yeah, he still drives a bus from time to time.