A contemporary take on bestselling series such as The Saddle Club, SHOW STRIDES brings the world of horses, horse shows, and barn life to a new generation of readers.
SHOW STRIDES #1: SCHOOL HORSES AND SHOW PONIES
by Rennie Dyball & Piper Klemm
Andrews McMeel, Summer 2024
(via Gillian MacKenzie Agency)
SHOW STRIDES follows young equestrian Tally Hart and her stable of friends as they work together to succeed both in and out of the show ring.
As veteran horsewomen and leaders in the equestrian industry, Piper and Rennie want to draw as many children as possible into the magical world of horses. It is no secret that equestrian sports have historically been elitist. But as the sport expands and seeks to be more inclusive, a new generation of riders are now entering the ring and the bookstore—looking for stories they can connect to, but coming up short-handed. SHOW STRIDES is the contemporary, bestselling answer to the problems found in outdated classics like The Saddle Club and Thoroughbred. Gone is the “mean girl” that often populated the pages of those series; instead SHOW STRIDES embraces kids working together and lifting each other up. Gone is the stereotypical arrogant rich girl leading the charge; instead SHOW STRIDES stars Tally Hart, who mucks stalls, bathes ponies, fills water buckets, and sweeps aisles, all to pay for her riding lessons. (To Tally, this isn’t work. As anyone who has ever loved a horse knows, just being around the creatures is reward enough.)
With a diverse cast of characters, this inclusive series is aimed to appeal to everyone—from the kid actively competing in horse shows to the one just reading and dreaming about them from their bedroom. And based on the initial self-published success SHOW STRIDES has found, it looks it is on its way to earning a blue ribbon.
Piper Klemm is the owner and publisher of The Plaid Horse, the leading North-American equestrian magazine with more than 85,000 unique and meaningfully engaged readers; 400,000 monthly webpage views; and over 130,000 followers across Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. In addition, The Plaid Horse gets over 1,000,000 monthly views on Pinterest. Co-author Rennie Dyball has been writing and riding her whole life. She worked for fifteen years at People magazine and has ghostwritten books for Christian Siriano, Andrea Barber, and most recently Terry Crews and Rebecca King Crews, among others. Piper Klemm and Rennie Dyball are a unique and powerful team, combining Piper’s many years as a staple of equestrian sports media, and Rennie’s tenure as an author and 20 years in mainstream media. Both are active members as the equestrian community, not just in media, but as competitors on a national level themselves.
