Outside Rein (Briar Hill Farm: Book Three) Paperback

Amanda was nicknamed "The Hunter Princess" years ago, but she's so much more than a pretty blonde on horseback. Desperate to prove herself and find something more in life, she makes a rash decision, joining an equestrian riding challenge bound for TVs across America.

While she's finding out that you can't believe everything you see on TV, her decision ripples across the network of horsewomen she's connected with over the years. At Seabreeze Equestrian Center, Grace begrudgingly welcomes the cameras and production crew for the new show, while taking some time out from teaching to consider her next chapter. At Cotswold Farm, Alex is watching the dismal stats of Thoroughbred horse racing and wondering if she can continue to call this sport her own. And at Briar Hill Farm, Jules is...well, she's Jules, pure and simple. But she might have to loosen up her competitive nature before this adventure is over!

Join the Briar Hill Farm family for one more ride in this final volume of a multi-voice trilogy exploring the triumphs and challenges of creating a life with horses.

Excerpt from Chapter One: Amanda

The time had come to share my big news with my family.

And something told me it wasn’t going to go over well.

Call me crazy, but I know my parents pretty well…a real accomplishment, considering they are never home and I was basically raised by nannies, riding coaches, and tutors. But I still wanted their approval.

Isn’t that sad? I wanted their approval, so I went and agreed to do something they’d absolutely hate.
I’ve always been the type that self-sabotaged. But now or never, I thought. I took a deep breath and gathered all the courage I had. Everything I’d built over my thirty-odd years as a horsewoman, a trainer, and the prettiest hunter princess you ever did see trotting around a riding ring.

“Mother,” I said to my laptop, “I have something to tell you and Dad.”

My mother looked over her shoulder. In the background, I could see the clean white walls of my parents’ Paris apartment. My mother didn’t like too much fuss in her decor. She said a lot of artwork hanging around a room gave her a migraine.

“Your father is downstairs, darling,” she said, looking back at me. “He had to talk to the concierge about something or other. The mail delivery here has been so spotty.”

I nearly groaned with frustration. He was always in the apartment. My father never went anywhere in Paris besides dinner, late in the evening, and always with my mother. He didn’t actually like the city. Something about cigarette smoke and crazy people on motorbikes. They liked the food, and visiting my mother’s cousins, and looking beautiful at cocktail hours with their friends in shiny old world hotel bars, and otherwise they simply looked at the city from their tall, narrow windows and complained a lot until it was time to go somewhere else.
Anywhere but home, with me.

I considered waiting until later to share, but I had horses to ride and my news wouldn’t keep secret forever; there was a press release going out today with my name in it and someone would see it and tell my mother and then—

“I’m doing a reality show,” I blurted. “The Riding Masters Challenge. It’s going to stream on Net-”

“A reality show!”

The force of her interruption was like a train colliding with a tiny Paris car. I’ll give you a moment to guess which one was me.

(I was the tiny car.)

My mother’s expression was hard as she glared at me through the computer. It was an expression I knew too well. The one which said, I’m disappointed in you, Amanda.