{"id":2679,"date":"2010-07-14T09:30:21","date_gmt":"2010-07-14T13:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thegreathorse.com\/?p=2679"},"modified":"2017-06-01T12:50:43","modified_gmt":"2017-06-01T16:50:43","slug":"1eclipsed-by-shadow-next-of-the-great-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/2010\/07\/1eclipsed-by-shadow-next-of-the-great-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"#13- The next of the Great Horses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Behind the pedestal was a large painting of a chariot race, head-on, with the crowd and track rendered in rousing detail. Meagan stood beneath it, staring in awe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actual work hangs in the Manchester Art Gallery, dear. As you can see, the ancient Romans were modern in many ways. One of my favorite old writers was Cornelius Tacitus, who wrote scandalous histories of Rome. Such an insightful mind, writing so bravely as his world sank into madness \u2026 that is a horse\u2019s manger, dear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meagan was stopped before a crumbling box mounted on a low pedestal. The object was corroded and gray from age.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t look it, I know, but that is said to be the remains of the manger of the Roman Emperor Caligula\u2019s favorite race horse, Incitatus<\/em>. Caligula had a stable of marble and gold built for the stallion, complete with furnishings and servants. Though horses are strict vegetarians, Incitatus <\/em>was fed mice dipped in butter and marinated squid.\u201d Mrs. Bridgestone added more quietly, \u201cOf course, the man was considered dangerously insane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meagan walked on. \u201cHow about this painting, Mrs. Bridgestone … who is the old man with a long beard?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is El Cid on his Great Horse, Babieca<\/em>. El Cid was a Spanish warrior who led armies on his famous white charger. There are stories which claim El Cid was mortally wounded at the siege of Valencia but Babieca <\/em>was left alive. Before dying, El Cid left clear instructions. The Spaniards marched from their city at midnight with Babieca <\/em>cantering at the head of the Spanish troops as always, but with his dead master propped in the saddle and tied by his long beard. The attackers thought El Cid had risen from the dead and they fled, ending the siege, and so it is said that El Cid won his last battle after his own death. And no one ever mounted Babieca <\/em>again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are interesting stories, Mrs. Bridgestone,\u201d Jennifer said, meaning it. \u201cEverything here is so lovely … but I\u2019m still very curious. Why have you invited us?\u201d<\/p>\n

Meagan turned politely to listen.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, well.\u201d Mrs. Bridgestone fingered her necklace. \u201cI suppose there is no better way to tell you, except to just say it. To put it simply, circumstances have \u2026 oh me. It seems your foal is the next of the Great Horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/a>Copyright \u00a9 2008 John Royce<\/small><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

« \u201cThe story of El Morzillo<\/a>\u201d || \u201c… a nicer word than crazy<\/a>\u201d »<\/div>\n
\nThe above excerpt is from \u201cHome<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d the 1st section of Eclipsed by Shadow<\/em><\/strong>, and is set in modern-day California. (p. 51 Hbk)<\/em><\/p>\n

The Legend of the Great Horse<\/strong> trilogy is an adventure through history … each section is from a different time period.<\/div>\n

Eclipsed by Shadow<\/strong><\/em> (Book #1 of the trilogy) won national awards<\/a> including the Eric Hoffer Award<\/em> for best Young Adult Fiction, and the Mom’s Choice Award<\/em> for best family-friendly Young Adult Fantasy.<\/p>\n

\n

__________<\/p>\n

Quick Links:<\/strong><\/div>\n

\u00bb See All Excerpts<\/strong><\/a> from The Legend of the Great Horse<\/strong> trilogy.<\/p>\n

\u00bb Read the 1st Chapter online<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00bb Check out Book #2 of the trilogy: The Golden Spark<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00bb See the Media Kit<\/strong><\/a> for more information about the trilogy.<\/p>\n

\"\" Check out the trilogy’s page on Facebook!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Caligula had a stable of marble and gold built for the stallion, complete with furnishings and servants. Though horses are strict vegetarians, Incitatus <\/em>was fed mice dipped in butter and marinated squid.\u201d Mrs. Bridgestone added more quietly, \u201cOf course, the man was considered dangerously insane.\u201d – Eclipsed by Shadow<\/em> (excerpt)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[118,169,70,165,164,91,166,119],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2679"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15044,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2679\/revisions\/15044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegreathorse.com\/book-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}