Pedigree Unknown

Jill Howell’s expert horsemanship and her good looks and vivacity have made her one of the most popular members of the Hotspur Hunt Club. Now her engagement to the most eligible bachelor in the club—handsome, aristocratic Hadley S. Winslow III—is the envy of her friends. Caught up in the fairy-tale excitement of the wedding preparations, Jill has little reason to argue with Hadley’s insistence on “proper breeding” for people and animals alike until he reacts unsympathetically when her own background is painfully called into question. Impetuously she breaks the engagement.

Trying to forget her unhappiness, Jill devotes her time and energy to rehabilitating a broken-down gelding she has rescued from its cruel owner, finding in the gray horse she calls Granite a striking parallel to her own situation. Just as she does not know her true parents, so is the horse’s pedigree unknown. Under Jill’s care and with the welcome help of her attractive new friend, Dirk Martin, Granite is soon able to hold his own against the finest Thoroughbred hunters.

In an absorbing, action-packed novel of a girl’s love of horses and her struggle against self-doubt, Dorothy Lyons again demonstrates the skill that has made her a favorite author of horse stories. Her readers will applaud the satisfying conclusion in which Granite proves to Jill that a fancy pedigree is not essential to a true winner.