Horse of the Four Winds

When Kate Garland's father is kidnapped in Mexico, she and her mother are forced to sell everything to meet the ransom demands. From spacious Fairydell Farm in Southern California's Orange Park Acres, they must move to a small house in Riverside County and hope for Dr. Jim Garland's safe return. After months of anxious waiting, Kate meets mysterious Zane McAlister, the man her mother has hired to rescue her father. Kate thinks he looks like a bandito and doesn't trust him. Is he in cahoots with the kidnappers? And what of Tinkerbelle, her beloved Arabian mare? She is the last of the Garland purebreds. Will Kate have to sacrifice her as well? Desperate for money, Kate finds work at a nearby riding stable that is situated on land once part of a huge Spanish grant owned by the De la Costas. There, her life becomes strangely intertwined with the history of this old Californio family in ways she couldn't have imagined. Do the De la Costas have the key to securing Dr. Garland's release? Join Kate and her new friends, Maria Leon and Airyn Murdock, as her life takes one strange turn after another. Continuing her "Summer Horse" series, award-winning author, Nancy Sanderson, has added another element to her favorite theme of girls and their horses - California history. In Horse of the Four Winds, readers will learn about the "Leather-jacket" Spanish soldiers who settled the Golden State in the 1700s and how their descendants left their mark on the state's history. Front cover art by Stacey Mayer