THEY CALL ME SUNNY 

PURCHASE

A white colt in the Morgan horse show world was destined for failure in the mid-20th century. The champions were all dark, blacks, bays, and chestnuts, the colors accepted and prized by judges and spectators alike. But one white colt, saved from euthanasia by a sympathetic breeder, surprised everyone. Trying to please his humans, he went from Western Pleasure, to Gymkhana, to Jumping, from owners who abused him and others who didn’t know where he really fit, until finally a woman who believed in him bought him to show in English Saddle Seat competitions. The horse called Sunny was booed, threatened, and kicked out of classes because of his color, which changed through the seasons from white to dull yellow to rich palomino but never to the glossy dark of his competitors. All he had to show was his heart, so that’s what he did, beginning to be noticed, to be placed 10th, maybe 5th or 4th once in a while. He began to have fans; people wanted to touch him and know him. By age ten he became a blue ribbon winner and opened the way for light-colored Morgans to be honored in the horseshow world.

Sunny tells his own story, but it is not only a children’s book. The themes reveal the power of love and dreams, the stand against bigotry and racism, the values people hold dear and can destroy wanting to win, the terror of animal cruelty and the joy of discovering the best an animal has to give. It is a true story and a modern fable that touches the paths of everyone’s life.

Hard cover is 74 pages with 16 black & white and 3 color full page photographs.

PRAISE FOR THEY CALL ME SUNNY

“Sunny reminds us that whether horse or human, our heart cares not the
color of our ‘coat.’”

–  Laurie Welty