Ballad of the Horse and Mule. Some Will Make It Through - Steve Johnson;Barbara Gregorich

If first prize were half a million dollars, how fast would you ride your horse to finish ahead of everyone else?

Robert Stroud is sure he's the best endurance rider with the best endurance horse, and he plans to finish the 2,500-mile 70-day race from New York to California at the head of the pack.

Things don't go the way Robert planned. Beth Lepose has won many an endurance race on Accolade, and she's ahead of Robert. Josie Best won't back off, either. But at least Beth and Josie play fair.

Carson Kloos does not, skulking through the campground each night, intent on sabotaging other horses and riders. Worst of all - way beyond what Robert expects in a professional endurance race - a mule is one of the registered mounts. In Robert's world, mules don't belong in a high class horse race.

In this exciting endurance fiction book, the mule not only won't quit - it leads the race. Until, five days from the finish line: disaster. The mountains, the wildlife, and the trails inflict harsh reality on what's left of the hundred horses and riders who started the difficult race.

Ballad of the Horse and Mule: Some Will Make It Through is fiction, but it was inspired by the real-life 1976 Great American Horse Race and also by epic ballads. Combining the best of both, this fiction-in-verse novella is a rousing tale of competition, endurance, and friendship.