California Riding Magazine • February, 2009

Horse People: Judy Reinsma
Southern California horsewoman turns her passion into a children's book, Wunderbar.

Judy Reinsma published her first book, The Legend of Wunderbar, just last year, but its main character, an antlered horse destined for great things, has been loping about in her head for a long time.

She first conjured the character in the 1980s when she was raising and showing Trakehner horses. It was her daughter Jan Mannion’s daughter Jerri who finally spurred Wunderbar to go from typed pages and into a book. “She kept asking me when I was going to publish my story,” relays Judy, who proudly presented the self-published book as a gift when her granddaughter graduated high school last June.
The book has become a gift for many others. The story chronicles the adventures of a young horse who grows antlers that mark him as destined to fulfill an ancient legend and rid the world of evil. Before that happens, of course, he endures teasing, trials and tribulations before getting his chance to slay the evil dragon and become a “normal horse” and “the strongest, swiftest, bravest, kindest horse that ever lived,” says the author.

Judy lives with her husband and four horses in the town of Saugus in Los Angeles County. In addition to riding her own horses and participating in endurance events, she has long been an active volunteer with horse-oriented charities and programs, most notably Heads Up Therapy in Santa Clarita and the California Rangers’ local group. Book signings and readings for these organizations, plus local schools and libraries, have been a rewarding post-publication endeavor. Though the book is selling nicely, Judy doesn’t expect to get rich from it. “It’s been very gratifying to get so much positive feedback and to see it give lots of joy to so many kids.” Given her granddaughter’s affection for the story, Judy expected that girls would be Wunderbar’s biggest demographic, but she happily reports that 8- to 12-year-old boys dig it, too.

Wunderbar’s popularity, Judy surmises, has something to do with the story’s resonance for horse owners of any age. “We all want to believe that our horse is stronger, braver, swifter, kinder than any other horse,” she reflects. “All of us have some romanticized ideal of what our horse is.”

Judy’s granddaughter, Jerri, with her parents,
Jan and Dan Mannion and her horse, Dun Dirty.

Pen & Paintbrush

Judy first pitched the tale to traditional book publishing companies over 10 years ago. “They said that fantasies and stories with talking animals were not in,” she recalls. “Then here came Harry Potter!” On her second attempt to get the book produced, Judy chose the self-publishing company Xlibris. She loved their helpfulness, but was temporarily taken aback when an Xlibris agent asked if she planned to illustrate the story. Judy had done plenty of painting, but illustrating a character who was so clearly drawn in her head seemed a daunting task. That is, until she priced out the option of outsourcing the Wunderbar art and decided maybe she could do it herself after all. The end result is a big benefit to readers. “Thanks to the author’s illustrations, the characters aren’t left to the imagination,” wrote California Riding’s book reviewer Nan Meek in her December, 2008 column. “They come to life on what appears to be the pages of an ancient manuscript.”

Wunderbar’s story doesn’t lend itself to a sequel, Judy notes, but she’s kept her keyboard humming. Two stories are being shopped to publishers at the moment. One is a religiously themed tale of the “real Easter Bunny,” and the other, Too Many Kittens, uses fiction to explain the importance of spaying and neutering cats. Judy is half way through a fourth book, this one with another horse as its main subject. “A mare named Belle becomes a champion dressage horse, but then is stolen and faced with near starvation at a ranch in Sacramento,” Judy explains. With the help of a teenage girl, Belle returns to health and success with various adventures along the way.

Meantime, 68-year-old Judy finds time to keep up with her endurance riding. She was introduced to the sport many years ago by one of its pioneers, Callie Thornburgh, and she tested the waters boldly by making the Malibu 50 her first ride. “Fools rush in!” Judy laughs. “I was hooked.” At presstime, Judy and her 16-year-old Polish Arabian mare Tutel, aka “Ellie,” were readying for the Fire Mountain Ride. Her three other horses are a 28-year-old Tennessee Walker, an Arabian mare, Sage, and Sage’s daughter, a half-Arab buckskin filly, Sienna.
Judy and husband Bert’s three children all enjoyed the horses, especially her daughter Jan. She is now an accomplished competitor who trains her own Paint horses at Mannion Ranch Paints in the Sacramento area’s Wilton.

Judy and her horse, Tutel, better known as Ellie.

The horsey life and the books it inspired would not have happened without husband Bert’s support, Judy notes. “He’s my gopher. He built our barn, he gets me to the rides and he rubs my back when I’m done.” Bert can’t complain about his wife’s barn full of horses because he was the one who started it all back in 1970. Knowing that Judy had been enamored with horses since the age of 5, but unable to afford one, Bert was intrigued when a friend offered to give the neophyte horse family a Quarter Horse stallion. Fortunately, another friend intervened, and this one had connections to the well-trained horses available from Hollywood trainer Glen Randall. They picked out a leopard Appaloosa who “knew a lot more than we did,” Judy recalls fondly. She and her daughter Jan have been happy horse owners ever since.

Judy and her real horses have woven themselves into the equestrian community in Saugus and the surrounding area. Judy’s imagined horses, meanwhile, are bound by no such geographic constraints and have taken her passion into the hearts of horse enthusiasts everywhere.

Visit www.Trail-Rite.com to order a copy of The Legend of Wunderbar, or e-mail Judy Reinsma at wunderbooks@earthlink.net.