Supporting #NHSCharitiesTogether part 3

Here is part 3 of Jack galloping into the fray to support NHS Charities Together.

You already know about the retired doctor who thought this up, Mark P Henderson and the scary science fiction author, Stuart Aken. But there's also a scary crime writer, and with her book, you get three for the price of one. She's Penny Grubb and her book is called Falling into Crime.

All the author royalties from Falling into Crime as well as Horse of a Different Colour, Cruel and Unusual PunNishments, and Blood Red Dust will go to NHS Charities Together during the current crisis.

THIS LINK HERE will take you to all 12 of the books.

Jack wasn't sure if he would do a part 4, but now he definitely will because three more books have joined in. The Boy in Winter's Grasp, Till They Dropped and Waiting for Gordo, so he needs to tell you about those.

Also he's quite keen to investigate one of the other books that is called The Dummies' Guide to Serial Killing, so there might be parts 4, 5, 6 and who knows how many more?

Supporting #NHSCharitiesTogether part 2

Part 2 of Jack galloping into the fray to support NHS Charities Together.

As I said before, we're not the only ones in this. Another author is Stuart Aken. He has written a lot of books ... a WHOLE LOT of books. We guess he writes pretty fast. The book that is in this wonderful scheme is called Blood Red Dust.

This is a great book, but it's pretty full on, if you know what I mean. Definitely one that needs an "Adult themes" warning. It's a great adventure on another planet but it's serious stuff. The perfect birthday present for a grown-up who likes their science fiction to be real. And because it's the first in a set of three, that's two more year's worth of presents sorted if they like it.

You will already know from part 1 that all the author royalties from Horse of a Different Colour and the hilarious Cruel and Unusual PunNishments will go to NHS Charities Together during the current crisis.

But some more books have joined in since I wrote part 1. Now we also have The Boy in Winter's Grasp, Till They Dropped and Waiting for Gordo, and Jack will tell you about those in a moment.

THIS LINK HERE will take you to all 12 of the books, and I will highlight more books in future blogs.

Supporting #NHSCharitiesTogether Part 1

When Melodie was asked if she wanted to join a group who were donating to NHS Charities Together, she and Jack-the-Horse were only too delighted to gallop into the fray and do their bit.

All the author royalties from Horse of a Different Colour will go to NHS Charities Together during the current crisis.

But we're not the only ones in this and it wasn't even our idea (though we rather wish that it was). It was thought up by a very clever author called Mark P Henderson who used to be a doctor and whose books will make you laugh a lot (but beware some adult themes).

In particular, don't miss out on Cruel and Unusual PunNishments - that's not a slip of the hoof, it's the right spelling; you'll see why when you get the book.

Please click THIS LINK HERE to find your way to the heart of this great project.

Wouldn't you think a horse could go fast enough under its own steam?

In fact, the faster the horse, the greater the need to have it go at speeds that no horse could possibly attain under its own steam.

Many an average equine plodder will spend its entire life on its own four feet plodding its way happily from  A to B and back again. That's as long as both A and B have a goodly supply of grass or other good foodstuff. 

But if that equine has a swift turn of foot, if it can gallop for miles at high speed, then suddenly there is a need for it to travel much faster, say 60 mph for hundreds of miles as it is taken in the back of a lorry from racecourse to racecourse. Or if it's exceptional in the speed department then it gets to travel at many hundreds of miles per hour in an airborne stable.

And there is money to be made transporting horses, even when you need to employ six other horses to pull the trailer.

Six horses take a seventh to Doncaster in 1836 - and they don't go by Tardis

The very first horse trailer, so it's said, was built to transport a single horse and was pulled by six horses. That might have a pointless feel to it, but if the story is true then the horse being taken by his six equine mates won a lot of money through being transported in this way to Doncaster.

It's a neat story, summarised HERE.

Jack himself rarely travels by any means other than hoof, but there was one significant journey detailed HERE.

Don’t mess with a Dawn Horse

Okay, partly don’t mess with a Dawn Horse because being in the position to be able to meddle means you were just transported back in time by about 55 million years, so you’ve more pressing things to pay attention to than messing about with the horse’s earliest ancestor (for emergency access to a Tardis see HERE).

But also, don’t be fooled by its diminutive size. The Dawn Horse was a survivor, it hung around for a long time and founded a huge equine dynasty, and it did it with a more-complete set of teeth than its modern counterpart. Its teeth suggest that its diet was mainly the soft, leafy vegetation that was around back then in the parts of the planet it inhabited. 

Jack is reassured to know that 55 million-year-old soft, leafy vegetation is not the same as grass, hay and carrots, because if there is any suggestion of competition at feeding time, he will personally stand guard on the Tardis the full weekend of 1st and 2nd September making sure that no Dawn Horse bridges the gap.

The Dawn Horse

Great name for a breed of horse, right? But don’t go searching, you won’t get one these days.

The Dawn Horse, otherwise known as Hyracotherium – not that Jack has any truck with fancy names, and though Hyracotherium might look OK on some fancy breeder’s certificate, the way he sees it there’s just one question to ask about any horse that will tell you all you need to know about it** but no, wait... he’s diverting me again... where was I? 

The Dawn Horse, the Hyracotherium was around in the Paleogene Period, only that’s like saying Stonehenge is in Europe, which it is but that’s no good for directions. And the Paleogene Period lasted for 43 million years, which the Dawn Horse sadly did not. It was plodding the planet 55 million years ago, and it was pretty small; could have looked a young miniature Shetland in the eye, but a modern racehorse only in the shin, so certainly couldn’t have got up to the sort of capers Jack gets up to. Jack notes at this point that he himself would not get up to that sort of stuff without the severest of provocation from that more-energy-than-sense duo, Megan and Amy.

Jack and I share a narrow-eyed glance. We both know we’ve not heard the last of the Dawn Horse, but that’s enough for today. 

**will it attempt to claim gustatory rights over my hay?