Wild Horses of the Carolinas and How they Came to Be Here

About the Book

In the early 1500s, Spain was expanding into o the new world. They were well established in Hispaniola where first class horse ranches were being built. Since there were no horses there, they had to be shipped from Spain. This story tells of Carlos, a young Iberian stock boy, who, by a quirk of fate, was selected to accompany a shipment of horses to the new world. When disaster strikes, he finds that he is the sole human survivor of shipwreck, thanks to a strong swimming horse. Carlos and the horse waited out the stormy night together, and in the misty morning light he is face to face with a strange looking person, a native of the coastal islands. The native boy is afraid but curious. Carlos names him Raven. Later comes Laughing Eyes, his sister, and eventually Carlos meets the entire tribe.

In Iberia Carlos was forbidden to pursue his love, Carmelita, because of the difference in their classes. She was the daughter of the wealthy Don Fernando, the ranch owner. Now that Carlos was alone in another time and place, he knew he would never see Carmelita again.

In time, fate steps into his life again and forces him to make a difficult decision. His dream of finding love with Carmelita and becoming a ranch owner was at his fingertips. Will that dream come true for him?

About the Author

Jim Foxx was born in Elk Mountain, a small village of Martel Cotton Mills, which is located just north of Asheville, North Carolina. He is a veteran of the Korean War, where he spent thirteen months as a high speed radio operator. Upon his return from Korea, he married and became the father of two wonderful children, Becky and Bryan. He secured a position with Duke power company in Charlotte, North Carolina, and retired there as a senior designer. Afterwards, the mountains of Western North Carolina called him home. He renewed old acquaintances including his high school English teacher, Mrs. Marie Clontz, who became a guiding force and proof reader for his writing.

JimÕs first book, Carolina Mountain Schoolboy, is a collection of autobiographical short stories and poems. His stories portray the lives of children of the era after the great depression.

In this second book, Jim excels in interlacing a love story with his version of the coming of the wild horses to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The Spanish tall ships, the Iberian horse ranches, and the love of a stockman for the ranch ownerÕs daughter come alive in Spain; and the adventures of Carlos, the young stockman, end on the eastern coast of the new world. Shipwrecked on his way to Hispaniola, Carlos finds Indian friendship, treachery, and love; he dreams, however, of his first love, Carmelita.

Jim lives in Asheville with his wife Margaret Mary. He enjoys oil painting, hunting, square dancing, banjo lessons, roaming the mountains when time and energy permit, and of late, clay sculpture. He may be contacted at foxxjim@charter.net.