скачать книгу бесплатно
National Geographic Kids Chapters: Horse Escape Artist: And More True Stories of Animals Behaving Badly
Ashlee Brown Blewett
National Kids Geographic
Some animals have a mind of their own. This is certainly the case for Mariska the horse escape artist, Milkshake the charging cow, and Pony the runaway goat!When these animals put their mind to something, they can’t be stopped—especially when they are causing mischief. In Horse Escape Artist!, you’ll find out how these determined animals caused chaos in three hilarious stories.Perfect for kids aging out of early readers, National Geographic Kids Chapters are written in simple prose appropriate to kids just reading on their own.
Copyright © 2014 National Geographic Society
All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.
Published by the National Geographic Society
John M. Fahey, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer
Declan Moore, Executive Vice President; President, Publishing and Travel
Melina Gerosa Bellows, Publisher and Chief Creative Officer, Books, Kids, and Family
Prepared by the Book Division
Hector Sierra, Senior Vice President and General Manager
Nancy Laties Feresten, Senior Vice President, Kids Publishing and Media
Jennifer Emmett, Vice President, Editorial Director, Kids Books
Eva Absher-Schantz, Design Director, Kids Publishing and Media
Jay Sumner, Director of Photography, Kids Publishing
R. Gary Colbert, Production Director
Jennifer A. Thornton, Director of Managing Editorial
Staff for This Book
Shelby Alinsky, Project Editor
Lisa Jewell, Illustrations Editor
Amanda Larsen, Art Director
Ruth Ann Thompson, Designer
Grace Hill, Associate Managing Editor
Michael O’Connor, Production Editor
Marfé Ferguson Delano, Editor
Lewis R. Bassford, Production Manager
Susan Borke, Legal and Business Affairs
Ariane Szu-Tu, Editorial Assistant
Callie Broaddus, Design Production Assistant
Margaret Leist, Photo Assistant
Production Services
Phillip L. Schlosser, Senior Vice President
Chris Brown, Vice President, NG Book Manufacturing
George Bounelis, Senior Production Manager
Nicole Elliott, Director of Production
Rachel Faulise, Manager
Robert L. Barr, Manager
The National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,” the Society’s mission is to inspire people to care about the planet. It reaches more than 400 million people worldwide each month through its official journal, National Geographic, and other magazines; National Geographic Channel; television documentaries; music; radio; films; books; DVDs; maps; exhibitions; live events; school publishing programs; interactive media; and merchandise. National Geographic has funded more than 10,000 scientific research, conservation, and exploration projects and supports an education program promoting geographic literacy.
For more information, please visit www.nationalgeographic.com (http://www.nationalgeographic.com), call 1-800-NGS LINE (647-5463), or write to the following address:
National Geographic Society, 1145 17th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20036-4688 U.S.A.
Visit us online at
www.nationalgeographic.com/books (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/books)
For librarians and teachers:
www.ngchildrensbooks.org (http://www.ngchildrensbooks.org)
National Geographic supports K–12 educators with ELA Common Core Resources. Visit natgeoed.org/commoncore (http://www.natgeoed.org/commoncore) for more information.
More for kids from National Geographic: kids.nationalgeographic.com (http://www.kids.nationalgeographic.com)
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact National Geographic Books Special Sales: ngspecsales@ngs.org (mailto:ngspecsales@ngs.org)
For rights or permissions inquiries, please contact National Geographic Books Subsidiary Rights: ngbookrights@ngs.org (mailto:ngbookrights@ngs.org)
Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4263-1767-5
Reinforced library edition ISBN: 978-1-4263-1768-2
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4263-1769-9
v3.1
Version: 2017-07-10
Cover (#uf55e51e0-1ed4-59a0-b8f0-4ef1d837451c)
Title Page (#u74e2e67f-a6fc-5e74-a90a-ee93a406cd9c)
Copyright (#ubb5172be-2122-51fd-ac95-40f1c9a39500)
MARISKA: Horse Escape Artist (#u289a37cc-bbfe-55ae-8e5d-5a8045ed454b)
Chapter 1: A Fairy-Tale Horse (#ud6225667-d29a-5920-930e-22dee737379e)
Chapter 2: A Puzzle Solved (#ucb1c5eac-f2df-552e-ba5d-75ef85470436)
Chapter 3: Panic! (#litres_trial_promo)
MILKSHAKE: The Charging Cow (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1: No Ordinary Cow (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 2: A Cow With a Grudge (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 3: Water, Water, Everywhere! (#litres_trial_promo)
PONY: The Runaway Goat (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1: Goats on the Loose! (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 2: Three’s a Crowd (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 3: Gate-Crashers! (#litres_trial_promo)
Sneak Preview of The Whale Who Won Hearts! (#litres_trial_promo)
More Information (#litres_trial_promo)
Dedication (#litres_trial_promo)
Credits (#litres_trial_promo)
Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)
Mariska sticks her head out her stall-door window and tries to lift the door latch open.
Mariska wears colorful reindeer antlers to celebrate her first Christmas at Misty Meadows Farm.
It was a sunny morning in Midland, Michigan, U.S.A.
A cool breeze blew through an open kitchen window at the Bonem home on Misty Meadows Farm. Mrs. Sandy Bonem was getting ready to cook breakfast.
Suddenly, a big black shadow loomed past the window. Wait! Make that three big black shadows. Mrs. Bonem glanced out the window, and her heart sank to her toes.
“HON!” she yelled across the house to her husband, Don Bonem. “The horses are out! They’re in the backyard!”
Mrs. Bonem dashed to the back door. Slowly, she slid open the door and stepped onto the deck. “Trienke (sounds like TREN-kuh),” Mrs. Bonem called softly. She inched down the stairs. She stepped onto a thick bed of green grass and stopped. She didn’t want to startle the herd.
The horses’ ears twitched. They lifted their heads and turned toward the voice. Their bodies tensed. They could easily flee.
“Trienke, come,” Mrs. Bonem said.
For a split second nothing happened. Then, all three horses lunged. They sprinted toward Mrs. Bonem like a pack of playful puppies. They kissed her cheeks with their big wet horse lips.
“Oh you guys!” she said. She stroked their foreheads and exhaled a deep sigh of relief. “How did you get out here?” She turned toward the barn. “Let’s go,” she said. All three horses followed her.
Minutes later, Mrs. Bonem reached the large sliding barn door. It looked like a clever horse had nudged it open. Mrs. Bonem turned and eyed the herd. Trienke is a ten-year-old mare, or female. She’s the mother of the other two horses, Mariska (sounds like Muh-RIS-kah) and Wietse (sounds like WEET-sah).
Did You Know?
There are about 400 types, or breeds, of horses.
Trienke is the boss mare, or leader, of the herd. But Mrs. Bonem knew that Trienke didn’t always call the shots. Instead, Mrs. Bonem fingered Mariska as the guilty one. Mariska had a long record of making mischief.
The Misty Meadows horses are a breed known as Friesian (sounds like FREE-shun). Friesian horses come from Friesland (sounds like FREES-land)—a region of the Netherlands, a country in Europe. Friesians have all-black, shiny coats. And they’re strong.
Long ago, Friesian horses carried knights into battle. “They look like a fairy-tale horse,” Mrs. Bonem says. That’s what first made her fall in love with the breed.
When Mr. and Mrs. Bonem decided to buy their first horse, it was a Friesian, of course. But first they built a barn. And instead of building just one horse stall in it, they built ten. With the extra room, other people could pay the Bonems to keep their horses at Misty Meadows, too.
A short while later, a family that lived down the street asked the Bonems to keep their two quarter horses at Misty Meadows. And the Bonems bought Trienke, their first Friesian.
Trienke was five years old when the Bonems got her in 2003. The next spring she gave birth to Mariska. Now the Bonems had four horses to look after.
As a baby, Mariska was allowed out of her stall to roam the barn during the day. The young horse followed Mrs. Bonem everywhere.
Wild horses live in family groups called herds. Herd members form strong bonds, or ties. They nuzzle each other’s faces and necks. Each herd member has a specific place, or rank, in the group. The same is true for pet horses. The horses higher up in rank protect those lower down the line. Horses like to be near other horses. This is true even if they’re not related. Pet horses even treat humans like members of their herd.
Soon Mariska had Mrs. Bonem’s heart wrapped around her tiny little hooves. Mariska’s antics, or pranks, began when she was about six months old. Mrs. Bonem entered the horse’s stall one morning. Mariska walked over. She nuzzled Mrs. Bonem’s neck. Then she wrapped her teeth around the zipper tab on Mrs. Bonem’s coat.
ZIP, ZIP! Mariska pulled the zipper up and down. Up and down. “You silly horse,” Mrs. Bonem said.
Next, Mariska targeted hair ties. Whenever Mrs. Bonem bent down to clean her stall, Mariska lurked nearby. With one yank she would pull the fluffy red or blue hair tie off of Mrs. Bonem’s ponytail. Then she’d try to eat it! Chomp, chomp.
Mrs. Bonem then had to pull the slimy lump of cloth out of Mariska’s mouth. “Errgh, Mariska. Yuck!” She’d say.
Later that year, Mariska gave the Bonems a big scare. Snow was beginning to fall at the farm. To celebrate Mariska’s first Christmas, Mrs. Bonem bought a pair of red-and-green reindeer antlers with small jingle bells attached to them.
