Book excerpt: Ellie Johnson, an engaging storyteller, a competitor on the Three Day Eventing circuit for fifteen years and an animal advocate all her life, sculpts stories in Equestrian Life - The Animal Chronicles, with heartfelt, witty and real portrayals of the bonds that can exist between people and their four-legged families. From finding the partners of a lifetime, to sleek east coast competitions, to the community of like-minded, entertaining characters from every walk of life who find their happy places reside in tack rooms and on farms with horses and dogs, it is a depiction of the undying pursuit of the equine love-struck. Before anyone does anything in equestrian sport, from gymkhanas to the Olympics, they all start by simply loving horses. Boots and jackets not required. These are the stories of the bonds we keep.