There once was a girl named Joanne who lived on a farm. Her dream was not like any other small girl’s dream, who longed to be a beautiful princess. Joanne aspired to be a professional jockey. Joanne would get up at 7:00 am and would say, “Good morning my precious. How are you today?” The horse would just neigh at her. Dreamer the horse loved to eat so he was very excited to see his trainer come to feed him. After every meal Joanne would saddle up Dreamer and practice racing for the competition that was coming up soon.

Four hours later, “Joanne” dad yelled.
“What?” Joanne asked.
“What did I hear?” Dad replied.
“Sorry daddy. I meant to say, Sir” Joanne answered.
“It’s alright just try better next time” said dad.
“So what did you want dad?” Uttered Joanne
“Oh, time to eat”, dad replied.
“Alright, I’ll be there in a minute”, Joanne responded.

So Joanne shut the gate tight and made sure it was closed so Dreamer wouldn’t get out. Joanne hustled inside and ate dinner and she told her family how excited she was to go to the race on Saturday. Her family was also excited because they loved to watch her race. They told her that she was working really hard and deserved to win. Her parents said, “Just because you practice hard and you deserve to win doesn’t mean you will win. Life is not always fair.”

Saturday was finally here and Joanne was scared but she knew her parents were there for her so she relaxed a little and talked to her horse to calm her horse as well. Finally, they both were calm and were put into the starting gate. Joanne could hear the horses clawing the gate and she could hear fans screaming as they were off. Joanne was last when they first started. Then, Dreamer out ran all of them and was now first. The opponents were catching up but Dreamer ran faster than ever and they won the race. Joanne and her family were extremely excited and pleased. Her parents also new Joanne’s long hours of work were just starting.

Joanne and Dreamer practiced even harder everyday for the next race. This time they were not as successful as the first race. They did not win this one. Joanne, even more determined, kept practicing and getting better. The next race was the semi-finals and Joanne and Dreamer were indeed successful at this race. They were amazing. They placed 1st. They out ran champion horses from all over. Because of all the practice, Dreamer was a better, more muscle, more mature horse and won by a huge amount of distance. Joanne had only one more race to win.

One morning Joanne woke up really early and went to see Dreamer. She ran to the barn because she wanted to practice for the championship. Dreamer wasn’t there so she ran inside to get her dad.
“Dad, wake up!” Joanne yelled.
“What is wrong?” Dad answered.
“Dreamer is not in his stall! He must have run away!” Joanne frantically replied.
“Get two flashlights and I’ll call the police”, dad responded.
While dad called the police she got the flashlights and then they both headed out to look for Dreamer. They looked around in the woods.
Dad questioned, “How was the barn not locked?”
“I must have forgotten to lock the stall door last night. What have I done? I can’t believe that I forgot to lock the door!” Joanne responded in despair.


Dad didn’t say anything after that. Later, the police called and said they found him. So we hurried over to them. The animal doctor was there too and told us he had a broken leg. We didn’t know what to say. We were devastated. We were afraid we wouldn’t be able to race because the race was in two months. All Joanne’s dreams would be crushed because of her mistake. Luckily the vet said it will heal in a month and they were so relieved. A month was a long time to stay off of Dreamer but Joanne let him heal.

The vet was right and Dreamer was healed in no time. They started to practice racing again. The championship day came and Joanne was nervous, but knew she could do it because they had been practicing long and hard. It was time. They were loaded into the starting gate and the fans screaming made everyone excited. All Joanne could think of was the many hours of sweat and tears Dreamer and she had spent together and how her mistake almost cost them a chance at the championship. Everything they had worked for would be decided in just a few minutes. The ding of the starting gate went and Dreamer took off faster than ever. Leaving dust in the enemies’ eyes, he passed up all the horses and didn’t stop until the finish line.
“We did it! This day will never be forgotten. I will pass this story on forever. This will give girls a chance to race even though most of the riders are men. This will also help people believe that they can do what I did”, Joanne declared.

Joanne raced to her dream. Through her big win, she continues to give hope to others that they can also reach their dream if they work hard and never give up. A person should not allow anyone or anything to stand between them and their dream.