She is not just horsin' around

Ashley Sweet's interests are an open book.

Ashley, now 13 and a student at Tamarac Middle School in Troy, started writing her first novel, "Guardian Angel Dreams," at age 11 while a student at St. Jude's School in Wynantskill. She worked for two years on the project, and self-published the book this winter.

The novel's main character, Liz, purchases an abused Friesian horse named Angel. She nurses it back to health and earns its trust, and the two embark on a number of adventures.

The novel began as a present for Ashley's aunt, Mary Elizabeth Anthony, who loves Friesian horses.

"If she ever won the lottery, that's the first thing she'd get," said Ashley.

Some of the plot is taken from her aunt's life; some, from Ashley's own experience. Her parents, Ed and Eva, breed and raise Morgan horses on the Triple Sweet horse farm in Wynantskill; Ashley rides and attends horse shows regularly.

Other plot points are taken from research Ashley conducted with owners and breeders of Friesian horses. Friesians, which can be traced back to the Netherlands in the Middle Ages, are renowned for short-distance races and often serve as carriage horses.

Ashley found the writing process fun. Editing was more of a challenge, as "it takes a long time to get all the spelling and grammar errors" fixed. Friends at St. Jude's gave her ideas and teachers encouraged her in her project, she said.

When the book was finished, her parents helped her self-publish it. They now sell the book on the Triple Sweet website. Ashley held book signings at St. Jude's and Tamarac, and at the Equine Affair, a large horse show in Springfield, Mass.

But the biggest thrill of all, Ashley said, was "seeing Aunt Liz when she opened [the manuscript]. We gave it to her on St. Patrick's Day, her favorite holiday. It made it extra-special."

Will there be more tales of Liz and her Angel?

"Yeah," said Ashley. "I'm already about 45 pages into the sequel."

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