We chat with author Natalie Keller Reinert about The Jump, which is set against the riveting high-stakes backdrop of the equestrian world and explores the passions that drive us, the love affairs that fuel us, and the partnerships—both animal and human—that help us thrive and find ourselves.
Hi, Natalie! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m a writer and horse girl living in the woods of north Florida, where I love to putter around my vegetable garden, grow wildflowers for butterflies, and take pictures of clouds. I spend most of my time on my little farm with my family, our cat, and our two horses – a Quarter Horse named Ben, and a miniature horse named Manny, who looks like Ben if someone shrunk him in the dryer.
As a child, I worked off riding lessons and spent as much time as possible around horses. As an adult, I tried a lot of crazy things: calligraphy lettering in theme parks, galloping racehorses, riding a Clydesdale around Central Park as a mounted officer. It probably looked like I just couldn’t make up my mind or hold down a job for very long, but now I know it was all research for my actual career as an author.
That’s what I tell everyone, anyway.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I began dictating Robin Hood fan-fiction while climbing on my swingset around the age of five. This was very pre-internet. All of my Black Stallion fan-fiction was pre-internet, too. Thank goodness. I knew I wanted to write books from my earliest years. The general consensus amongst my teachers and other adults in my life was that no one could make a living from fiction. They also thought I could learn math. I love proving people wrong.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: I was always reading, so I definitely remember Little Golden Books like The Color Kittens and The Poky Little Puppy. The first chapter book I ever read was Emily’s Runaway Imagination by Beverly Cleary. My parents bought it for me because it had a horse on the cover.
- The one that made you want to become an author: For some reason I’m thinking of James Herriott’s All Creatures Great and Small. I read that in second grade. I always wanted to be an author but something about the way his words and humor and heart all came together probably flipped a switch in my brain about what kind of author I could be.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I re-read L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series and Emily of New Moon series every single year, sometimes twice in a year. I don’t even know if I think about them anymore? They’re just part of my DNA.
Your latest novel, The Jump, is out March 24th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Exhilarating. Friendship. Passion. Outrage. Tenderness.
What can readers expect?
For anyone with experience in the horse world, this will be familiar ground. For everyone else, it’s a journey into a world rarely seen by outsiders. The Jump is set in the training discipline of Eventing, which is an Olympic sport. At the grassroots level, the sport is dominated by girls and women, many on shoestring budgets, doing as much as they can and dreaming big dreams.
A passion for horses has nothing to do with money or class. It’s more like a personality trait that can’t be squashed. This makes for some fascinating interactions between people who might never rub shoulders in the outside world. With enough money, a rider can buy a better horse and a better trainer than someone else, but they can’t buy talent, passion, or empathy for their equine partner. And all those things matter in the saddle.
In The Jump, two young women of very different backgrounds are thrown together to work the same job. You’d think they’re natural rivals, but horses equalize everything.
Beyond all that, I want to give readers a taste of what it’s like to partner with another species. The Jump celebrates friendship not just between people, but between humans and horses.
Where did the inspiration for The Jump come from?
The Jump builds on a common story in the horse world: the starry-eyed horse girl who signs on as a “working student” for a top trainer. Working students are the backbone of the sport-horse world because even training horses worth six figures isn’t a good way to make money. Trainers take on apprentices to do their grunt work in exchange for riding lessons. Rich kids, broke kids, and the occasional bona fide adult looking to restart their life—you never know who you’ll find cleaning stalls, scrubbing water buckets, and soaping saddles at a top trainer’s barn. They trust this trainer to make them a better rider, to help them build a career.
But a string of abuse scandals by respected horse trainers (always accompanied by the social media commenters who “knew all along” and “would never send a horse to that trainer”) made me wonder: what happens when the trainer you’ve entrusted your life’s work to might be a secret villain instead of a hero? What if there’s a whisper network about your new boss, but you’re not in on it?
There aren’t enough pages in a novel for all the strange things that happened to me in my working student years, but some of my actual experiences did make their way into The Jump.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I love all my characters, but if we’re picking one, I have to shout out Anise. The been-there, done-that barn manager has been running top trainer Eddie O’Neill’s barn for so long, nothing can surprise her. Or impress her. She is the perfectly practical horsewoman who sees Brooke’s fresh-faced optimism and shrugs it off, because life with sport-horses will wear anyone out eventually—but under that tough shell, Anise still loves horses more than anything. Working out her character and the reasons why she stays in the sport-horse industry was really enjoyable, and I’d revisit her story anytime.
With all that said, I think the tender moments between Brooke and her horse Roxie are the heart of the book, and I loved finding ways to drop in little lines to show how devoted Brooke is to her horse.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I was writing this book while revising the eight books in The Eventing Series for re-publication with Flatiron Books! This was a huge challenge. The Eventing Series is written about a competitive, ambitious, almost ruthless lead character who storms the Florida eventing season and has to learn to curb her worst tendencies in order to build a career as a trainer. Jules is fun to write, but she could not be more different from Brooke. I couldn’t switch between their head-spaces easily, so I really had to set aside Brooke’s narrative to focus on Jules. Once The Eventing Series was fully ready for publication, I focused completely on The Jump and gave Brooke the attention she deserved.
What’s next for you?
First, book tour things! I am going to indie bookstores and Kentucky Three-Day Event to promote The Jump. Then, I am returning to Jules and her friends from The Eventing Series as her spin-off trilogy, Briar Hill Farm, is also coming out in newly revised editions from Flatiron Books. Once those books are out of my hands, I’m going to take a break, ride in some dressage shows, and enjoy the Floridian summer sky—I love thunderstorms. The Eventing Series is also in development with Amazon-MGM Studios, so I’ll work on that project as it comes along. Things never really slow down.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
I can’t wait for American Fantasy by Emma Straub, The Windsor Affair by Melanie Benjamin, and Fallen for France by Elizabeth Letts – which combines history and horses, two of my favorite things. I’m also excited for Phantom Stallion author Terri Farley’s upcoming biography of Wild Horse Annie, Horse Girl. And next, I’m going to dive into It Girl by Allison Pataki.
