Marlow Elementary School has many young authors, but Lorin Alderman won the state young author competition.

Alderman wrote a story titled “The Race Horse” in her first grade class for the competition.

“I like horses,” she said.

Cheri Alderman, Lorin’s mother, said Lorin reads frequently. She reads many books about horses.

“She loves horses,” Cheri Alderman said. “It wasn’t’ that much of a surprise that her story was about a horse.”

Alderman said her favorite thing about school is reading. She will go to Atlanta in September to be recognized at the state board of education by state Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox.

“We were proud,” Cheri Alderman said about her feelings when she and Mark Alderman, Lorin’s father, were informed that she had won. “I was surprised because it was from the perspective of the horse, and I was expecting it to be from the perspective of a little girl. I’m so proud.”

Lorin Alderman said the first time she wrote the story it was too long.

“I wrote it about three times,” she said.

Alderman said Lorin wrote several stories during her first grade year.

In the young author competition students write a story, and two stories from each class compete against other stories in the grade level. Each school selects one story from each grade level to compete at the system level and the system winning stories are then submitted for the state competition. Students in each class also drew illustrations for the stories selected in the class.

Alderman’s illustration was chosen to accompany her story.

“You had to draw a picture of a starting gate or of horses,” she said.

Her drawing included starting gates and horses racing with the horse in the story in the lead.

Alderman said she has tried to prompt her daughter into continuing the story.

“If she’s old now, she’s not going to be racing,” Alderman said to Lorin.

“Well, yeah, old horses can still race,” she said.

Lorin Alderman’s winning story

“The Race Horse”
by Lorin Alderman

I am a black mare racehorse. My name is Courtney. I went from my farm in Georgia to New York City to be in a special race. I rode in a nice trailer behind my owner’s truck.

When I got to my stable at the racetrack, I had to get dressed for the race. A stable boy named Zack got me dressed in my pink colors. Then he put the number seven on me and took me out to my rider.

My jockey’s name was Ashley. She petted me then hurried to get on me. I was ready just in time for the race. We went to the starting gate and the doors opened.

I went running out of the gate like a speedy rocket. This was going to be a twenty-lap race. I ran and ran as hard as I could. Then I only had seven more laps to go. I ran the last seven laps in one minute and seventeen seconds.

I WON!!

Ashley cheered and cheered. She said she had never ridden a horse so fast. A few minutes later, we got our trophy.

I am old now and live on a farm with Ashley. I wonder if she thinks about our first race together as often as I do.