How It All Started - by Lis Smith

When I was a little girl I read Album of Horses by Marguerite Henry and fell in love with horses - all horses; every breed, every color, every discipline.  I read every horse book in the public library, bought every horse book I could afford.  Remember the book with pictures, text and pages of stamps to stick in the proper breed section?  Yep, I had one, too.

As to real horses, I took the 4-step parents' method to horse ownership - Books, Breyers, Lessons, and finally – a real HORSE.  When I was old enough I bought my own horses and worked for a trainer, then my life took a different direction.  Twenty-some years later, in the midst of a home and family and career, I felt the need and found the time to fall in love with horses again.  Now I design and make "little wooden horses" and more.

Read on to find out why I named my "little wooden horse" business The Maltese Cat.

A Note From Lis

I know there are little girls out there who love horses - all horses, and women who have just found horses, or have just rekindled their love for horses, and men who love these women and girls, and love horses, too!   If this describes you, I hope you will enjoy the horses I love, the horses I create.

The Maltese Cat... is a horse!

"They had good reason to be proud, and better reason to be afraid," begins the book “The Maltese Cat”, Rudyard Kipling's tale about a "cheap lot" of polo ponies who meet "the pink and pick of the polo ponies of Upper India" in the Free-For-All Cup.

"Money means pace and weight,' said Shiraz, rubbing his black silk nose dolefully along his neat-fitting boot, 'and by the maxims of the game as I know it-'  'Ah, but we aren't playing the maxims,' said the Maltese Cat, 'we're playing the game...'"

This is the great story of an "underdog" polo pony and his teammates whose love for "the game" enables them to play a little differently then the others, and overcome tremendous odds.

Similarly, love for horses enables me to create decorative, useful horses a little different than the others, in designs that Celebrate! the Beauty, the Passion, the Power and Versatility of the Horse!

Books I Recommend

Here are some of the books that taught me about horses.

The Maltese Cat by Rudyard Kipling

The Pacing Stallion by Ernest Thompson Seton

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Horses by Marguerite Henry