Horses I Have Loved

Before I was an author, before almost anything else in my life, I was a horse-girl. Still am. My kitchen has halters on the counter, my shirts have horses on them, my boots are dusty from the paddock, and I probably have a bit of hay in my hair. These are a few of the horses I have loved. Send me an email and tell me about yours!

LoreLei

My dad bought LoreLei for me when we first moved to Texas. I was thirteen and she was three. This horse and I cantered down the streets of Houston in the dark of night and I never once questioned her ability to take care of me. I had her for seventeen years until she passed away from one of the first cases of Potomac Horse Fever in Texas.

Tugboat

This rascal was one of the most beloved ponies I have ever had the honor of knowing. He came to be a school pony at a horse farm I managed in Maryland, but he was fresh and untrained and when the back of the trailer opened, he bolted from within and ran for the woods. Fortunately, he ended up in a paddock near the edge of the woods where he lived for three weeks before I could get my hands on him. Tugboat was the inspiration for Fire in Lizzie Flying Solo. He will always be the pony of my heart.

Dallas

In the early 1980’s I managed an Arabian horse breeding farm in TX. Twenty-two years later, a granddaughter of the horses I handled was born in New Jersey. Two years after that, I came across this filly on an equine for sale site on the internet and knew I had to go see her. She was too young for the type of horse I wanted at the time, but when she turned around in the stall and looked at me, I knew I wasn’t going to leave that farm without her. We have been partners ever since. Our favorite ride is up this mountain where she is standing in the photo, full of aspen groves, lodgepole forests, and miles of a mountainside heavy with fragrant sage. I am so lucky to have both my beloved Dallas and this beautiful place I call home.

Sonnet

Sonnet lived in the wild outside Burns, Oregon until she was close to seven years old when she was “gathered” and brought to live in pens at the BLM facility. The first time I saw her photo, I fell in love with that face and drove fourteen hours to Oregon to get her, to let her come live a quiet life in my fields.

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