Equestrian Travel Memoirs You Need to Read Now

With life not quite back to normal, and for many of us, travel plans on hold, here are two horse-themed memoirs to satisfy your equestrian wanderlust. Wild Horses of the Summer Sun: A Memoir of Iceland shares Tory Bilkski’s annual girls’ riding holiday and Rough Magic: Riding the World’s Loneliest Horse Race by Lara Prior-Palmer narrates the triumphs and struggles of being a competitor in the Mongol Derby.

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I know you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but when my eyes landed on Wild Horses of the Summer Sun, I knew it would be mine. The author Tory Bilski is a middle-aged New Englander who kept a detailed journal during the 11 years she and several other horse-loving women met up in Thingeyrar, Iceland and transformed written memories into this beautiful narrative. Her words evoke scenes easy to envision.

For example, she explains how in June, Iceland is all daylight and paints this scene: “. . . below us is the watery landscape of a mesmerizing blue fijord. It is not just blue, but a royal cobalt blue that shimmers in metallic pointillism and leaves golden spots on the back of my eyelids. It’s a blue I’ve only ever seen in Iceland.”

Like me, Bilski is not the world’s most confident equestrian, and she is partial to one breed–her favorite is the Icelandic horse and mine is the Thoroughbred.

Over the years of her Icelandic vacations, she and her traveling companions have adventures ranging from crossing a lake on horseback in which the horses had to swim the whole way, to riding in a group through fields in which a herd of young Icelandic horses try to join the pack, dashing in between the string of riders.

There’s also a very funny scene in which they are at a horse show and have car problems; a handsome man comes to rescue them with jumper cables. The women are intent on having one of their friends make a love connection with the dashing gentleman. They find out after the fact he is married to one of the richest women in Iceland and is a famous actor–the Icelandic version of George Clooney.

Bilski shares some of the local lore, cuisine and snippets of Icelandic history, as well as the middle school-esque drama of the trip’s mean girl who tries to bully all the other women and is never pleasant on this getaway.

While traveling the pages of Wild Horses of the Summer Sun, I felt like the author was having a conversation with me about a place and subject she is passionate about. I really enjoyed the experience.

Click here to purchase Wild Horses of the Summer Sun.

Rough Magic by Lara Prior-Palmer appealed to me as an armchair adventurer. I love the idea of traveling to Mongolia, but I don’t think it’s an equestrian travel destination for me. I worry about the food, I’m not into camping, and the thought of being so far away from medical care in the event something urgent happened (appendicitis, falling off a horse and breaking something, etc.) makes me shudder.

However, I totally admire those bravehearts who travel to Mongolia, so Rough Magic was right up my alley!

I was intrigued by Lara’s story from the get-go as I remember when her Aunt Lucinda was at the apex of her eventing career, winning Badminton multiple times and medaling in the Olympics.

In contrast to Bilski in her 40s, Lara Prior-Palmer was a teenager–19 when she rode the Mongol Derby. She was a total underdog, having entered the competition past the due date and not having really trained in endurance riding. Granted, she was/is an eventer so she knew about speed, but just because a rider is proficient or expert-level in a certain equestrian discipline does not mean she is able to transfer that easily to a new discipline. In the end that was not a problem for Lara, and she became both the youngest person and first female to win the Mongol Derby.

I enjoyed Rough Magic via audiobook on Audible (click here to listen to an audio sample.) The British narrator was skilled at doing accents and voices for the various people in the book such as Lara’s rival (the Texan) and Lara’s family members.

Rough Magic also beautifully sets the scene of the different legs of the competition in Mongolia in such a way I could drink in the landscape and the challenges of the terrain.

I marveled at Lara’s tenacity–riding when sick, riding one of the final segments with a horse that wouldn’t cooperate, riding when soaked by rain, riding through dicey terrain, riding after falling off, riding after a creepy local groped her.

I am not sure how old Lara was when she penned this book (early 20s for sure), but her writing is so beautiful–honest and vivid with description, but not in an overly flowery way. I absolutely loved her style and aspire to string words together in as gorgeous of a manner.

For example, “I fold my back low to the gallop, leaning parallel to the lightning beneath me. His power is pure as an idea.” Something about that phrasing stopped me mid loading the dishwasher, and I went over to my computer to type out the sentence. The “lightning beneath me” phrase arrested my attention and made me think of flying out in the hunt field or when my horse Knight is amped after a few days off. 

Whether you prefer to read a tangible book on your own or love to listen to books read by professional performers (I listened on walks, doing the dishes, putting on makeup), you will definitely enjoy equestrian travel with both a trip to Iceland and Mongolia through the stories of fellow horsewomen Tory Bilski and Lara Prior-Palmer.

Question: What is your favorite equestrian travel memoir, or general travel memoir?

Thanks for reading and tally ho!

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