Horses Adored and Men Endured My Equestrian Memoir Now Available!

When I was 10 I wanted to marry a horse. When I was in my mid-30’s I thought I would have to marry my horse. I had such a heck of a time dating for the duration of my single years. Can you relate a little? Horses Adored and Men Endured explores the age-old question of whether or not horses are God’s apology for men.

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Horses Adored and Men Endured is now available! (Carolyn Rikje Photography)

I’d be so honored to have you read my book. It’s available on on Amazon in both Kindle and softcover versions. Longtime Saddle Seeks Horse readers know I’ve had this horse memoir in the works for a while. Here is a little behind the scenes as to how it all started.

If you are local to Southern California and around on December 1, come join me for a book signing at Mary’s Tack and Feed in Del Mar. It’ll be fun!

Background on Horses Adored

Around 2006 my girlfriend Carolyn and I were drinking super rich and fancy hot chocolates at the Chicago restaurant named Hot Chocolate when I divulged details about one of my disastrous blind dates from back in the day. She belly laughed so hard and proclaimed, “You need to write a book!” (Chapter 1 “Not ‘Our’ Night” is what she was laughing at.)

“I could, but it would be depressing,” I said, convinced I was the Midwestern, non-smoking version of Bridget Jones.

Carolyn persisted with, “It doesn’t have to be depressing.”

A seed was planted.

I started writing a bunch of different true stories of my bad dates. For example, the story about the time I got sick at prom and kept throwing up uncontrollably to the time I went on a group date which actually turned out to be a pie-flinging battle in an old dairy barn.

Not one but TWO dates I went on required police involvement. I wrote about those too. For those of you who haven’t met me personally yet, trust me, I’m probably the person in high school had there been a category of “Least Likely to Wind Up Having Police Intervene on a Date” I would have won by an incredible margin.

Horses Make Bad Times Seem Better!

In order to contrast the bad dates and Mr. Wrongs, I wrote about idyllic horsey times. I wrote about riding double with my best friend when we were 11, picking apples off the trees in her family’s orchard. I wrote about the time we sneaked her neighbor’s horse to a local horse show. The horse stories were kind of the redemptive part of my otherwise-loser-ish dating stories.

Is it just me or is there a resemblance? Took my proof with me fox hunting!

I wrote about adopting my first dog Winnie–my angel of a red Doberman. I wrote about Jim Dandy the bald-faced Quarter Horse I learned to ride on. I wrote about Daytona my first horse who I had no business buying as a teen (he was green and I was clueless). I wrote about my heart horse DC–the horse I still get a lump in my throat and my eyes feel thick when I talk about him. And, of course, my horse Knight makes an appearance near the end.

This book, my horse memoir Horses Adored and Men Endured is dedicated to “anyone who has ever loved, lived for or longed for a horse.” (If that describes you, you are my people!) And my book is dedicated to anyone who has ever felt like giving up on love.

If you enjoy reading my blog, I think you’ll also like reading my book. I hope you will buy it and let me know what you think. Maybe it will inspire you to write your own horse memoir.

Let’s Start a Horse Memoir Movement!

I have been thinking lately how there are sooo many dog memoirs. Marley and Me, A Big Little Life by Dean Koontz, Dog Medicine: How My Dog Saved Me From Myself, The Dog Who Came to Stay, and the list goes on. Dogs have a way of making us better humans and teaching us about life and ourselves. Horses do the same but get less press.

Wouldn’t it be fabulous to have a movement among horse lovers of true-life horse stories from average equestrians? By average, I mean we’re not Olympians, we’re not celebrities, just normal people who love horses and who live and breathe muzzles and alfalfa. Are you in?

Thanks for reading and trotting along on this journey with me.

Your Turn: If you were going to write a horse memoir, what would the title be and why?

Thanks for reading and commenting. 🙂

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