What is it about girls and horses? I’m not saying guys don’t love horses too, but it sure seems to me that way more girls are “horse crazy” in their early years, even when they’ve never had the opportunity to be around those beautiful animals.
My mom always told me that my first word was horse. I suspect that was an exaggeration. But not by much. I played with plastic horses in my room or pretended to be a horse outside from as far back as I can remember.
I got a job as a carhop at the age of 14 so I could earn enough money to buy my first horse. My mom kicked in what she could afford, and by the age of 15, I owned a big gelding called Red. He was followed by a mare I named Tempest with the most wonderful lope on any horse I ever rode. I used Tempest at rodeos in a drill team performance. Such fun.
The love of horses has never left me, even though I haven’t owned a horse of my own for many, many years. And I passed that love of horses onto my daughters and eldest granddaughter. All three of them have their own horses.
While I was in Texas, I had my daughter take some new photos for me to use on the Internet and on my novels, and this time, I went for a cowgirl look. It’s very much me, and they are quite fitting for the books I have releasing this year and next.
Horses have always played a part in my books, an easy thing to do in historical novels like The Heart’s Pursuit (May 2014) where the hero and heroine are pursuing a couple of bad guys from Colorado to Nevada. On horseback, of course.
And even though my new series has a contemporary setting (each book also containing an historical thread), horses are definitely a part of the Kings Meadow lifestyle of the 21st Century. Especially in the first book, Love Without End (November 2014), which is set on a Quarter Horse ranch.
My visit to my daughter in Texas included several trips with her out to the ranch where she boards her horses to feed and to ride. I loved every moment of it.
Girls and horses. They just go together.
~robin
