Books and Horses
How Horses Helped Me Become a Writer
My love for horses is why I am a writer today. When I say love, I should more accurately use the word “obsession.” I was obsessed with horses when I was a kid. To be honest, I still am to this day, but when you are a kid, everything is so much more new and wondrous and all consuming. I was lucky enough to partake in all the horse crazy things a little girl could want — horse camp in the summer, riding lessons once a week, and even, eventually, my very own horse gifted from my aunt (who was equally as horse crazy and perhaps the root of my horse obsession).
When I wasn’t physically with horses, I was reading about them. My obsession took on new form in the pages of The Saddle Club by Bonnie Bryant and Marguerite Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague. These early books spiraled into all of Walter Farley’s Black Stallion series and the discovery of My Friend Flicka and Thunderhead with Mary O’Hara, Black Beauty and National Velvet, and even Will James with Smoky the Cowhorse. I even read, at far too young of an age, John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony and was probably scarred for life. (Spoiler! If you haven’t read, it follows the story of a young boy and his pony that contracts a terrible disease called strangles and eventually dies. How this is considered a children’s book is beyond me.)
I vividly remember my mom taking me to the bookstore and the amazement I felt at seeing the rows of colorful Saddle Club books stacked on the shelves. “It’s not a library!” I remember my mom exclaiming when I arrived at the checkout counter with ten books piled in my arms. She bought all of them for me anyway, which is an awesome mom thing to do. To be fair, The Saddle Club has almost 100 books in the series, so I think limiting myself to ten books really showed remarkable restraint.
After that excursion, we started taking more trips to the local library.
The library was my next gateway into a whole different world of pages. The fantasy world. At first, I was drawn to books that still revolved around horses. The Unicorns of Balinor series was my first taste of fantasy. From there, the next biggest touchstone was Brian Jacques’ Redwall. The Redwall stories feature an all-animal cast of characters, but in more fantasy-based storylines. There is a warrior badger that protects the abbey and a reluctant hero styled mouse that must save the day against evil weasels and foxes.
Through the recommendation of a friend, the next book I started reading from the library was The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks. And so, a whole new obsession began. I was completely enthralled with the worlds and adventures and heroic characters of these books. This was my introduction to fantasy, and I never looked back.
From there, I read every single fantasy series available on the library shelves. David Eddings, the Lord of the Rings, Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce. I have read and re-read (and re-read again) every single book by Robin Hobb and waited in line at midnight for all the Harry Potter releases. I remember staying up all night reading the Half-Blood Prince and the look of confused concern on my mom’s face when I finally came down for breakfast crying my eyes out because Dumbledore died.
Growing up, I always enjoyed writing. I won a Young Writer’s contest with a book about my dog going on vacation and I vividly remember the excitement of traveling down to the state capital with my dad to receive the award. However, my first true foray into the writer I have become today was when I decided, just for fun, to rewrite the Lord of the Rings but through the point of view of Bill the pony. Talk about an ambitious first fan-fiction!
Sadly, the original draft has been lost to the computer updates of time. However, that draft did spawn my first high fantasy story that I wrote off and on all throughout college. There were periods of time where I wrote only sporadically and life got busy, but my new love for fantasy never really went away.
Now that I am deep diving into fantasy and learning more about what it is to be an actual writer, my obsessive nature has taken hold once more. I love working with horses because they force you to be aware of your every thought, intention, breath. You have to be in the moment when you are with a horse. Horses can sense if you a frustrated or worried or scared. If your mind is focused elsewhere, they often prefer not to work with you. Horses have a way of making you be present and patient, and therefore ultimately, at peace.
In a lot of ways, writing does the same thing. When I am writing, every thought and intention of the narrative and the characters must be examined before being typed onto the page. The puzzle pieces of the plot and dialogue and prose must all fit together in a meaningful way. If my mind is thinking about my to-do list or worried about an upcoming meeting, the writing does not flow well. To be able to write, you also have to be fully present and engaged in the moment.
Looking back through old memories in order to write this post, I realized how much books and horses have shaped so much of who I am today. You never know where your obsessions will take you, but I am grateful mine have led me towards writing. In a truly full circle moment, my current work in progress is a high fantasy novel featuring, you guessed it, horses! Of course.
~Elise Posledni