Rock 'n Ride and The Hearts of Horses

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Rock 'n Ride claims to be the website for "all things horses." They might be right. I stumbled onto the site about a month ago and was immediately drawn in. According to the home page, "Rock 'n Ride is a place for profiles, forums, articles, videos, blogs, etc....a community of horse people sharing and exchanging ideas."

I sent the publisher an email and the next thing I knew, she wanted to interview me. The interview, a Member Spotlight, is the February feature. You can read it in its entirety at Ride 'n Rock. Meantime, here's a bit of the interview:

Question: How did you first find horses … or did they find you?


Answer: As a little girl, I lived in the same mountain community where I live now. We had a black and white paint named Bingo. My mom used to sit my sister and me on his back, with our boxer dog Ben-Ben walking alongside, and take us for rides. When I was 14 years old, I bought a half-Arab, half –quarter horse strawberry bay 4-year-old mare. I named her Romie. You can read about her in my memoir IN SEARCH OF KINSHIP: MODERN PIONEERING ON THE WESTERN LANDSCAPE. The book is the intimate story of transplanting 6 generations of Colorado ranching roots north to Wyoming, and starting a small family ranch. We had several ranch horses, but my favorites were Black, who we bought from a rodeo cowboy, and Tee, who we bought from neighboring ranchers. They were inseparable buddies until Black died last year. I’m no longer on the ranch, so having my new horse Farside is a blessing.

Question: What's your favorite horse story?


Answer: That’s a tough one. I read THE HEARTS OF HORSES by Molly Gloss last year when I was judging a national writing competition and was blown away by it. If I had to name a childhood favorite, it would probably be BLACK BEAUTY. Before this May's horse retreat in Wyoming, I’ll be compiling a list of the participants' favorite horse stories, and I’ll be reading and teaching using excerpts from these books while we’re at the Vee Bar ranch. It’s great. For 5 days, we get to live and breathe HORSES!

Read the entire interview on Rock 'n Ride.
An advisor for the Rocky Mountain Land Library and member of the International League of Conservation Writers, Page Lambert has been writing about the western landscape and leading nature retreats in the West for twenty years. Founding member of Women Writing the West, member of Wyoming Writers and Colorado Authors’ League, Lambert’s writing can be found inside monumental sculptures at the Denver Art Museum, online at Huffington Post, and inside the pages of dozens of anthologies. Page designs and teaches graduate writing courses for the University of Denver’s University College. Recent published works include “Not for Sale” (Langscape Magazine and “The Rural West,” included in Fulcrum’s new book, The Light Shines from the West. Forthcoming are 3 poems in DoveTails: Writing for Peace. Page writes All Things Literary/All Things Natural from her mountain home west of Denver.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Page,
What a fun childhood with Bingo! When I was a child, growing up in England, friends of mine rode and I always wanted to but it was beyond our budget. I did ride for a little in my twenties but never enough to feel really comfortable around horses. Maybe someday ... Love the blog.
February 24, 2009 at 7:53 PM
Anonymous said…
Mandy, thanks for the comment! Yes, it was a fun childhood - I'm deeply grateful to be re-rooted in the same mountain community. You should come to the Literature & Landscape of the Horse retreat in May - a perfect place to connect with a horse for five days in a safe, beautiful environment!
February 25, 2009 at 12:45 PM
Anonymous said…
What a great interview! I'm going to read Hearts of Horses, it sounds fascinating. I wonder if my 9-year-old will pull it out of my hands, horse lover that she is???
March 2, 2009 at 1:57 PM
Rosemary Carstens said…
Page: It's always wonderful to read of people's love of animals and there is something really special about the bond between a horse and a big or little girl! As a child, we lived in a tenant house on a big farm and my sister and I rode all across the fields on what was probably a pretty old, broken down plow horse with a brand of "19" across his backside. But we loved old 29 and loved the free feeling of riding that I only get now when I jump aboard my motorcycle. When my daughter was a teen, she had a horse and rode in C shows, finally became quite a good barrel racer. It was always a blast to go to the shows and watch her go all in as the events began. Thanks for the memories!
March 11, 2009 at 6:38 PM
Anonymous said…
Rosemary, thanks for sharing a few of your memories. I can just picture you and your sister and the old plow horse. Now, you zoom off with horsepower under you, but of a much different kind.
March 11, 2009 at 8:42 PM
Dina Horwedel said…
I always wanted to ride as a girl but we lived in a town with little land and my parents had four kids and little money left for a horse and boarding. A nearby neighbor had a barn and an acre, and had an old mare which she allowed me to ride. This brought back fond memories of Beauty, that horse, and the lessons that caring for her in exchange for the pleasures of riding her brought me.
December 5, 2009 at 7:11 AM
Connecting People with Nature, and Writers with Words said…
Dina, how lucky to have the neighbor with an old mare who needed attention,and how wonderful that you were there to give that attention. If you haven't read Richard Louv's book, LAST CHILD IN THE WOODS: SAVING OUR CHILDREN FROM NATURE DEFICIT DISORDER, it's an important read. I'm a senior associate with the Children and Nature Network, which sprung up as a result of Richard's book. It was driving force behind the "No Child Left Inside" legislation.
December 5, 2009 at 8:22 AM
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