By Ada Brownell
You'd think because I have a couple of Western novels on
Amazon I’d be an experienced cowgirl.
I have ridden a few ponies in my younger years. But the
animals knew and I knew I was a tenderfoot.
Cindy, the horse I rode as a kid, probably picked that up the
first time I climbed up on her back. I probably only weighed about 75 pounds,
but I rode her bareback and that was the only way to go because I bounced with
every step she took. I used a saddle a time or two, but discovered landing on
the fat horse was better than the hard saddle.
Cindy didn’t belong to our parents. My aunt and uncle
boarded her and their beautiful buckskin in our pasture. Joe, my brother, and I
were allowed to ride them. Joe did all of the work, put on the bridles and I
think helped me make it from the cellar roof to the horse’s back.
One time, though, Joe took off riding the Buckskin and I
hadn’t mounted yet. I stood beside Cindy a moment too long and she stepped on
my foot. Not a soul stood within ear shot to hear my yelling. I beat on Cindy’s
big white belly and screamed, “Get off! Get off! Get off!”
The hoof never moved. A riding horse can weigh from 800 to
more than 1,000 pounds. I nearly panicked and then wisdom popped into my brain.
I bent over, ran my hand down Cindy’s leg and pulled on a tuft of hair right
above the hoof, as I’d seen Joe do. Cindy lifted it, and I was free. Praise the
Lord—no broken bones in my foot.
I let a horse step on the foot of a 12-year-old boy, Stuart
Ripley O’Casey, in my latest book, Peach
Blossom Rancher, the sequel to The
Lady Fugitive. Of course he did what I did to lift the hoof.
I went horseback riding with friends on different ponies and
one or two of those critters bit. I had no idea horses would bite. One of them
bit my horse and then aimed for my arm or leg. My friend thought it was funny
and kept putting her horse’s mouth close to my side.
“Get that…” My friends occasionally used profanity and one of
those words shot into my mind. That was one of the few times in my life I was
tempted to cuss, but I swallowed the exclamation.
I was more mature the last time I rode a horse. I told my
husband’s nephew to give me an “old nag” to ride. Well, he told me the horse he
gave me was the gentlest mount he had, and he had a quite a herd of them.
The horse took off walking. Everyone else’s trotted,
galloped and loped ahead of me. My animal wouldn’t go, In fact, she stopped
every few steps and looked back. I kicked her sides, wiggled the reins, and
“Tuk, tuk tukked,” with my tongue. She ignored me. By the time I went a short
distance, everyone else headed back. I turned the horse around.
Big mistake! She took off like she had gone through the gate
at Churchill Downs.
“Whoa!” I shouted and pulled on the reins.
I pulled and she tried to scrape me off under a tree. I
ducked, held on, and kept pulling on the reins, screaming and yelling, “Whoa!”.
In no time we returned to the barn, the animal in a sweat and panting, everyone
else left behind.
“Sorry,” Max, our nephew, said. “I forgot she has a colt in
the barn.”
That didn’t end my education on horses, though. As a
newspaper reporter I covered horse shows. The first one I was blessed when our
pastor, an expert, sat down beside me and pointed out the differences between
breeds, their various capabilities, and training involved.
I also wrote about
horses during the state fair. I dug into the diet of top performing breeds. “While
the horses are here can owners order a bale of hay and a side of oats?” I
asked.
The Bible is full of horses, but the scripture I remember
most refers to a bridle on the tongue and another says if you bridle your
tongue you can control your whole body. “If anyone among you thinks he is
religious but does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his own heart, that man’s
religion is useless” (James 1:26 NKJ). James 3 3 uses the illustration about
horses being controlled by a bridle and ships guided by a small rudder.
Although horses can be tough to tame, they could teach me
more about gentleness and obedience. A fine horse is a wonder to behold. I’m
glad God made them.
Dear Reader
Friend:
What do peaches,
an asylum, and dead bodies have to do with inspirational romance?
In the Peach Blossom Rancher these things are as important as
baking powder in a cake. Baking powder might not taste so great by itself, but
it adds the chemical balance that makes baked goods great.
To help you
understand, here’s the Summary of Peach
Blossom Rancher, an historical romance, the sequel to The Lady Fugitive, released Aug. 1:
A handsome young man inherits a ranch in ruin and a brilliant
doctor is confined to an insane asylum because of one seizure. Yet their lives
intersect.
John Lincoln Parks yearns for a wife to help rebuild the peach and
horse ranch and he eyes Valerie MacDougal, a young widow who is an
attorney. But will John marry Valerie or Edwina Jorgenson, the feisty
rancher-neighbor that he constantly fusses with? Edwina has a Peeping Tom whose boot prints
are like the person’s who dumped a body in John’s barn. Will John even marry,
or will he be hanged for the murder? Is it possible for the young doctor to be
released from the asylum?
Available now on Amazon http://amzn.to/2arRVgG.
Elk Lake Publishing says you will be able to buy paperbacks on Amazon and order
it from bookstores, probably by Aug 12.
I think you
will enjoy Peach Blossom Rancher, and
love the characters. The story is entwined in suspense, humor, and a great
historical experience that has roots in my background covering the Colorado
Mental Health Institute at Pueblo, as well as growing up in peach country in
Colorado.
Then
there’s the inspirational side. One of my editors, Deirdre Lockhart of Brilliant Cut
Editing said, “By the way, I want Polly to live near me. Not just for the food,
which made my mouth water, but she made my spirit sing too. I feel my absolute
faith a little stronger after living with her and Abe this week.”
NEWS UPDATE:
The novel enjoyed by teens through adults, Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult, is free August 11-14. Get it here https://www.amazon.com/author/adabrownell
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