It’s before dawn on a Friday morning and I’m in an RV park in Amarillo, Texas. I’ve been mud-wrestling with a cold for a couple of weeks now, but I’ll make it home tonight. I can hear a train whistle close by, some eighteen-wheelers getting an early start, and my dog snoring, belly-up in bed, as I write. These words could be the lyrics of a country song, but it’s where we are. I can’t imagine a more auspicious place to launch this book, Undomesticated Women, than from my A-Frame trailer, the Rollin’ Rancho.

Maybe you know this; I’m an equine clinician. Truck dogs are crucial in my line of work. My dog, Mister, is not impressed by my occupation, and I consider it one of his finest traits. 

Mister came to live with me near the end of my “non-essential” COVID-19 hibernation. In early 2022, we planned a road trip, and 14,000 miles, 30 states, and 2 oceans later, you could say we had a bit of a runaway.

I’ve written a travel memoir about the trip. It isn’t a book about how to train horses, although there are horses in it. This book is a peek behind the curtain at what this nomadic job of mine is like. The title of the book, Undomesticated Women, is a brag. I wrote about some women I feel very privileged to know. 

Mister and I took to the road looking for horse training adventure and liver treats. Work paid for the trip; it was part clinic tour, part travelogue, part squirrel hunt. But mostly an unapologetic celebration of sunsets, horses, RV parks, roadkill, diverse landscapes, and undomesticated women. (And there’s a QR code in the book that links to our road trip photos on my website.)

Mister would tell you it’s his memoir about being tasked with the unreasonable job of guarding me against a wild range of dangers. Like eating dinner late.

At best, any memoir that finds its ground is a love letter to life. Not that the trip was all hearts and flowers, but that it was real in its bumpy stretches along the way. In the end, our journey added up to more sunny days than tornado watches. More inspiring people than hecklers. And more hope for this complicated world than road-weary exhaustion. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried. We’ve had a ride.

Would you like to come along? We offer you anecdotal evidence from the road! Undomesticated Women is available now in paperback and eBook form at all online sellers, including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and The Bookshop. Signed copies are available here.

Here’s a taste:

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Anna Blake, Relaxed & Forward, Horse Advocate, Author, Speaker, Equine pro
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