Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here, thinking about horses. I have no idea why, but when I was contemplating possible blog topics the other day, this one popped into my head. First let me say that, no, I never wanted to own a horse. I did, however, for several years in my early teens, very much enjoy going on trail rides run by a family in nearby town. I usually went with friends, most often with my gal pals, Leslie and Lisa. Unfortunately, I don’t have a photo of the three of us. This one shows me with another good friend, Cheryl, and my next-door neighbor, Billy. We were up on the hill where the trail ride made a regular stop. The other tradition was a full gallop for the last stretch back to the barn.

My favorite mount for the trail rides was Shadow. Don’t tell the current Shadow. Cats like to feel they have exclusive rights to their names.

I vaguely remember reading a few “horse books” like Black Beauty but I was much more into girls’ mystery series and biographies of famous women like Clara Barton, Elizabeth I, and Nellie Bly. I think I had a couple of ceramic horse figurines, but I have no idea what happened to them.

Once I found other teenage interests, the horses were pretty much forgotten . . . with two exceptions. When I attended a Novelists Inc. conference in Santa Fe and the resort we stayed at offered trail rides, of course I had to sign up. It was a great way to see the scenery, but a lot harder on creaky old bones.

The other exception came from giving one of the characters in my Face Down Mysteries a love of horses. I fell down a rabbit hole researching horses and riding in the sixteenth century, and found a treasure trove of useful details in one particular book, Anthony Dent’s Horses in Shakespeare’s England. I now know a ridiculous amount of related trivia, including how long it would take to ride between various English towns. And I had the pleasure of vicariously owning and caring for a horse without the cost or the hard work. Win-win, right?

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.