In "So You Wanna Be A Cowgirl",
I made my debut as a horse wrangler at Rimrock Ranch in Cody, Wyoming,
and I met a good-looking cowboy named Dustin!
"Cowgirl Days", the second book
in the Cowgirl series, takes me to the next season working with Dustin at his
family's ranch in Montana where I find adventure training young horses,
wild mustangs, and endurance racing before returning to Cody, Wyoming to work
as a wrangler and trail guide again.
"My heart skipped a beat or two as I watched him (Jalam Akeem) run, spin
and reverse directions periodically, living up to his name by prancing like a
proud prince. ...fine black tipped ears that were alert to every nuance around
him; intelligent eyes set in a nice wide forehead that narrowed to a delicate
muzzle. His wide jowl and neck were typical mustang. His high tail carriage and
short body were definitely Arab...his extended pasterns would ensure smooth
gaits. His coat was a rich brown with black leggings and a black dorsal
strip..."
"The trail across
the top (of Ptarmigan Mountain) seemed a meager eighteen inches wide with
steep drop-offs on either side. Room enough to walk single file, certainly
not the place for a misstep. ...Suddenly Cole yelled "Horse down!
Horse down!"
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"So You Wanna Be A Cowgirl" is a
personal narrative. I was a fortyish, divorced woman from Maine, running my
own business, when I applied for a job at Rimrock Dude Ranch in Wapiti Valley,
Wyoming. My horse and I were hired by Glenn Fales, an old-time cowboy and
ex-rodeo bronc rider who, with his wife Alice, had owned the ranch for
thirty-five years. This is my story.
...young girls dream of horses. Some take lessons and learn to
ride; the rest of us live and breathe all aspects of horses...forever
scheming to own one. Any horse will do. Some take it a little farther...as I did.
"My first experience wrangling horses found me galloping over a
headwall, down a steep bluff, amidst a herd of 100 horses. After learning
to guide with my own horse, meeting a bear, and surviving a 9500-foot climb
up Table Mountain, we nearly slip 50-feet down a bank into the Shoshone
River. All a part of becoming a cowgirl."
"...Cody's Annual Plains Indian Powwow, sponsored by the
Buffalo Bill Historical Center, and set up on the south end of
its parking lot. Cheyenne, Comanche, Kiowa, Crow, Blackfeet, and
Sioux, along with Arapaho, Apache, Navaho, Shoshone, Nez Perce',
Ute and Pawnee tribes were represented."
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