Everything I Know About Life I Learned From My Horse

by Gwen Peterson

Book review by NWHS editor D. Taber

Montana author Gwen Peterson knows horses. She knows how they buck off greenhorns, how they bounce a rider in the saddle until all dignity is thrown to the wind...and how they can be the best of companions and a way to see life through a freer, friendlier set of eyes.

Through a collection of hilarious essays, Peterson offers anecdotes that seasoned horse people will recognize as fully their own. In fact, this book might make an appropriate gift for the non-horse person who is trying to get a handle on the equine lifestyle. They may walk away scratching their heads, but certainly not without a laugh. Between Chief, the circus horse who frequents the town bar, a lesson in how to catch and lead a wayward horse without a halter or rope in sight, and a few meditations on the lack of modern facilities in the great Montana outdoors, all readers can find something to identify with.

A noted “Cowboy Poet,” Peterson intersperses her poetry with the essays, covering history and song in the pages. Unfortunately, as a stickler for scansion and rhythm, I felt that some of the poems didn’t work—especially the historical epic of “The Bloody Bozeman Trail”—but overall, the book is well worth the read. The pace is lively and the laughs are neither few nor far between.

ISBN-13: 978-0-7603-3690-8

Voyageur Press

Available in bookstores everywhere or through www.voyageurpress.com