Riders Hall - Caitlin Brennan

Caitlin Brennan was born and raised in Maine — Stephen King country, no less; my aunt was one of his high school English teachers. I first sat on a horse, courtesy of my grandfather, at age six months. At age seven years, I started taking riding lessons. When I went to the library — which was as often as I could — I raided the horse books, especially the Marguerite Henry books. They scarred me for life.

My grandfather bought me my first horse when I was a freshman in high school. I chose my undergraduate college, Mount Holyoke, because it had a stable on campus and a riding program that fulfilled the phys ed requirement. When I went on to live in England for two years and then came back to alternate between graduate school in Connecticut and teaching high school in Maine, I kept on with the horses, and started pursuing something called classical dressage — which is basically the thing the Lipizzaners do at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna.

I always had a dream that someday, just once before I died, I would ride a Lipizzaner. I first met these dancing white horses in Marguerite Henry's book, White Stallion of Lipizza, and I saw the Disney movie, Miracle of the White Stallions, and later I read Mary Stewart's wonderful Airs Above the Ground. And, of course, I read all the Alois Podhajsky books I could get my hands on, especially My Horses, My Teachers. In 1983 I had a ringside seat at Madison Square Garden where I saw the Spanish Riding School on tour — and it was pure magic.

What I never knew was that private citizens could own these magical animals. Or that I could own one — until a riding instructor who had ridden and trained them said I should buy one, because "you'll get along with them." That was in 1992, just as I was moving from Connecticut to Arizona. A month after I arrived in Tucson, I bought my first Lipizzan. My trainer had been right on — we did get along. Now I ride Lipizzaners every day, and I have a stallion whom I ride and train (and at the moment five mares and fillies and a wonderfully evil half Arabian, half Lipizzan gelding), and best of all, I get to write books about magical white horses who are almost exactly like the ones in my backyard.

Readers are invited to visit her website  or her  BLOG