Dreamcatcher
by
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When Bill got inside the barn he made sure he was alone then said out loud, "Elizabeth, you said those very words to me the day you died." Memories of that terrible day rushed at him. He sat on a bale of hay and buried his head in his hands, amazed that he could still feel so much pain. He tried to force the horrible pictures away. She’ll be what ever she wants to be, Elizabeth’s voice chimed from the past. Bill looked upward and clasped his hands together. Could she be a trainer someday? He’d never heard of a woman horse trainer. He put his foot up on a hay bale and rested his arm against his thigh. He listened to the horses rustling about in their stalls. Lindy said George was brutal with the horses. She’s right. He is too rough with the young horses. And like she also said, Hank is good, but he’s not that good. If I want to keep this a family business -- he couldn’t bear to finish the thought. His wife’s voice came to him again. "A daughter of ours?" she had said when he questioned what use a girl would be to the ranch. "She’ll be your best horseman."
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About the Book
Lindy Bradford is a precocious little girl struggling to find acceptance from her family. When her mother dies during childbirth, Lindy is left with a resentful father and bitter older brothers. As a child, Lindy finds the love she needs from the family's housekeeper, Birdie, a freed slave. Holding to the promise she made Lindy’s mother upon her deathbed, Birdie convinces a compassionate ranch hand, Chancy, to give Lindy the skills she needs to protect herself from an abusive family member. As Lindy comes of age she realizes she has a birth-right to be a part of the family she was born into and refuses to settle for less. Sharing her father’s love of horses and skill as a horse person, Lindy’s father slowly realizes his daughter, not his sons, will follow in his footsteps. As Lindy grows up the struggle continues, for a young woman whose dream is to become a horse trainer in a small, mid-1800's town that tries to dictate a more traditional role for her. Conquering the love and acceptance of her family seems simple to Lindy when she is faced with the challenge of finding acceptance from a world run by men. When Lindy falls in love with a man she has known since childhood, a man who watched her grow into a beautiful, competent horse trainer, her joy is one day turned to sadness when he gives his heart to another woman. As Lindy learns to cope with her loss she discovers another man is falling in love with her. A man who believes horses are just a passing fancy. Knowing she can only give herself to a man who is strong enough to allow her be the woman that she is, Lindy prepares for the fight of her life.
About the Author
Born in Los Angeles, California, I moved with my family to Irvine, California in 1974. I asked my parents why on earth we had moved to a place that had more orange trees than it did people. They told me to be patient.
As the lovely orange groves quickly turned into housing developments, I found myself gazing out at the diminishing hillsides with longing.
In my early twenties, I discovered that horses fulfilled that deep longing and that there were still lots of hillsides to ride a horse up and down. When I bought my first horse, a beautiful white Quarterhorse named Tednick, my father shook his head in dispair. “She’s almost 25. How is she ever going to find a husband now?” he asked my mother. She told him to be patient.
A few years later my father happily ate his words when my husband James and I got married. We met at the stables where I kept my horse.
Several years ago I created Lindy to keep me company on the trail. When Lindy grabbed the reins of my life and ran off uncontrollably, my husband insisted that I write it all down, hoping to change our topics of discussion at dinner, I am certain. I listened to my husband and picked up a legal pad of paper and started writing. After going through a good 20 pads of paper (and one heck of a hand-cramp) my husband surrendered and bought me a computer