Partly autobiography, partly travel writing, this
horsewoman's tale introduces us to her family and horses
and the various landscapes in which she rides. Laura
Chester had a fraught relationship with her mother at one
time and RIDING BARRANCA her favourite horse was a way to
escape from tension and just be herself. Barranca is a
Missouri Fox-trotter with a four-footed walking gait and he
covers ground in Arizona effortlessly. The drawback of this
kind of trail ride however is the possibility of meeting
armed smugglers, stashes of drugs and desperate immigrants.
Another concern of Laura's is mining which may be polluting
water.
Visiting Mexico naturally means exploring on a local horse
and tasting the local food. Shrimp grilled and marinated
with oranges, five kinds of chilies, garlic, oil, sugar and
vinegar is just one delicious dish. The local plants are
also described, and handcrafts for sale. Laura heads to
Australia to visit her son and grandchildren. Just as
naturally, she has a ride in Sydney. Wisconsin is her
summer home. Laura's past home life is interspersed -
tales of her lawyer father's unfaithfulness, her mother's
evil temper, her brother's violent pranks, her father's
dying of cancer and her mother's Alzheimer's - which
finally brought some peace as the confused lady stopped
challenging her daughter. "Why are families so important?"
Laura asks.
Photographs of horses rolling in the dust, or people
smiling as they ride, or ravens, adorn many pages so the
book is a visual feast. Laura is writing as a mature woman
so she has absorbed much horse knowledge and younger
readers should not emulate her too closely, for instance
taking hours-long trail rides over rough country alone.
Attention to detail is very important around horses; Laura,
very thirsty, grabs a half-full plastic bottle from the
trailer and takes a drink - to find that it's floor
cleaning fluid. Luckily there's no lasting damage, but she
cleans up the trailer and put things in the proper place.
One beautiful evening Laura and friends ride out to see
Venus, enjoy wine and cheese on horseback and guess where
the moon will rise. Such simple enjoyment is missed by too
many of us leading pressured lives. RIDING BARRANCA is
especially good for horsey readers but the honesty of
speech and appreciation of nature's beauty have a message
for us all.
In this remarkable one-year journal, skilled horsewoman and
adventurer Laura Chester brings us into her world, where we
deeply connect with the earth and its seasons, with beauty
and sometimes danger.
While riding in places as far-reaching as Mexico, Australia,
and India, Chester is always grateful to come home to the
comforts of her familiar horse. As they cover the borderland
of Arizona and the hills of Massachusetts, we get to know
Barranca as intimate companion, mediator between soul and
nature, whether entering the wilds of Cochise Stronghold or
picking Berkshire apples from the saddle.
Carried along on waves of memory, released by the gaits of
her smooth-moving fox trotter, this literary memoir takes us
on a personal exploration as well—where family relationships
are fractured by anger, jealousy, illness, and death. With
the help of her big-hearted animal, Chester is able to
retrieve the past and find forgiveness. For as she says
—“Riding Barranca puts me in the moment, which is where I
want to live.”
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