The Horse That Haunts My Heart - Paperback

by Deborah Smith Parker (Author)

A horse-crazy girl growing up in the Midwest, Deborah Smith Parker longs to live a cowboy's life in the West. When she turns 13 her parents allow her to live her dream on a western ranch where she meets her first love -- a horse named Tank. After a bumpy start, their extraordinary relationship begins to emerge, complete with the poignancy, hilarity and drama that tested relationships undergo.

Set against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, Parker's coming-of-age-memoir takes place in the 1950s during three magical summers at a horse ranch and chronicles the development of her friendship with Tank. Looking back on that time decades later, Parker comes to realize that Tank was a kind of spiritual guide who protected her from danger and guided her to a greater understanding of the connections of the seen with the unseen worlds that would come to play a greater part in her life.

With humor and well-wrought description, Parker paints a vivid picture of life on the ranch -- the dirt, hard work, risky antics, and dangers on the trail while learning about the consciousness of horses and the language in which they express it.

Author Biography

Deborah Smith Parker is a writer, poet, essayist, blogger and author of two books.

Her first book, Humanus Astrologicus (2010), goes where no astrologer has gone before, and easily takes the reader along. Parker blends ancient knowledge with modern wit and rhyme. And unlike many astrology books, it has richness both for the person clueless about astrology as well as the seasoned astrologer.

The Horse that Haunts My Heart (2014) is Parker's recent release. Anyone who ever loved a horse - or wished they had-will be quickly captivated by this coming of age memoir that chronicles the extraordinary relationship Parker developed with her horse, shaped by the poignancy, hilarity and drama that tested relationships undergo -all set against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains.

Her other works have appeared in more than 25 different published outlets ranging from "Journal of the American Medical Association" to "The Mountain Astrologer" to "North County Times" to "Nuthouse" to "New Press Literary Quarterly."

Parker grew up bi-lingual, fluent in both prose and poetry, learning from her father at an early age to write clever verse. Later she learned how to use writing to dig deep into the pain and revelations of life. However, whatever topic she writes on or form she writes in, Parker is genetically programmed to incorporate her well-honed wit.

Parker is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she majored in English. She lives in North County San Diego with her husband, Jeff, a homeopath and their Cattle Dog, Eli.