The relationship between the girls in my Family on my mother's side, and horses go through several generations. From my mother riding horses at the Big House in the '30's, (we have pictures) through Fen having her riding stable in D.C. where I stayed for a couple of summers, through my daughter who did hunter-jumper and now to my grand-daughters, the love of horses runs deep. Mama started me riding when I was five; our daughter, Brynn was winning trophies when she was 13. Our grandson, Micah volunteers at a stable for special needs kids...it goes on.
It's not just the riding. Horses tap into a girl's romantic notions of Prince Charming; the handsome, strong, gentle protector. You can put your arms around a horse's neck, lay your face against that strong warmth and feel strength under your cheek. He can carry you off to adventures; he can bring you home with no expectations except for you to put him away dry and warm, with a bucket of clean water and a hay bale, and leave him alone. Perfect.
Horses are a big part of the McKennas' beginning. Whatever characters I wrote about, there had to be horses. That narrowed the setting a bit, it limited something of the time frame, too, if I wanted horses to be a necessity. I wanted them to be a necessity to the story line, because they were so necessary to me.
Through the McKenna books, the horses weave their way. All of Gerald McKenna's children learn to ride early and well; Morgan's horse Sheikh brings him safely home when he is dead drunk in his younger days while Amy mare, Delilah, is as skittish and unpredictable as young Amy herself. Whoops...I haven't written about that era of the Duggansville McKennas yet. Well, that is to come.
Morgan's son, Boone gambles his horse away, steals it back, and brings calamity on the Family. He also loses his temper with a horse and, in treating it badly, puts in place a chain of events that nearly gets his father killed. Amy nurses a sick Appaloosa filly to health and the beautiful mare becomes an integral member of the Old House Bunch. Kevin and Morgan never "break" the horses they will sell, they train them. Jordan continues the tradition as the years roll by.
When the cousins on both sides of the Soque River are at the ages of twelve or thirteen, they wildly ride their horses like a pack of bandits on any given Saturday morning. Gideon only lets down his guard with Julie over the purchase of a horse. Carrie only acts like a McKenna at all when she is in the company of the horse her grandfather gives her.
Angelina, Roanoke, Crackerjack, Woodrow, John Henry, Exodus, Habala...they all play their parts in the lives of the McKenna humans. Every McKenna kid needs a horse, Jordan tells Brett. No matter how bad the economy during the Great Depression, they have to have a horse. They have to ride.
This girl certainly agrees. No matter how far the McKenna books go, even into the Apocalyptic future, they will have horses. Prince Charming is for all the ages.