#193: All the Pretty Horses
Black Beauty, Flicka, Secretariat, National Velvet, Misty of Chincoteague, and all the rest\u2014horse books are a genre unto themselves, occupying an entire shelf (or more, should you add the 112 books in The Saddle Club series) of girls\u2019 bedrooms everywhere. For all of the girls who lived and breathed horses (on the page or in the barn), the infatuation meant something that is difficult\u2014or even embarrassing\u2014to explain outside of the stable. Horse Girls, edited by Halimah Marcus, the executive director of Electric Literature, smashes all the stereotypes you might hold about riders and the way they relate to their horses, with diverse essays from the literary likes of horsewoman Jane Smiley and aspiring horse girl Carmen Maria Machado.
Go beyond the episode:
- Horse Girls: Recovering, Aspiring, and Devoted Riders Redefine the Iconic Bond, edited by Halimah Marcus (read her introduction here)
- \u201cI Hate Horses\u201d by T Kira Madden, excerpted from the book
- \u201cHow Horses Helped My Ancestors Evade Colonizers, & Helped Me Find Myself\u201d by Braudie Blais Billie, another excerpt
- \u201cHorse girl energy\u201d (and all the memes) explained
- Though during the pandemic many people turned to riding\u2014during which riders stayed six feet apart long before social distancing\u2014horse fever has a long history
- Our host outed herself as a horse girl once before, in an interview with The Age of the Horse author Susanna Forrest
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