Although I have been writing since childhood, I didn’t consider myself to be an author. It wasn’t even part of my game plan. That all changed at Your Horse Live in 2004. After inspiring (well I hope I did) a 100 strong audience to address their horse riding fears, I was approached by Judith Longman, then commissioning editor at Hodder and Stoughton, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Breaking into the horsy market was a new move for Hodder and Stoughton, but they already published a very successful 100 Ways series for cat and dog lovers, so it made sense to follow this formula for the horse loving market. My first book 100 Ways for a Horse to Train its Human was a runaway success selling almost 40,000 copies within three months of publication. If horses were considered pets by The Bookseller magazine, then this first book would have ranked number 3 in its Christmas 2005 pet book bestsellers list. I am quite proud of my first born!
100 Ways to Live with a Horse Addict has a particular satisfaction for me. As a young teenager, I was banned from writing about horses for an entire term by my English teacher, Terry Millward at William Farr School, Welton in Lincolnshire, because I was becoming addicted. I understand that I needed to broaden my subject matter if only to stop poor Mr Millward being bored to tears! But is does give me a certain satisfaction to now have my addiction published! And I believe Mr Millward is in fact quite proud of me – especially being published by a ‘proper’ publisher.
100 Ways a Horse is Better than a Man seemed the obvious next book to write as the horse-riding public is predominantly female and most would trade the husband in first if push came to shove. Funnily enough it was the quickest one to write. I polished it off the first draft in one rainy weekend and when I sent it to Judith she said, ‘Are you sure this is a first draft, it looks great to me’. So it became the first and final draft! It must be the easiest money I’ve ever earned and I loved writing it.
My fourth book is now born and I self published it – since I know a thing or two about the publishing process. ‘Bomb-proof your Human, An Equine’s Guide to Teaching Confident Riding’ has developed from years of observing riders struggling with confidence problems and horses trying to cope with it. This one is a fundraiser for The British Horse Society’s Drawing the Line campaign since I feel very strongly about the issue of indiscriminate breeding and the suffering it can cause.
My next book? Who knows… perhaps a doggy one this time. I’m also working on a novel.
