Maddenation

Half Broke Horses

Read this excerpt from a new book by Jeannette Walls and see if it doesn’t draw you in. I hesitate to say she writes well, not because she doesn’t, but because it feels better to say about her work, “Good writin’, dontcha think?”

I think if the book were titled, “Half Broken Horses,” I might not have looked into it. Maybe in some universe, “broken” English is better, but not in this context. Not in the cowboy west. There horses are broke, and make no mistake, it’s their will that’s broke, not anything else. And in that expression is all you need to know about breaking horses. Those that do it know that something’s lost forever in the process. Maybe the horses are better for it, more useful certainly; maybe even more fulfilled. But the cowboy who does it cherishes the wildness that’s lost, and probably never forgets it. He knows that you only break the horses you need to, and no more, because it’s hard and pretty much irreversible. And that wildness is lost forever.

I’ve never seen a flash flood, but I’ve always felt, ever since I first heard about them, that it would be exciting to actually see one, if for no other reason than to judge how much exaggeration goes into describing them. I think maybe a lot. But the way Walls describes it, you feel like you’re there with her, and she makes you understand that sometimes people don’t survive the encounter, especially those who are not “tough nuts.”

I want to read the book because I want to get to know her Dad better and get a better feel for how those peacocks went over in west Texas. Also, just hearing about the Pecos river makes me want to head out to the range and rope some steers. Most of all, I think I want to find out why her Dad said, “Well, darling, maybe the angel was you.”

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