I had the privilege of growing up surrounded by the rolling foothills of Southern Alberta, where my ancestors, early pioneers to what would become the province of Alberta, carved out lives for their families. The colourful tales of these early settlers living in an untamed landscape richly steeped in history and rapidly changing with the westward expansion of the railroad, echoed on this windswept landscape throughout my childhood, inspiring me to write their stories and instilling in me a love of the horse. Unlike my early ancestors, however, who used their horses for transportation and on their homesteads (a few even won the Saddlebronc championship at the Calgary Stampede on numerous occasions), I completed on the hunter and jumper circuits throughout Western Canada, and had the great fortune to board and train at Spruce Meadows for several years.