The Wild Rose

Stories of My Horses: Volume II

By: Martín Prechtel

Narrated by: Martín Prechtel

Carrying on from The Mare and the Mouse, this series, The Stories of My Horses, is not just a compendium of imaginative romantic narratives written to casually entertain the horse loving public.

As romantically remembered as they might seem to be, they are actually straightforward historical accounts of what happens when a life-loving fool like me, a native of that beautiful, landlocked cultural island called Northern New Mexico, who in the latter half of the 20th century decided he must live his everyday life in direct defiance of the soul-shrinking threat of modernity’s earth-wrecking ugliness and mediocre existence, by keeping some modicum of the bright shine and outrageous living passion of our real souls alive by flying free and beautiful on the backs of flesh and blood horses over a live unpeopled, unmanicured land…

I’ll admit I’m a romantic and heroic. But to be honest, it’s not my fault: it’s the fault of all the horses I’ve ever known. For horses since forever—real horses, I mean—have always been romantic, noble and heroic by definition of their very existence, and to be with them, well, you too have to develop a soul that corresponds!

In my romantic struggle for beauty in an unromantic mechanical age, my horses, simply by how they were, and how we looked, and how we were together, although no more than a tiny broadside against the ghost ship of mediocrity of this crazy age, were some kind of victory just by the fact that we still existed. Horses inspire courage against hopeless odds just by their courage and beauty.

©2022 Martn Prechtel (P)2022 Martín Prechtel

My all time favorite Martin Prechtel

There’s nothing like a good book. Especially in non-fiction, book full of amazing stories, taking place in the mountains of lovely New Mexico. All of Martin’s books are incredible. This one for sure get some outside of the other arenas to talk about his horses. Anybody likes stories told in language use to dick in Mexican accent. In this book and maybe other books of Martins are for you.

Hermosa Historia

¡Esta es otra buena historia, narrada por el hombre que vivió la historia y también la escribió!

Wonderful

Martín is in a league of his own for storytelling and reading. All of his books are treasures.

Listen to it!!!

You should really listen to this! I’ve listened to or read everything he’s done and I’ve met him several times and he’s a beautiful and inspiring human being. He really brings to light the malaise of the lives that the majority of us live, have inherited. As Martin would say , let us jump up and live again! Martin, thank you for these beautiful beautiful words!

Spiritual Education through Entertaining Stories

I love everything ever written by Martin Prechtel so I was eager to add this book to my Audible collection. I did have a small reservation that I would miss the spiritual lessons that his other books are brimming with if the topic was horse stories. I should have known and trusted that Martín’s wisdom would be woven through any book no matter the topic. I can see there is a side of Nature in the animals that we may interact with, that has not been given the amount of true respect and reverence that is deserved. I am inspired to get to know this hidden aspect in myself and in the world outside of myself. Thank you for being one of my beloved teachers Martín- I am forever grateful.

A Wild Ride

Listening to Martín read his books is like hanging out with the best campfire storyteller of all time, or the fiercely independent and adventurous grandfather you wish you had, or your smartest friend who is also a wild, horse-riding, stakes-raising poet. Martín is absolutely not "phoning in" the reading - he'a really there, reliving and relaying the events with feeling. I love when he makes himself laugh with his own jokes, or by the craziness of his own true stories.

There will doubtless be "horse people" who are turned off by the author's low opinion of English style riding and a lot of the culture that surrounds it, but I hope most can look past that and enjoy how much he loves his horses, and wants people to have real, two-way relationships with theirs. And even if you don't read it for that, read it for the history and culture! The glossary alone is a fascinating seminar on horse history, especially New Mexico and the Southwest, and you will learn things about English and Spanish and Tewa and Caras and Diné words that you never knew you never knew.

I love all of Martín's books, loved The Mare and the Mouse before this one, and can't wait for the Canyon Wren to come out to round out the trilogy.

If you want to be inspired to be more alive, more wild, and more in love with life, I recommend this book.

Soul food

Reading Martin's words function as a type of nutrition, feeding the eyes and thus the heart. Hearing Martin's words fleshed by sound is a whole other kind of blessing. So happy to have these audio books.