Author Carrie Seim On Finding Your Forever Herd In ‘Horse Girl’

Carrie Seim and her sister Lindsay grew up horse crazy. You know the type – they devoured the classics like “Black Beauty”, “Misty of Chincoteague”, and “King of the Wind”.

“(We) spent hours watching Olympic Show Jumping that we taped on VHS and played over and over again,” Carrie recalled. “We begged our parents to go on a one-week horse camp in the middle of Nebraska. The camp let us canter and gallop without helmets, which is wildly dangerous, but that’s the 80s for you!”

Sadly, after the first day of that camp, Carrie discovered she had a severe allergy to horses. So she’d live vicariously through her sister over the years, who kept taking riding lessons in Omaha. Carrie instead took piano lessons.

“But I’d go to my sister’s lessons every week just to watch her ride from the stands,” she said. “It was mesmerizing.”

It’s those early horse-crazy memories that Carrie fell back on when she decided to write a novel for teenagers. “Horse Girl“, which published last year, is set in Omaha (just like her sister’s lesson barn) and follows a horse-crazy young girl who is navigating life from horseback.

“‘Horse Girl’ is really a love letter to my sister,” Carrie said. “The horse-tagonist in the story – and many of his funny antics – are based on a real horse Lindsay used to ride, an older Clydesdale-Thoroughbred cross named Clyde Lee.”

Heels Down sat down with Carrie, who is the the author of “Horse Girl” and several other young adult books, but also a comedian and journalist, to learn more about her horse-crazy journey. Enjoy.

How has your career in comedy helped you in writing? And what made you want to write a book for young girls?

I spent years performing and teaching at The Groundlings, a comedy troupe in Los
Angeles where many Saturday Night Live stars have gotten their starts. Being on stage, you quickly realize you have only a few precious seconds to grab the audience’s attention — and keep it. I learned how to create weird, awkward, joyous characters who somehow feel relatable to the strangers in the audience.

Those skills were immensely helpful to me while writing “Horse Girl” My two favorite
moments in the book are the opening scene — which is quite dramatic, both in terms of the action and the emotional stakes — and, later in the book, the Halloween parade. All the students at Oakwood Riding Academy have gone to great lengths and expense to dress their horses in elaborate costumes, but Willa (being the joyous weirdo she is) decides to make Clyde’s costume herself. Disaster and hijinks ensue!

As for writing a book for tweens (or really horse lovers of any age) — it was the honor of my life! There aren’t a ton of funny books out there for girls. Humor is such an important and powerful tool, especially for young women, so I’m proud to have written a story that isn’t afraid to laugh at itself. Of course there’s also a lot of drama and heartbreak in “Horse Girl” — it’s not a horse story if there’s not a horse in peril!

Your book covers much more than the horse-girl obsession, but great life lessons and coming-of-age tales. Why was horses and the “barn rat” lifestyle a good setting for some of these larger themes, do you think?

Why, thank you! I think horses make the perfect metaphor for adolescence. They’re
majestic creatures who evoke the pure-hearted comforts of childhood. And also the power and freedoms of grown-up-hood. When you fall in love with horses, you get to gallop back and forth between those two worlds. How gosh darn magical is that??

If horses are part of your life — whether you’re reading about them or drawing them in your notebook or caring for them from dawn till dusk, whether you’re young or old or a girl or a boy — you are tapping into your inner strength and your inner wonder. Those are two amazing tools to carry with you through life.

“Horse Girl” is ultimately a story about friendship and sisters and horses — and all of the perils, mistakes and unbridled joy that come with each.

What do you hope readers take away from ‘Horse Girl‘?

I hope that equestrian readers will get a good laugh from the scenes involving stubborn horses, disastrous jumps, snobby stablemates, stress sweat and all the awkwardness and exhilaration that comes with being a new rider — or a newcomer to any group.

And I hope that all readers will connect with the book’s larger themes — feeling like you don’t belong, desperately missing someone you love, gathering enough courage to face your fears, and searching, for as long as it takes, until you find your “forever herd.”

Do you have a good horse memory of your own childhood you’d like to share?

Besides the aforementioned horse-camp scheme, my sister and I also convinced my parents to stop at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington one summer on our way to visit relatives in Florida. We missed BreyerFest by just a few days — gah! But this summer I’ve been invited to be a seminar speaker there. I finally get to fly my BreyerFest freak on … a horse girl’s dream come true!

For the record: I later discovered this magical thing called Claritin, so I’m now finally
able to ride and snuggle horsies without an embarrassing sneeze attack!