A DOG NAMED SATURDAY Coloring Book.

Howdy Friends! Fun news! Our A DOG NAMED SATURDAY coloring book is complete. We have ordered proofs. And VERY SOON it will be ready for all friends of Saturday, and happy children everywhere. As Saturday says, "The best thing about happy is everybody can have some." ~ Gitty Up, Dutch.

P.S. Check out my Amazon Author's page to see all my books, and find A DOG NAMED SATURDAY coloring book. http://amzn.to/2GuEjpz

 

#adognamedsaturday #dutchhenry

"Dutch Henry Clinic at our little outfit-Oct 17

Howdy Friends!

Settin' the posts for the ring for our Dutch Henry clinic.

Gettin’ ready for our Dutch Henry clinic coming up this weekend, Oct 17 at our place. Mowed the field for the ring, camping, picnicking, and having fun with friends of like minds. This is one of the most beautiful places on our little outfit and will add serenity to our fun experience. We’ll have a fun time of learning and friendship for horses and their people. In a setting swaddled by the quiet, tenderness and power of nature we’ll explore and learn exercises that help our horses regain proper posture, body carriage, self awareness and confidence, and learn to hear our horses in new and exciting ways.

Camping area on our little outfit for Dutch Henry clinic attendees. So peaceful and relaxing there part of this clinic is the "slowing down" nature can offer us all.

And we'll end the day with a talk and demonstration on saddle fit by Larry Wilson, custom saddle builder extraordinaire! ... We’re all lookin’ forward to a swell time! The clinic is full but there is room for auditors.

The ring where learnin' happens sits among quiet watchful trees and surrounding field offers plenty of room for auditors, friends and spectators. The peacefulness here is part of the experience.

~ Gitty Up, Dutch Henry   

"We'll Have the Summer"

Howdy Friends,

“Her eyes traced every line of the solid wooden trunk. Sam had made it for them, for her and Callie. He painted it shiny red. Callie loved red. Red and silver. Mary always believed her daughter had gotten that from her because they were Mary’s favorite colors, too. She had to smile when she remembered sewing their costumes together, the three of them, Callie, Susan, and herself. Oh how Callie would fuss over each and every minute detail. Nothing could be less than perfect for that girl.

God, Callie looked beautiful in her costume. Through watery, stinging eyes, Mary stared at Callie. She was standing right there, in the tack room, fussing like she always did with the silver fringes on her vest. Then the vision evaporated.” ...  EXCERPT from my novel, “We’ll Have the Summer”

... I haven’t spoken much of “We’ll Have the Summer” recently and this morning having coffee with Kessy for no reason I can think of I thought of this scene in Chap 7, Mary ponders opening the long closed, not forgotten show trunk. “We’ll Have the Summer” has over 130 five star reviews on Amazon, if you’ve not yet read it I’d like to invite you to lose yourself in Mary and Sam’s love. And perhaps recommend to your friends ... If you have read it perhaps you’d enjoy spending time with them again. 

Gitty Up,

Dutch Henry

You can find it here on Amazon ~ 

"It’s for the Horses," now available!

Howdy Friends,
 

Well by golly It’s for the Horses, An advocate’s musings about their needs, gifts, spirit and care is finally released and available here on Amazon ... Or you can email me dutchhenry@hughes.net to order an autographed copy (by Kessy and me).

With this book I hope to help horses and their people everywhere realize the most wonderful partnerships possible. Spirituality, communication, understanding, nutrition, health care, horsemanship, exercises, foot care are a few of the important subjects discussed in “It’s for the Horses.” No matter your discipline, I promise every horse owner or caregiver will find more than a few things of interest in this book.

Here is what Bobbie Jo Lieberman—Editor-in-Chief, trailBLAZER magazine had to say. “Dutch Henry is on a mission to help people see their horses with new eyes, to listen with new ears, to touch their lives with greater sensitivity and awareness. It has often been said that our horses are our greatest teachers. Dutch Henry, who has opened his heart, mind and soul to the horse, is living proof of that statement. Enjoy the learning as we join Dutch on a remarkable journey.”

And Yvonne Welz—Owner/founder “The Horse’s Hoof Magazine” said, “I received a free review copy of this book, and it was an absolute pleasure to read. Dutch's genuine and compassionate love for horses shines through every single page. Written in such a conversational, friendly tone, his stories will keep any reader entertained, yet here is a wealth of practical, useful information and how-to advice for all horse owners. The major theme of this book is seeing things from the horse's point of view, which expands into his practical advice for more natural methods of horse care and overall good horsemanship. One of my favorite parts of this book is the section on groundwork, stretches, and pre-ride exercises - simple, useful techniques that you can put into practice immediately, for the benefit of your horse. Just about every horse topic you can think of is touched upon here: communicating with your horse, understanding the horse's nature, building trust, diet, barefoot hoof care, natural dentistry, teaching manners, gaited horses, saddle fit, the spirit and emotions of the equine and so much more.”

You can order on Amazon here. I promise it will help you to hear, and bond with, your horse on a level you may have not even imagined.

 

Gitty Up, Dutch Henry

Announcing the Dutch Henry Newsletter

Howdy Friends,

I wanted to let you know I’ll be kicking off a monthly newsletter. In DUTCH HENRY AUTHOR & HORSE ADVOCATE I’ll be chatting about, and sharing updates, on upcoming books, novels and stories I’m working on—and I’ll write short stories just for folks on the newsletter! I’ll also be doing free giveaways! The first Free Gift (winner selected by drawing) is my soon to be released non-fiction, “It’s for the Horses, An advocate’s musings about their needs, gifts, spirit and care.” Winner to be announced in our inaugural newsletter TOMMORROW, MAY 5. Sign up today so you're in the drawing and to assure you receive our kick-off issue.

Your email will be kept private, never sold or shared, I promise. Follow this link - http://eepurl.com/bknmnf and join our newsletter family ... Be part of the fun! ...  Please share with your friends! Thanks! 

Gitty Up, Dutch Henry

“Tom Named By Horse and Me—behind the scenes in a writer’s mind—Pt 2”

Howdy Friends,
 

I always knew one day I’d have to write Tom Named By Horse. Or a story like it. Friends who knew me most of my life often insisted I tell the story of those horrid years I’ve come to call “my room years.” Those years locked in that room, the only window painted black, where horrible things happened. Coffee Clutch and Facebook friends know that’s where Winnie The Pooh held my hand in my darkest moments.

I did in fact start a book at the urgings of a woman who lived in the neighborhood during my room years. She’d contacted me about ten years ago, told me the neighbors knew, but like she, were afraid to get involved. With much fear, pain and tears I followed her advice and started a manuscript. I called it, “They knew.” But even as a grandfather when it came time to relive the details as one would be forced to while writing a manuscript, I could not. Even now writing this I’m eight years old again, in that room with a bucket for a toilet, almost no light and scared beyond expression. No, I could never write about those thousand days in that way.

Then in my mind I met Tom Named By Horse. Just as my mind would leave my body during adventures with Winnie The Pooh, and while enduring beatings, I could write about those years in a general sense, by telling Tom’s story.

The years in Tom’s story when he lived in town with a family before the hider bought him, to me represent the years my mother lived. She died when I was about 8. Then my stepmother came along and she didn’t want to, “Look at a freak.”As a little boy some of my deformities were more visible. So the room years started. And the bad things that happened there. The padlock on the door!

When Tom endured the hider’s beatings with whiskey slobber dripping in his face, those are my beatings. To this day I cannot tolerate the smell of beer or alcohol. Or drinking people. Not at all. The reference to Tom’s beatings he suffered whenever he tried to run away, are the very beatings and scars, I endured if ever I told anyone ANYTHING. Yes I went to school, but never, ever, not a single time could I tell anyone anything. But they knew, I found out years later they knew ... I suppose Tom killing the hider to escape represents more than I want to know.

The confusion Tom experiences in the days just after escaping the hider is the confusion I experienced when they eventually dropped me off on the farm when I was 11, where I worked for board and keep until graduating high school. No love there, only work, but no beatings either. It was not a modern farm, we had no running water in the house, one of my jobs was caring water. Still not really in the “world” I remember my school years as more confusion, teasing, name calling. I was backward and smelled of the barn. No one ever sat with me at lunch or any other time, if they could help it.

Some of that confusion exists still with me today. There are things you learn at certain ages and if those times are missed, some things are very difficult to master and often remain elusive. I’d missed a lot in the formative years. This is the same struggle Tom faced all through the years of the Plains Indian Wars, and beyond, a perfect way to represent my confusion.

Just as Soft Cloud accepts Tom and gently and firmly guides, shepherds and loves him, so has my Ravishin’ Robbie done for me. Whatever could be made right, she truly has, and I’m sure much of it was a challenge for her. In a few weeks we’ll celebrate 39 years together and she’s been my rock every day, every moment.

Tom Named By Horse is an historical fiction and I absolutely loved researching and writing it. Some of it though is indeed a telling of, “They Knew.” If you’ve not yet read Tom Named By Horse I invite you to ride the adventure with him, Soft Cloud, Buck, Red Cloud and the others. If you have read it, have another go, you just might discover a few things you missed the first go ‘round.

You can purchase Tom Named By Horse here on Amazon or email me dutchhenry@hughes.net to buy an autographed copy.

Gitty Up, Dutch Henry