Here’s a bit about me, Louise Spilsbury.

I’ve loved horses since I was a tiny kid. One of my earliest memories is of standing at the window, watching a farmer lead his two horses past our house. A bay and a grey. A boy horse and a girl horse.

When I was eight years old, my dad, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, was deployed to Europe. For five years, we lived in local villages outside the Canadian Forces bases where he served. In those places, and in the places we visited as tourists, horses were part of everyday life.

It was when we returned to Canada that my love affair with horses had a chance to blossom. As a special treat, there would be trail rides at the local stable. When I was in university, I scrimped and saved to pay for riding lessons.

As soon as I graduated and got a real job, I bought my first horse, Lancer, a QH/TB cross.

My parents weren’t horse people. When I told my mother what I’d done, her reaction was a despairing, “Oh, Louiise!” My husband, fortunately, figured out right away that he’d just officially become a horse-husband, so he dived head-first into his own passions. Over the years, he has photographed my horses, serenaded them with bagpipes, and become infamous among his scuba diving buddies as the long-suffering husband of a crazy horse lady.

In 2015, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I came through the ordeal with flying colours, but it changed my priorities in life. I took early retirement from a career in a food testing lab, and now I, Louise Spilsbury, am Living The Dream – writing science fiction novels (click here for my author site) and working with my fourth horse, an OTTB (Off the track Thoroughbred) called Larry.

In this blog, there will be stories about the people and critters in my life, and the corner of Canada where I live. But mostly, it will contain posts about my experiences, past and present, with horses. I’m not a horse professional. I’m just someone who has loved horses her whole life.

Horse lover Louise Spilsbury hopes to share some of that with you.