Author Interviews Ute Carson

Author interviews Ute.

Sharon: Ute, Please introduce yourself.

I am Ute Carson, author, poet and clinical hypnotist. My novel "Colt Tailing" is not a horse book in the traditional sense. I use horses and their images throughout the story. The title is a horse phrase. You lead an anxious or young horse at the tail of an older, calm horse over untried, hard terrain and I use this metaphor to show how we all need models to guide us through difficult times.

I have loved horses as long as I can remember. I dreamed about them as a child in Germany and in high school I earned money for riding lessons by doing stable chores. I was already over 40 when my husband bought us our first horse in Galveston, Texas and our three girls learned to ride on that trustworthy old mare.

Sharon: I have been fortunate enough to know several wise old mares. They can teach us so much.

I learned so much from horses but mainly I studied their body language and then observed that language in humans. For example, I watched mares give birth and imitated their ability to "delay"labor when necessary as horses often do when in danger or when they feel that they are confined in an unsafe place. I was able to "delay labor" during the delivery of our third daughter in a hospital setting in front of a group of astounded residents.

Sharon: What style of riding go you do?

I was trained in the English riding style. I did dressage and jumping events. Now at age 70 my favorite horse activity is bareback riding. Nowhere else can I relax as much as when I feel the warmth of a horse's flanks against my legs.

Sharon: I also love to ride bareback, nothing to interfer with the feel of the horse. What was the most fun event with your horse?

My husband went on sabbatical in Montana and we decided to take our 5 year-old mare, Pandora, a gray American Quarter horse along. My husband, our youngest daughter and our Cairn Terrier trailered with Pandora from Galveston, an island along the Gulf coast of Texas, over the Rockies to Missoula, Montana in the far north. We followed a horse motel guidebook. Was that an adventure! On our arrival at each stop a paddock or stall was ready, sometimes even a meadow for Pandora to run and roll in after standing confined for many hours. The horse people we met were unbelievably hospitable. We had to travel back from Missoula in January and, on the first night out, arrived at a farm in a snowstorm, wet and cold. Not only did Pandora get her hay and grain and a warm stall on arrival, but the next day we found her blanket and wrappings had been washed and dried before we had to venture out onto icy roads again.

Sharon: Tell me an amazing horse-related tale.

I have chosen two amazing horse related events. My grandfather was an excellent horseman and he always hoped that he would die in the saddle. His wish was granted when at 82 he took his daily morning trail ride on his old horse companion. A few hours later the gelding walked very slowly back to the barn with my grandfather slumped forward with his fingers entangled in the mane on both sides into his horse's neck. He had suffered a heart attack and his horse friend had brought him back home.

The other story happened when I worked for hospice. A dying teenager had a last request. She wanted to see her horse once more. Friends and family built a ramp up to her house so that her horse could pay her a final visit.

Ute Carson, MA, CCH Author & Hypnotist Insight Hypnosis

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