Her Story
About Sara
I've been writing for about 40 years, starting from when my father bought me a typewriter at age 8. I come from a hyper-literate family and was homeschooled, which allowed me to explore whatever grabbed my attention. My work focuses on two main areas: I've published a six-book series called 'Light in the Saddle' designed for equine associate degree programs, covering everything from initial horse acclimation through advanced riding and cattle work. But most of my current writing is research into the history, genetics, and management of free-roaming and colonial Spanish horses in Mexico and North America. I use horses as 'living libraries' because when you look at their genetics and how they've traveled around the continents, you can pull back the curtains on episodes in our history that have been kind of whitewashed. The latest research says these horses were in New Mexico by 1510, and they reflect the entire history of the last 500 years, including the stories of Indigenous people, Hispanic people, and groups who fled the Spanish Inquisition. I'm an autodidact with no formal degree, but I have about 180 academic citations at this point because I'm asking questions and pointing out areas that have been overlooked. I self-publish because I'm willing to challenge assumptions that nobody is interested in examining, and I insist on including accurate science in my work. I won an award from the ECWIS Arts and Films Festival group for one of my horse training books around 2019-2020. My father was actually a catalyst in organizing one of the first Spanish Mustang registries, so this work has been part of my life since before I was born.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sara
01What do you attribute your success to?
I guess there's two parts to it. One is just persisting, keeping on doing what I want to do the way that I want to do it. When I was working with a small publisher on my series, I had to insist that if you're writing a series for an equine science degree, you actually have to have science in it, and it needs to be accurate. That's not necessarily in agreement with the industry standard, so that was a challenge. So yeah, just persisting in doing what I want to do the way I want to do it, and being willing to wait it out. I also think about what my grandfather said when he was asked what he owed his success to as an older gentleman. He was a wildcatter for the oil industry before World War II, and he said it was the ability to recognize my luck when it came by. So being willing to take a risk, to step out of your comfort zone, to say yes when opportunities come by and see where they take you. That's really important, because if you just run on the same hamster wheel, you're not gonna have a very interesting life.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was to go ahead and self-publish and not wait for the industry to decide that what I was saying was acceptable. It's easy to get caught up in doing things for likes or popularity, but you have to ask yourself: are you doing it for likes, or are you doing it for some sort of coherent, reasonable purpose? They're not necessarily the same thing. I've discovered that having 10 responses that are genuine and thoughtful are worth considerably more than a thousand instant likes that forget you within 30 seconds.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Write out of your own experience, and do your research. Make sure that what you're saying is backed up. You don't have to agree with the status quo with what's being put out there, but you need to understand it, and you need to be able to make a cogent argument supporting your own stance. Respect yourself and your ability to gather the information and pull it together in a way that makes sense, that applies and makes a difference in the real world.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge is getting people to be willing to look beyond their own biases. Most of the books that are written on this subject are repeating assumptions that have been taken for granted, and that nobody is interested in examining. I end up self-publishing because that's the way to sort of break the mold. Once the information is published, then it can be quoted and go into the academic citations, and then people go and look at it, and then eventually, you know, it's taken about 10 years, then other people start to say, oh, you know, this is a reasonable idea, we can talk about it. But getting that first crack in the wall of saying something that's slightly different from the accepted norm is enormously challenging.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Integrity and self-respect are really important to me. I also think about something my grandfather said, who was a wildcatter for the oil industry before World War II. When he was asked what he owed his success to as an older gentleman in his 70s, he said it was the ability to recognize my luck when it came by. So being willing to take a risk, to step out of your comfort zone, to say yes when opportunities come by and see where they take you. That's really important, because if you just run on the same hamster wheel, you're not gonna have a very interesting life.
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