Hope. Dreams. Life... Love: horse/man

horse/man

by Julia Merritt

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GENRE: Fiction - Literary

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BLURB:

What happens when your entire identity revolves around a way of life that is becoming obsolete?

In the 1920s, as Canada progresses through the Industrial Revolution, horses are still the rural engines of survival. As a child Adam lives this reality on his family's farm in the Ottawa Valley, planning to take over one day and have a family of his own. When his parents die during the Great Depression, nineteen-year-old Adam is disinherited in favour of his brother and is forced to move to the city to find work. Without a formal education his choices are few, yet he finds a place to use his horsemanship skills in the dwindling forces of the Canadian cavalry based near Montreal. There he finds pride in being a mounted soldier, and friendship with his fellow dragoons. But the cavalry units are mechanized by the beginning of World War Two, and when Adam is sent to Europe, he must abandon his equine partners for trucks and tanks. In the catastrophic experience of war, he will lose everything once again.

Broken in body and spirit, he returns to Canada where he must confront the question of survival in a world that doesn't seem to have a place for an injured soldier. Full of poetic reflections on what it means to work with horses, horse/man is a powerful story about a man searching for dignity and connection in the face of a rapidly shifting world.

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EXCERPT

“Trot on, Jack! Git up, Pete! Git UP! Good.”

The driver called out orders and sounded gruff, even in praise. The reins slapped the broad chestnut backs lightly, then loosened. It was the end of May, and planting had finished. Today, they were going to town. Freed from their heavy collars and the deep wet soil, the horses danced down the dirt road, shaking their heads as they pushed through the harnesses. Their efforts were rewarded with an easy silence.

Seven-year-old Adam sat in the back of the wagon, his skinny legs anchoring the sacks and baskets his mother had given him for dry goods. He was small for his age but wiry and strong. His face was still childish, heart-shaped and snub-nosed, with sandy brown hair and eyes. His father, Ciaran, was alone on the front seat, driving the horses with his back to Adam. Adam was grateful for the rest.

The horses picked up speed, and Adam bounced from side to side on the planks. The percussion of the horses’ hooves and the squeak of the wagon on its struts was all he could hear. The wind from the wagon’s movement had a chill. He turned his head to face it, letting the tears from his watering eyes stream along his cheeks. He inhaled the sharpness of spring, undercut by the heaviness of soil and vegetation that was not quite yet alive. Travelling along, further details unfurled — the patches of mud in the potholes, the freshly tilled soil in the fields, the shades of green emerging from the ditches and the trees.

A Word With the Author

1. How did you decide on a rural Canadian farmer-turned-cavalryman for your main character?

I had to pick a point in time where it would be believable for all the different events to have happened to one main character. Rural Canada was a good starting point to align the historical timeline: by the 1920s, draft horses had started to be replaced by tractors, so moving the setting away from the urban centres made it more believable that someone would grow up without experience with machines.

2. As you completed your research, what facts surprised you?

During the late 1800s, when the pace of the Industrial Revolution was increasing and there were more steam and gasoline-powered machines than ever before, there was a corresponding increase in the number of horses required. At one point, there were two million horses housed in New York City alone and the infrastructure was driven by what horses needed to be able to do their jobs.

The other surprise was that the development of suburban housing was the direct result of the invention of the horse-drawn streetcar. The initial radius of the suburbs was limited to the distance that these streetcars could travel in an hour, creating a culture of commuting to work by vehicles instead of walking.

3. What drew you to the backdrop of the second World War over other periods in Canadian history?

World War Two marked the turning point in history for horses in North America and Europe. The cavalry and agriculture decided almost simultaneously in the 1930s to switch to internal combustion engines, which forced an enormous number of people to adapt their lives and livelihoods. Subsequently, horses were relegated to the status of a recreational pursuit.

However, I would stress that this transition has not occurred in all countries: there are still many millions of working equines across the globe. This caveat is important – although cars and tractors are indeed used globally, they have not made such a complete coup of the way that labour is used. We may not think of it in North America, but “history” is not really in the past at all.

4. Do you feel like Adam's story draws any parallels to the world today?

Yes, it absolutely does. The Industrial Revolution marked the point in time when manual labour became mechanized. The Digital Revolution marks a similar shift, when knowledge and labour is moving from the physical world to a computerized, digital one. Perhaps a more subtle shift then the visible disappearance of horses from the urban landscape, but a revolution all the same; digital literacy is now firmly entwined with economic success and social inclusion, a reality that is causing difficulties for many people.

5. Let's talk a bit more about your journey as an author. What got you into writing historical fiction?

I never actually pictured myself writing historical fiction! It was the story that got me interested, and there were fortunately some thorough research available through the library network that provided the context I needed to create the framework for the novel’s plot.

6. What does your process look like?

It’s a bit of a scattered one, to be honest. I had a sense of the kinds of experiences and feelings that I wanted to convey, and then I worked backwards with the research to create the timeline and fill in the plot gaps.

7. Do you have any tips for aspiring authors?

Edit, edit, edit! No idea ever comes onto the page fully polished and ready to be made public. I am a firm believer that the kernel of almost any idea can become sophisticated and fully-fledged, if it can be flexible enough to change through editing.

8. Can you give us any hints about your next project?

The only thing I can say now is that I’ll be switching genres for my second novel. I have always read across a wide range of work, and I want to explore this same sort of variety in my writing. The next one won’t be historical fiction, and it won’t have anything to do with horses!

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AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Julia Merritt has been captivated by horses ever since she could see out of the car window. Then she grew up and became a public library CEO and certified animal bodyworker. She lives in Ontario, Canada, with her thoroughbred horses and smooth collie dogs. This is her first novel.

Connect with Julia Merritt

WEBSITE http://www.juliamerritt.ca/

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/firehorseperformancebodywork

INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/j.a.merritt/

TIKTOK https://www.tiktok.com/@j.a.merritt

GOODREADS https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60353574-horse-man

Get your copy of horse/man

AMAZON.COM https://www.amazon.com/dp/0228856566

AMAZON.CA https://amazon.ca/dp/0228856566

INDIGO CHAPTERS https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/horse-man/9780228856542-item.html

BARNES & NOBLE https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/horse-man-julia-merritt/1140954662

BOOK DEPOSITORY https://www.bookdepository.com/horseman-Julia-Merritt/9780228856566