Text by Patricia Platt
Photo courtesy of Courtney Maum

Norfolk’s acclaimed author, Courtney Maum, will launch her first memoir, The Year of the Horses, at the Norfolk Library on May 3, 2022, at 5:30 p.m. During the event, she and author Elisa Altman will explore how Maum’s love of horseback riding helped her regain physical and emotional health at a time when her life was spiraling out of control.          

In 2015, Maum struggled with chronic insomnia that didn’t respond to medication and caused such severe exhaustion that her life as a mother, wife, and writer was unraveling. As she described it, “I couldn’t sleep, had trouble eating, was severely anxious, and couldn’t even see that people around me were trying to help.” 

Little did she know that a chance comment made by a guest at a child’s birthday party, “Don’t come too close, I smell like a barn,” would start a conversation that would reawaken her love of horseback riding after a 30-year gap. Remembering the joy and passion that horseback riding brought her as a child, Maum decided to “try anything that might help,” and set up a lesson the next day.

She was immediately happy with her decision, but quickly realized that she would only succeed if she could be calm around horses.   “When you approach a horse, they mirror your energy. When I would walk into a barn when I was full of anxiety and nervousness, the horses reacted by pinning back their ears and they became anxious, too. I realized I had to breathe slowly, be more relaxed, and let go of things in my head if I wanted a horse to be calm. Riding gave me instant feedback about the energy I brought and I learned to stop the anxiety that pills couldn’t help. The heartbeat of a horse, even the body of a horse, is calming. Just being with the animals at the barn and tending to their simple needs helped me stop my anxious thinking, I gradually began to heal and, soon, I started to sleep again. Horses became like my talisman.”

Maum soon came to understand the tremendous importance of having a private space, away from her family and career, explaining, ” I needed a secret repository for my inner wildness, where I could retreat and be creative. I turned off my phone and it became 100 percent my space; a magical, underground place to go.” She spent about three hours a day riding and caring for the horses and learned that making her own joy a priority helped her show up for others in a happier way, explaining, “The power of horses to heal me saved my marriage, my writing, and my relationship with my daughter.”

The memoir examines the unique ways that women benefit from horseback riding. Dispelling the myth that riding is a sexual experience, she commented, “Horseback riding is sensual for women and men because horses’ very physicality demands that you have to be moving and aware of your body. Riding is hard, dangerous, and unpredictable, so one even has to be a boss in their body. As a result, one learns to hold their body up straight and to ride without slumping, which creates self-confidence. I found that after learning to control a horse, a woman often finds it easier to stand up to sexism. I love that about horse women.”

By 2017, Maum had the confidence to join a group of polo players in Pine Plains, N.Y., where she was one of two women who rode with the grooms to warm up the horses. During a year when many feminists were feeling discouraged, men opened the door for her and supported her fledgling attempts to learn with good humor, and encouraged her to take risks by saying, “When the horse needs to run, you let it.” Later, she joined their team. She loved the fearlessness and camaraderie of the sport, the team soon became like a second family, and her husband and daughter came to cheer at her games. The team folded when the pandemic hit, but Maum was consoled by knowing that “I brought the exuberance of competitive riding back to other aspects of my life.” She wrote an essay for the New York Times about older women playing polo and received so many letters about it that she decided to write a novel about her experience. When it didn’t quite work, she decided to write this memoir.

Maum still rides about three hours a day at Sunny Rose stable in Sandisfield, Mass., where she keeps her rescue polo horse. She also continues her work as a writing coach. Her mission is to be “devoted to helping writers hold onto the magic of making art while dealing with the reality of the business side that is currently obsessed with turning artists into brands.” In February 2022, she reopened The Cabins, the collaborative retreat in Norfolk for people working in the creative arts, including artists, writers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, and poets.

The Year of the Horses will be available for purchase at the book launch. It is also available at Oblong Books in Millerton, N.Y., on Kindle, and an audiobook read by the author.