Customer Reviews

One Good Horse

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The subtitle on Tom Groneberg's "One Good Horse" is "Learning to Train and Trust a Horse."

But this is no guidebook for would-be horse-whisperers, equestrians or rodeo cowboys.

Sure, the story is built around Groneberg's relationship with a young horse. The ranching business is going to hell and Groneberg's wife has just learned she's pregnant when he finds an unbroken horse, in which he invests his money, his time and his sense of self.

But this memoir is so much more. It's the story of a man finding his place in the world. It's the story of a romantic dreamer putting down roots. It's a story of the inexplicable bonds between cowboys. It's a story about who we see when we look in the mirror. And it's the story of a father confronting some of his worst fears.

At least four stories unfold simultaneously in this plainspoken cowboy poet's story. Groneberg explores the latigo mythology that haunts him, the landscape of his western Montana community and his own heart (which might be inextricable), the birth of a son with Down Syndrome, and his passion for one good horse, which after a lot of thought, he names Teddy Blue.

The name isn't merely a poetic accident.

"One Good Horse" is marbled with the colorful life story of Teddy Blue Abbott, a true post-Civil War cowpoke from the heyday of Texas trail drives, Charlie Russell and Billy the Kid. In the British-born Abbott (who died in 1939 at age 78), the reader sees the ghost-mentor Groneberg never knew. He's the cowboy Chicago-born Groneberg always dreamed of being.

But Groneberg's more cowboy than a lot of five-generation Montana poseurs who are more hat than cow, and never knew anything else. For more than 10 years, he's been a cowboy because he chose the life, not because it chose him. And this highly personal chronicle - an extension of his earlier "The Secret Life of Cowboys" - he opens his heart in ways few cowboys ever do.

The painful revelation of his newborn son's incurable genetic disorder sparks his commitment to be as good a father as he can be. And for him, that even more important than being a good cowboy.

The layering of Teddy Blue Abbott's historic adventures with Groneberg's contemporary life is reminiscent of "Battlefield" (1992) by Peter Svenson, an artist who learned about life, love and farming when he unwittingly buys an old Civil War battleground. Svenson cross-cuts historic accounts of the combat and his more sedate skirmishes with seasons, farm equipment and the ghosts of history.

In both books, this contrapuntal structure adds depth and wisdom, but Groneberg goes a step or two beyond the mere juxtaposition of twin stories from separate centuries. This is not just a story of a love for the western landscape, but also a story about the landscape of a heart. It's not an epic story, but its themes are grand.

Tom Groneberg's One Good Horse presents several characters from disparate times and influences. Several stories emerge, and are woven in, out and around the authors desire to buy, break and train one good horse. Initially, the books cast of characters seem unrelated as they move in and out of the story. But ever so masterfully this author breathes each one to life, and a common theme begins to coalesce and shimmer. Within each characters circumstance, sandwiched between all things ordinary, life folds tiny, subtle cataclysms that alter perceptions and expectations mercilessly for good or ill. The author opens a window into his own soul and humbly invites us to pause to wonder at the blessings and the disappointments of our naive and so often narrow expectations of life and its most precious commodity: time well spent; time purposefully spent. In this earthy book I can almost smell the hay and grass and hear the horses snort and breathe as I recognize life's brevity and beauty in the colors of the Montanta Sky. Just as in his book, The Secret Life of Cowboys, Tom Groneberg's transparency and gentle vulnerability in sharing his desires, his moments of bliss or epiphany and more often than not - his heartache and disappointment were a genuine delight.

"Remember that life is not always fair, but it is good. Success is measured by the size of your heart," Tom Groneberg writes in his elegiac nonfiction followup to his successful memoir, The Secret Life of Cowboys. This time out, Mr. Groneberg writes of the eponymous equine, Blue, interspersing his tale of searching for that horse with his tales as husband and father to three young sons. In the process, he acquits himself not just as an extraordinary writer, but as an extraordinary father as well.

One Good Horse picks up Tom's life where he is still in Montana working various ranch jobs to support his budding family. Dealing with all of the complications in his life, Tom decides that what he really needs is a horse. This is not to be an ordinary horse that belonged to another, Tom wants to buy an un-broke horse and go through the process of training him; not the old time approach of jumping on his back and breaking him but rather through kindness and teaching the horse what he needs to do without stress and confrontation. Concurrently Tom also chronicles the life of the horse as it eventually becomes part of the Groneberg family. For me, one of the things that makes this book special is the interjection of segments of Teddy Blue Abbott's wonderful book, We Pointed Them North. Teddy's colorful account of his cattle drive from Texas to Montana is beautifully woven in with Tom's own experiences and surprisingly transcends the century that divides the two literary works. I strongly recommend that anyone interested in the west (past and present alike) give this book a read - I believe you will thoroughly enjoy it.

Mr. Groneberg knows the West and takes us there instantly. His characters struggle, live, relate, disengage, and escape just like those anywhere else, but here things move differently. Our hero's method of dealing with, or avoiding, the difficulties of human relationships is through focusing his efforts and passion on the process of training an unbroken horse. As the complex stories unravel, the dusty trail becomes clearer and the beauty of human fragility shines through.

Absolutely a wonderfully written book. Groneberg once again writes a brutally honest and introspective account of his life as a ranch hand in Montana.

I loved Tom's The Secret Life of Cowboys, so was looking forward to this kinda sequel, more about Montana. I was not disappointed. I was a bit flummoxed at first when he started talking about another book he was reading, the memoir of a late 19th century cowboy ("Teddy Blue" Abbott), We Pointed Them North. I mean this is supposed to be a book about a 21st century cowboy - or cowboy wannabe. But it all works out very neatly. The two stories fit together remarkably well. Teddy Abbott was a man who didn't want to be tied down by the ordinariness of farm work. He wanted to "cowboy," and he did for nearly thirty years, before marrying and settling down to raise several children. Tom Groneberg, college educated, didn't want to become just another company man, or be shackled to the rat race of 20th (and 21st) century life. He too wanted to cowboy. And so he has dabbled at it for the past fifteen years or so. Fortunately, he found a woman who has put up with Tom chasing his dream of the western life. By the end of One Good Horse, Tom still isn't completely sure how his life will turn out. But he has taken his cue from the old cowboy Teddy Blue, who listed only one vocation or accomplishment on his tombstone: Father. Groneberg confides that he has always had a "nervous gene" - that he's always been at least a little terrified that he'll screw up. As a father, he has not. His assessment of himself as a husband and father is, I think, exceedingly modest and self-effacing. True, he still wants something just for himself - even if it's only a good horse. But that's not selfishness; it's simply his own way of trying to hang onto his dream. It may be a foolhardy dream these days, but it is nevertheless an admirable and bravely Quixotic one. At the end of this book, he gives wise advice to his three small sons, to be read at a later date. Then he says, simply, I'm done. I hope, Tom, that you're not done dreaming, because dreams are important, no matter how old you are. And I certainly hope you're not done writing, because I want to hear more of your story. Cowboys are important, sure, but even old Teddy Blue would tell you that storytellers are even more important. Keep on telling your story, Tom. Your boys will know you better one day. - Tim Bazzett, author of the Reed City Boy trilogy

Take a young husband and father and combine with a would-be horse trainer who is transitioning from city boy to Big Sky Cowboy and you have the essence of this book. Included are excerpts from Teddy Blue's "We Pointed Them North" Enjoyed Tom's quest very much and recommend it highly.

Author Groneberg's spare, beautiful, prose could make you weep in its honest simplicity. He takes the reader on the most intimate of journeys into his heart, his soul, and his mind. His struggles to come to grips with the ordinariness of his life while still daring to reach for extraordinary that he dreams of, is brillantly woven into stories of the past and the present, the human and the equine. Rarely does a memoir touch my soul as this one has. Reading this felt like a privilege. I was enriched in so many ways. I am grateful for the gift od Tom Groneberg.