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Riding the White Horse Home: A Western Family Album

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Reading Teresa Jordan's novel Riding the White Horse Home inevitably inspires a sense of regret and loss. Throughout her portrayal of the rugged untamed wilds of Iron Mountain Wyoming and its people, she paints a vivid picture of a culture and a way of life that has all but died out. Using her own personal experiences with her friends and family, she shows the reader what ranch life was like. Her detail and imagery is superb as she takes her acquaintances one by one, chapter by chapter, and tells us their story. We learn of Sunny the grandfather who took pride in his way of life, of her mother who loves her yet is hard to understand, of her friend Kelley and how their kind are not socially accepted today, her small local wedding, childhood experiences, and more. She shows us the stark differences between ranch culture and the culture of progress. We see the unspoken rules and laws of her people and their stoicism. We come to admire their discipline and stubbornness, their ethic and devotion. And we feel the same sense of loss that Teresa must have felt as this way of life slowly drifted away. For me, it was this central message of the book that was most touching. As someone who grew up in and frequently visits Idaho, I can at least partly relate to her sadness at the change. Like her, I feel an odd sense of pride whenever anyone speaks with disdain of the old fashioned methods of my state. I enthusiastically tell all my friends the Idaho state motto; "Idaho IS, what America WAS." This is the way that Jordan displays the ranch life. She shows an honor and pride that has since been lost to the world. Her people respected hard work over hard cash, and took satisfaction from their endless labor. Despite crop failures, drought, loss of livestock, and tiring years with no seeming gain, they trudge on, unbending. My own father is much like this, taking a job that pays much less then his previous one because it gives him more satisfaction. The power of her story comes through in its reality--we are made to see through her eyes, and with this new perspective come to love the land and people as she does. We mourn with her the loss of tradition and see the beauty in the harsh terrain of Wyoming. Although it is not written chronologically, the reader can easily see the transition from family owned ranches to modern technology. Each chapter is devoted to one of her family or friends and we learn of them in detail. Jordan expertly takes us into her life and experiences. We see her fierce love for her family and the kind of relationships that they have together. At college when her mother dies, she decides to come home and immerse herself in ranch life as she remembers their connections. She talks of how much she learned from her great grandmother, and of how much she didn't see. The reader learns the trials of ranch life--calving in all its messy glory, getting mauled by bulls, fighting against the land. Her story becomes to the reader representative of the lives of all ranchers, and we come to feel a connection of our own with this unique people. There is sadness at her shame when she goes to school as a child--her people are not accepted there. Her style is frank and open, and her honesty makes her words that much clearer. She tells it like it was. For those who love to farm and for those who are content in their cozy heated homes, this is a wonderful book. It inspires the reader to change his ideals--we come to value work and stoicism like a true rancher. It makes us appreciate our loved ones more, and we realize just how much we take for granted. Teresa Jordan has taken her life and set it out before us, and we should not pass up the opportunity to learn from it.

There's a growing literature of memoirs written by women who grew up on ranches, and this is a fine addition to it. Jordan tells of her family, who for four generations raised cattle in southeast Wyoming, north of Laramie and Cheyenne. With some irony, it was more circumstance than a love of ranching that kept the Jordans on the land, until the author's father sold the home place in the 1970s. But the love of that spot on earth lives on strongly in the author, and her book is a tribute to it and to her family who toiled there through good years and bad.

She clearly admires the men who labored on horseback raising cattle, devoting chapters to her grandfather, her father, and the many foremen and ranch hands who worked for them. Fully engaging, too, are her memories of the women and the imprint they have made on herself. Three portraits in particular stand out: her mother, Jo, with a warm, generous, and independent spirit, who died suddenly at an early age; her great aunt Marie, who loved her horses and dogs like the children she never had, and lived happily together with her husband and her husband's best friend; and finally her grandmother Effie, a puzzlingly bitter woman whose wishes for a full life seem to have been frustrated from girlhood because of her gender and social limitations.

There's much in this book to commend it, including a chapter devoted to the calving season and another describing the physically punishing nature of ranch work. Her chapter on her great aunt Marie includes excerpts from her journals, and each chapter is introduced with a photograph from the family album. The book closes with a description of the author's wedding at the community center near where she grew up, an idyllic day poignant for its wholehearted celebration of a way of community life that is rapidly vanishing.

I recommend this book to readers interested in the West, ranching, family memoirs, and personal journeys. Also recommended: Mary Clearman Blew's "All But the Waltz," Linda Hasselstrom's "Windbreak," and Judy Blunt's "Breaking Clean."

This story is simple, yet complex. It is easy to read, yet is very difficult to fully understand. On the surface, this book appears to be the typical biography of a ranch girl in rural Wyoming; telling of the lives of herself, her acquaintances, good friends and family. Looking a little deeper, it becomes apparent that she is setting the ranch culture apart from the rest of society, more or less as a separate entity. Constantly referring to "My people," marks the fact that she is arguing that her people are definitely of a different breed. She speaks of them as if they are of an entirely new ethnicity, which says a lot about how she really thinks of her people. This book is a chronicle of those people. They are ranchers and farmhands that we, our generation, have watched disappear. Her people have a deep sense of history. Her grandfather is so proud of his earlier relatives coming across the plains in the wake of Civil war, and making life for themselves. He determines to live his life the same way. Teresa learns that her people also like to embellish their own history, which makes them all the more colorful. It is, at least in part, this belief that their predecessors were all self-made men that drives Teresa's relatives to work hard for what they have. To work hard, and see the benefits of their work gives them a very real sense of satisfaction; ever hinting that this type of work-ethic is something America today has gotten away from. The work her people perform just to eke out a living is something most today do not understand. She tells of the back-breaking labor she and those around her perform in sub-zero temperatures, the miserable plight of drought and the ensuing cattle starvation, the scarcity of water, and lastly the pain of losing a loved one on the farm ("I seem to lose my loved ones to cancer and accidents,"). She realizes the work they do is difficult, yet, it is what her people live for. Her people are also very stoic. They are deeply committed to a few unwritten laws. Though not exactly enforced, they are known by every member, and everyone is expected to comply. One must never cry in public is an example of such a rule. One should not show any emotion, let alone crying. I guess crying, or showing compassion of any kind, is a sign of weakness, and her people are anything but weak. Her grandfather, one of her personal heros, never once breaks this rule. Nor does her father. Though she found this rule difficult to follow, she understands that it is not to be broken (though she does break it, on occasion). The land made these people. It was from this land that they make their living, raise their families, and foster their relationships. The land is tough, immovable, and harsh; why shouldn't it's people be the same? Jordan goes in to some detail, often in the middle of her relatives' biographies, about how fewer and fewer family farms are operating in this country, documenting the many millions of farm jobs that have disappeared from this country in since 1950. Through her friend Kelley, she talks about how her people do not fit into society today, and they belong on and to the country. She stresses that there is no other place for them; in the outside world, they feel alienated and useless, on the ranch, they are skilled and productive. It is almost as though her people have no place to be, no other place they could be. It is here that I found the book especially powerful: their ties to the land are too strong to live with concrete and steel. They have lived in the country as long as their grandparents can remember. It is part of them. They would choke if they were away from the grass and dirt. "Progress" has taken us, the rest of society, away from this rural American life, and has put us indoors, with flourescent lighting, 8'x6'x4' office cubicles, deadlines, exercise-free lifestyles, and work less, expect more attitudes. Teresa Jordan does not write an essay about the vanishing frontier, or the vanishing lifestyle of hard work and earned satisfaction; but she makes her point all the more concise by telling of her own experiences with individuals who have lived for work and for the land. Her people are strong, immovable, and courageous; just like the land they come from. Her book tells of the rewards ranching and country life offer, which almost forces one to contrast it with the barriers urbanization places on today's society. Her book is both reminiscing life as it once was, and forward reaching, showing life will become if we allow it. In all honesty, I wasn't at all excited about reading this book. Rural Wyoming? Looking at the latter half of the twentieth century not in terms of technological growth and achievement, but in the 19th century lifestyle of ranching? Not heralding the new era of progress and prosperity but looking at the dying art of family farming and ranching? I really didn't see it's application to me. But as I read, I became convinced that Teresa Jordans' is a different way of life. Or, should I say, it WAS a way that man once looked at life that is now gone. Hidden in this novel is an impassioned plea for a return to life as it once was. It is not verbal, but it is there, and it is powerful. Teresa Jordan is not audibly mourning the loss of a civilization, but is doing so very silently, painfully, through telling her family's story. This civilization once was America, but years of progress has pushed this civilization, and all of it's citizens, nearly to extinction.

I thought, "This will be a nice distraction." Boy, did I underestimate this book. Ms. Jordan takes you with her through her life and her relatives' lives. You feel the draw of the west and the power of the Wyoming wind. Getting caught up in the struggles of the various generations, and Ms. Jordan's, sheds light on your own life. As Ms. Jordan heals, the opportunity to resolve one's own conflicts seems more possible. This is a wonderful escape and marvelous therapy all rolled into one.

Teresa Jordan's Riding the White Horse Home is appropriately subtitled A western Family Album. Her book explicitly describes life on her family's cattle ranch and her experiences growing up in Iron Mountain Wyoming. Through her book and family's experiences, I was able to understand and know my own ancestors better. I have been on Wyoming cattle ranches but no experience I have had at the family reunions on dad's cousin's ranch in Evanston compares to the stories Teresa Jordan tells. My father was born and lived in Wyoming until moved to Midvale Utah as a teenager. Riding the White Horse Home has special meaning for me because it helped me visualize and understand what it is that my father has been telling me about the hard work done on a ranch in Wyoming. I now understand the work my ancestors did. My great grandparents were ranchers in Wyoming. I have relatives that still call the cattle ranches of Wyoming home. These relatives raise cattle on land that has been in my family for generations just as Teresa Jordan lived on the land her great grandfather originally owned. The book was as entertaining as it was informative. The life of a rancher is revealed and understood as Jordan tells her behind the scenes story of this dying American subculture. Ranching is for people who love being outside and caring for animals. Satisfaction is what drives a ranchers life, ranchers don't get rich quick but they do love their work. The book is the memories and experiences of the author and her life growing up as a cattle rancher's daughter in Wyoming. It begins with her earliest memories of ranch life, to her wedding, which was held in the community house in town. She tells about the shameful feelings she had of the ranchers life when she moved into town to begin elementary school. As well as the pride she felt recalling the lives and accomplishments of her grandparents and especially her mother the ranchers wife. Jordan dedicates each chapter to telling the story of a different relative or other significant person in her life and the influences they had. She pays a special tribute to her great-grandmother Nana in the opening lines of the book and recalls the lessons she learned from her. She walked with young Teresa picking up Indian relics and teaching her how to look for them. Jordan's book in many ways is the story of my life and your life. There is nothing extraordinary about her story, just that it is hers, everyone has something to say, the difference is that Teresa tells her story better then most. She successfully intertwines the lives of the people with the land surrounding them and what the sum of these influences has done to her. She is unique in her honesty and clarity. She tells her family's story of survival and day to day life. For me the story was real. It is the history of a dying people and the cowboy culture. The death of Teresa Jordan's mother caused great sorrow to enter her life and sent her in to a long period of mourning and soul searching. Teresa was away at college when she died, her death triggered a sort of return to her old way of life. She left school for a period of time in which she worked on the ranch she grew up on. In her youth, her experiences with the ranch were observational. Often times she became part of the stories she had heard, but hearing them so many times they became her own. As an adult, she returned to live the experiences she heard so much about. She returned to work on a friend's ranch during calving season, because that is when the real work is done. This was to be therapy for her broken heart and a way to prove to herself that she could do it. Her mother played an integral part of her life, it was a part that she did not fully recognize until it was missing. She grew closer to the father she loved as they helped each other through the pain of death and healing process. This is the white horse home she rode home. She went home to land she loved and is now telling its story.

I have only been to Wyoming once. All I can remeber is the wind blowing at 60 MPH, dirt in our eyes, ears, and noses; pancakes blown into the dust before we could even get them on our plates; long, hot walk across desolate plains. It is an experience I don't wish to remeber, and when I think of Wyoming, I think of this. But Jordan gives us a view of what it is really like to live on a ranch in Wyoming. Through facinating imagery and warm hearted moments as we remember our own family moments, Jordan unites us by the common thread of family. We do not all have the pleasant family memories that Jordan does, but for a small moment Jordan allows us to become part of her family, her memories. She masterfully weaves together the random tidbits of information to create a fascinating look at what life is like on a ranch. By examing herself through looking at the members of her family and others, she portrays a vivid view of what it was like to be her. We can almost see her kneading bread with her mother, or sitting around drinking coffee. We can feel her pain when her mother dies, but also the estrangement she feels when life just goes on. She ties it together by making it accessible to the reader: we have all, at one point, wondered where our parents came from. As she goes through, giving accounts of calving season, broken bones as rights of passage, her own wedding, she draws strength in a part of each person she remembers. She realizes that they are a part of her - they have made her who she is, molded her. As she grows up, she begins to realize the strength she has pulled from each member of her family. The memories are the only things that she has when she is confronted with the loss of her family and the land that had defined her family. Whether is was through her father, mother, grandfather, or hired hand, Jordan found that her heritage was her strength. This is the universal appeal of the book - that we all rely on memories to get us through the hard times. Jordan brings that knowledge to the forefront for us, and we can do nothing more than bask in the memories that she provides for, and let them take us away to our own memories. I have now been given a new look at Wyoming - one of people with courage, and honor in their heritage. Jordan shows us that Wyoming is not just a land of wind, dirt, sun, and snow, but a place of value and honor in her heart.

Teresa Jones' novel Riding the White Horse Home is a dictionary, encyclopedia, map, and guide to the traditional western ways of life and the ties they have to her heritage. She has mastered the art of story-telling, and through her descriptions of the difficult, earthy life of her ranching legends father and family, encapsulates the history of a people soon to be extinct. In Iron Mountain of southern Wyoming, Jones great-grandfather bought a ranch and began the history and the way of life of her family. "[She] thought her people were immortal." Through her writing and intense, deep descriptions and stories, her people become immortal, sharing their way of life and love of the earth they live on. One example is her mother. "She was a typical ranch wife-supple sergeant, book-keeper, mother, spouse. She taught me to bake bread and enjoy my height and sail out into the world with some degree of confidence . . . on the ranch she wore Levi's and, in the winter, an immense, bright read down coat. When she went to town, she always wore four inch heels."

Her mother was a constant in her life, and an excellent example of Jones' gift to describe and rebuild a person for the reader to meet. Jones' uses the motif of baking bread to flow through her descriptions of her mother, simplifying her writing to the point of total understanding. That gift is what makes Jones' readable: her ability to cut down the words into pictures and stories more easily readable and visual to the reader. The stories of her mother molded her appearance. In addition to Jones' remarkable talent of description, she has an uncanny ability to engulf the reader into the event at hand. I remember riding all in the truck with her. I remember helping birth a calf. I remember her father's broken leg (more than once), all because of her beautiful descriptions of life and the business of cattle raising. Jones' keeps the heritage of the call of the frontiers and the beauty of memory alive. Her talent of combining narration with description makes the novel an awesome memoir of her history, and the history of her family. To quote the author from her own book, " . . . I learned that this happened before I was born. I have carried it like a memory, but it's not a memory; it's a story I've heard, fleshed out by details told down through the years. I'm amazed. I can't imagine this event without also imagining myself within it, watching."

A journal or a diary is a window into the writer's soul. Reading this book has the same feel to it as reading the author's journal. Jordan is able to take the audience deep into her soul to share with us her life and that of her family as they struggle four for generations to tame the wild Wyoming ranch land. Through her beautiful imagery we are able to see the world through Jordan's eyes at various times in her life and we can come to understand what ranch life is really like. I loved this book. The connections that Jordan discovers between herself and her family through the generations really touched me. I truly believe that our ancestors are an important part of who we are, and as Jordan discovers, we can discover ourselves by learning who our ancestors are. I was particularly touched by Jordan's descriptions of her mother and what a familiar and at the same time mysterious person she was. No one in the world knows me better than my mother, and I know her intimately, and yet as a person, as a woman she is almost a stranger to me. Jordan is able to close that gap and see her mother in a true light. I also loved the descriptions of that wild and beautiful land. I have driven through Wyoming several time and although for the most part I found the scenery boring, Jordan's descriptions opened my eyes to the beauty that exists in even barren places. Jordan's early memories of life on the ranch give a clear picture of what that lifestyle is really like and her experience with the calving season is so detailed and vibrant that it might make the reader a little queasy (at least it did for me). But these experiences really make ranch life come alive for me, and my suburban world of half acre lots and minivans fades into the wide open spaces and horseback transportation of Jordan's world. I was able to climb into her shoes and take a look at life through her eyes. I saw Sunny, the grandfather who was cranky and mean, yet full of quiet dignity and respect. I experienced her shame as she entered the world of middle school and learned that her background and way of life were socially unacceptable. I wept at the death of Marie, the great-aunt with a love for animals who was also one of Jordan's best friends. Although the book is not written chronologically, I saw the world change and Jordan herself change as she grew out of the shoes of a Wyoming ranch girl and into the shoes of a successful big-city writer. And yet, that little ranch girl never quite disappeared. Eventually Jordan found her again and along with the child came a life and a land that had been a part of her family for four generations. This book is more than just a history of one family, it is the story of countless numbers of people who came and tamed this country, then slowly died out and disappeared. Out of the many family ranches that were owned during Jordan's childhood, only one remains under the ownership of that particular family. All of the others have left the land, either by force or by choice, and the way of life of these family ranchers has disappeared along with them. This book serves as a eulogy to those people and is a tribute to all of their hard work and sacrifice. Reading this book makes me want to learn more about my own life; where my family came from, what they wanted out of life, what ties they had to the land. It also makes me realize how truly important families are and what an impact they have on a person's life, even to the extent that who they are as an adult depends a great deal on who and where they came from. I would reccommend this book to anyone who is looking for an intelligent exploration of family and the impact they have on our lives.

Snapshots: A Review of Riding the White Horse Home by Teresa Jordan By Sara Johns Teresa Jordan's new novel, Riding the White Horse Home, is appropriately subtitled, "A Western Family Album." Reading Jordan's piece was akin to glancing through the weathered pages of a scrapbook, and her use of imagery and concrete language painted specific images in the reader's mind. She combined elements of structure tone, and language to create a cohesive narrative that flowed as easily as the rivers she described. The structure of the novel is divided into sections about individually family members or significant events in her life. Each segment is preceded by a photo, which foreshadows the method that Jordan uses to create her own verbal picture. Although she did not follow chronological order, Jordan maintained cohesiveness by using herself as a link to each character. Every person and event had some significance to her, and although they didn't follow chronologically, they did proceed naturally. Another structural device that Jordan used well was the diversion. For example, in her first two pages, she starts by describing the walks that she used to take with her great-grandmother, Nana, around their ranch. In the next paragraph she talks about the spurs that Nana owned, her death, and her bridge games at the Country Club. The next paragraph continues to diverge by bringing in Jordan's great-aunt Marie, and the fourth is a concrete image of Nana standing by a corral. Through all of this she keeps the image of her great-grandmother in the foreground, while establishing a laid-back rhythm, similar to casual speaking. She enhances this natural feeling throughout the entire novel, and we are able to see directly into the lives of real people. Not only does she show us the snapshots, but she makes us feel as though we are there. The honest tone of Jordan's novel increases her ability to show us individual glimpses into life on the ranch. She writes candidly, without the flowered cliches that some authors use to sound intelligent or acceptable. Jordan does not worry about being politically correct; she is honest. During her description of the calving process she allows us to sense the ambiguities involved with loving and caring for an animal, then slaughtering for profit. We midwife these calves into existence, we care for them, sometimes we even risk our lives for them, and they are ultimately slated for slaughter. In this fact lies the essential irony of our work. No one forgets that a live calf is money in the bank. And yet a reverence remains. (Jordan, 108) Jordan's tone builds her credibility as an author, which allows us to relate our life to hers. She is honest to the point of repulsion, but it is that honestly which grips our imaginations and allows us to see each photo clearly. Finally, Teresa Jordan employs a powerful use of the English language to provide a unique set of images that allows the reader to see in vivid detail. She uses concrete images to accent each detail in her snapshot. In the description of her father she says, "This is my father: a kindly man with lily-white arms, driving a station wagon, offering Coca-Colas and apologies. And this, too, is my father: a horseman, racing in all his fineness and his fury across and endless plain." (Jordan, 39). Jordan does not simply leave her father's arms white; she brings in an entire set of connotations when they become "lily-white." He drives a station wagon, and offers Coca-Colas. He is not in a car with soft drinks. Jordan excellently weaves in these sensory pictures to allow the reader a "real" glimpse at a "real" person. Teresa Jordan allows readers to see, feel, and know members of her family, and events on the ranch in Wyoming. She does an excellent job at creating sensory images that paint pictures and photographs, with use of structure, tone and language. The novel is expertly woven in a natural way that brings the reader into the picture itself.

I love this book! I have given copies to friends and I have bought the book several times for myself because when I loan it, I don't get it back! If you love ranch life and the way things used to be, you will love this book. It is gut wrenchingly accurate and holds all the gritty tales of true ranch life. Though a good honest lifestyle, it is NOT an easy life. Riding the White Horse Home brings to life the day to day joys and sadness of ranching....and a way of life that is vanishing on the prairie. It is a must read!