Undomesticated Women, Anecdotal Evidence from the Road by Anna Blake Book Tour, Guest Post, & More! {Ends 2/9/24}

Review By LAWonder10:

In this non-fiction book by Anna Blake, She shares her experiences when visiting various places where she offers instruction on her unique way of training horses. Although horse training is her expertise, she also trains other animals using her unique method.

In her book, Undomesticated Women, she shares with the reader types of challenges she experienced – some humorous, some quite tragic, and some frustrating, but on the whole, the trips were positive experiences. She also acquaints us with her traveling companion, Mister. She returns home, after months on the road with a new appreciation for many things.

The cover image was soft and pleasant but certainly not eye-catching. The title was a clever fit.

This was well-written and interesting but sometimes repetitive.

On a personal note, she states when she is with her crowd of friends, much foul language is used. I appreciate her refrain from using any foul language in her book.

I offer a Four Stars rating for this book.

This book was gifted to me with no pressure to post a positive review. This is my honest review.

 How is a Book Like a Road Trip?

I never thought I’d write a travel memoir until I did. I blame COVID-19 when I became a non-
essential worker. The pandemic began a week before I was due for work in Australia and New
Zealand. I am a traveling horse trainer who specializes in reading body language. Suddenly, I was training horses in Zoom meetings from my writing studio and grateful to be working at all.

Once the lockdown was over, all I wanted was to work outside again and to thank the people
and horses who had kept me going online. I wondered how much the pandemic had changed us.  Previously, I’d flown to different states for clinics, but this time, my dog, Mister, and I took to the road pulling our A-frame trailer, the Rollin’ Rancho. We were nomads traveling 14,000 miles across 30 states and seeing both oceans.

Staying home had given me an unexplainable nostalgic feeling about our country. I was sixty-eight, and it felt like an awkward age. I needed to make peace with that, too.

In Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut used a phrase I’ve remembered since high school. His
character Billy Pilgrim was “unstuck in time.” That’s what road trips feel like to me. You’re never sure what will happen. Landscapes unfold with indescribable beauty, and there are open roads to the horizon with room to remember. You meet strangers in RV parks who share intimate stories that connect in unexpected ways. The small towns tell us who we are, as clearly as a news report. Then you see a rusted-out car like the one your first boyfriend had or an old farmhouse like your grandmother’s and you can smell cookies.

Road trips can become time travel at a glance. It was a solo trip, but I was never alone. I write about a few exceptional women who I’ve met through my animal welfare work. They are like modern-day pioneers. Hard-working and no-nonsense, and humble to a fault. They are each the heroes of their life story. Travel memoir isn’t everyone’s favorite genre, but I value its truthful reality. I hoped to remind us of who we are, in the best sense. Bittersweet and beautiful, and as unique and independent as ever. I fell in love with us all over again.

Avid readers always have a book with them. On this trip, I listened to audiobooks constantly as I drove. It occurred to me that books are the ultimate road trip. They are a journey to the unknown universe, and we are always ready to go. Because we enjoy being unstuck.