Author photo courtesy of Marilyn Dalrymple

NEW FROM THE LYONS PRESS

ANOTHER RAVE REVIEW FOR BACKYARD HORSEKEEPING

            “Horses are complicated creatures, but if they had an owner’s manual . . . this would be it.  It’s a great book.” ~ American Quarter Horse Journal

• Vetted by a cowboy

• Awarded five blue ribbons by an "English" horse publication

            A new, revised edition of BACKYARD HORSEKEEPING:  THE ONLY GUIDE YOU'LL EVER NEED, by Joan Fry.  Here’s what readers had to say about this one-stop shopping guide to all things related to stabling your horse in your backyard: 

            “Backyard Horsekeeping, in my opinion, goes far beyond the scope of the backyard horse, and should be informative to all readers.”  ~  Writer and clinician Robert M. Miller, D.V.M., co-author (with radio host Rick Lamb) of The Revolution in Horsemanship and What It Means to Mankind.

            “A terrific book for the backyard horse owner--indeed, any horse owner.  Author Joan Fry steps out on a limb by subtitling her book ‘The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need’; fortunately for us, the branch holds.  Fry’s effort is remarkable in its scope, writing, and usefulness. . . [but] while comprehensive, it is the author’s voice and commitment to detail that make this book stand apart.”  ~  Horseman’s Yankee Pedlar (five-star review).

             "Backyard Horsekeeping: The Only Guide You'll Ever Need is everything the title says it is.  Written in easy-to-read, easy-to-understand terms. . . . I would recommend it to any new horse owner, or anyone contemplating horse ownership."  ~ Karen Craighead, Instructor of Equestrian Science, William Woods University.

COULD HAVE, SHOULD HAVE, DID IT: ONE WRITER'S LIFE

Born in suburban New Jersey, Joan Fry wanted to be a cowboy when she grew up.  That didn't happen.  Instead, she flipped hamburgers for the White Castle, taught horseback riding at summer camp, sold subscriptions to Life magazine door-to-door, and spent a year in a Maya Indian village in Belize teaching the children their ABCs. 

   
Joan grew up with two passions: writing, and riding horses.  Her first book was Silver The Wild Horse.  The title was all in capital letters.  So was the rest of the book.  Joan was eight, and didn't know how to work the shift key on the typewriter.  (The illustrations were in crayon.) 

After graduating from the University of Michigan, Joan moved to New York and dabbled briefly in modeling before she took a job with Time magazine.  She returned to Michigan to marry novelist and short story writer Allan Seager.  His last book, The Glass House, a biography of poet Theodore Roethke, is available from the University of Michigan Press.  In 2004 the Press republished a collection of his short stories, A Frieze of Girls: Memoirs as Fiction, with a new introduction by Charles Baxter. 

After a long career as a freelance writer, Joan decided it was time to think about job security.  Armed with an MFA from the Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California, she began teaching again, this time at the community college level.  For the past six years she has taught writing at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, CA. 

 
In 1978 she married horse trainer John Fry.  A former Las Vegas craps dealer, John was also an avid sport fisherman.  He designed and patented a "fishing machine" that allowed anglers to experience fighting a 500-pound marlin.  After leaving the horses, John started his own business, Inter-Valley Pool Supply.  Now semi-retired, John designs and builds custom furniture.  He and Joan moved to the California high desert in 1998. 

These days Joan spends her time writing, trail riding, and teaching.  She and John share their bank account with Prim, Joan's American Saddlebred trail horse, Kyle the Goat (Prim's stable buddy), Violet and Jasmine (the Sillycat Sisters), and lucky dog Chance, a reclamation project from the local animal shelter.