By Laurie Berglie
Portraits by Carolyn Rikje
Susan Friedland has worn many hats—history teacher, blogger, horse book author—but her favorite hat is probably her riding helmet. Since 2013 her passion has led her to sharing her equestrian knowledge with a global audience through her blog, Saddle Seeks Horse. It’s where her followers can find product reviews, riding tips and fun facts from someone who is just like the rest of us: an everyday equestrian. Susan’s most recent project allowed her to deep dive into the life and history of beloved children’s author, Marguerite Henry, thanks to shared geography with her literary heroine and some “small world” connections in real life and online through her blog.
Susan’s obsession with horses started around age 9 when her older sister’s friend rode a black and white pinto into her front yard. “This was quite an event since we didn’t live in a horsey neighborhood,” Susan said. “The horse was stabled a few blocks away, just outside of town, and she let us take turns cruising the mare around our yard. It was cool to be up so high and have this large creature listen to my ‘instructions’ as I steered her around the house and various trees.”
Fast forward a couple of years and Susan’s riding dreams came true when a family friend invited her to come to her farm and ride her field hunters. “I think all of her horses were old enough to vote, and what a gift to let a horseless, horse-obsessed girl take the reins and go riding!” Susan recalled. “Her property was across the street from Lamplight Equestrian Center in Wayne, Illinois, and adjacent to a forest preserve with miles of trails and acres upon acres of fields. It was heaven.” Those same fields and trails were navigated by Marguerite Henry and her famous storybook pony, Misty of Chincoteague, several decades earlier—a fact Susan learned at the time.
Susan’s riding education happened by just saddling up and riding with a gaggle of fellow tween girls who boarded their horses at her family friend’s farm. “We did some things I shake my head at now, like riding through a cemetery—possibly jumping over headstones—and riding in swimsuits bareback along a busy road to get to a swimming hole where we swam the horses,” she said. “We were very unsupervised, and this was before helmets were a thing, but we survived.” At 14, Susan got a job at their small-town grocery store to save money for a horse, and at 15 she bought a Quarter Horse gelding named Daytona, with whom she participated in 4-H. It was a childhood filled with horse adventures that Susan carried with her into adulthood.
FROM PRODUCT TRAINER TO TEACHER
When Susan entered Wheaton College, she majored and eventually obtained her degree in political science. While this particular major didn’t have anything to do with horses, Susan got creative to make sure her favorite animal was still part of her life. “I founded an intercollegiate equestrian team while there. My studies were important to me, but it was even more exciting to find fellow riders and rally them to go to IHSA horse shows in the Midwest,” she said.
After graduating from college, Susan worked for an electronic security company, training employees how to use in-store surveillance cameras. Her title was “trainer,” and she was good at helping people learn, but over time Susan realized she was not passionate about this line of work. There was a lot of travel involved as well, and it took her away from her new horse—by then she had a Thoroughbred show hunter named DC that she rode in the local Chicagoland hunter-jumper circuit.
Susan decided a change was in order. She wanted a career that she enjoyed, as well as one that gave her the flexibility to ride more. By that time, she and DC had moved to Southern California for a job transfer. “I pivoted by getting a master’s degree in education and began my teaching career in Arcadia, California,” Susan said. “Interestingly enough, I taught about three miles from Santa Anita Racetrack, which is where my current horse, Tiz A Knight, had the one-and-only win of his mediocre racing career. I am a history buff, and I love reading and writing, so I taught middle school history and English for 22 years. I thoroughly enjoyed my career.”
A BLOG IS BORN
Susan started her award-winning blog, Saddle Seeks Horse, in 2013 when she was in between horses. She had recently purchased a brand-new saddle for her then-23-year-old DC, but unfortunately, he passed away from colic before she had a chance to use it. “I had just moved to Orange County, California, and didn’t have any horse friends,” Susan said. “I had this pretty saddle hanging on the wall of my garage—it was my only link to my equestrian side, which I feel is the essence of who I am. At the time, I had been working on my first memoir, ‘Horses Adored and Men Endured: A Memoir of Falling and Getting Back Up.’ I learned from a writer’s conference that in order to get published, a writer had to have an online presence, so I reluctantly started a blog to ‘put myself out there.’”
As she started publishing her blog posts, she became part of an online community of fellow horse lovers just like her—everyday equestrians who might or might not compete, but who want to grow each day to be better riders and horse owners. Susan’s blog quickly gained traction. Her blog provided a platform that eventually led her to begin unearthing the backstory of Marguerite Henry, her childhood literary heroine. In 2015 she wrote a blog post that contained an image of one of her mother’s friends as a little girl atop the famous Chincoteague Pony mare Misty. The photo had been taken in the 1950s in Wayne. A former Wayne resident who had, as a little boy, attended the annual Misty birthday parties every July at Mole Meadow, Marguerite’s two-acre horse farm, read the blog post and sent her an email thanking her for reminding him of fond times of his childhood. That planted a seed of a story idea.
MARGUERITE, MISTY AND ME
“When I started foxhunting with Santa Fe Hounds in Temecula a few years ago, I began to wonder about Marguerite as a rider, since she lived down the street from a hunt club. I began seeking out answers to the questions I had about her,” Susan said.
Susan began her research by connecting with former Wayne residents who were friends of Marguerite as children; heading to 
libraries in Rancho Santa Fe, California, where Marguerite lived in her later years, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where Marguerite was born; reading personal letters and handwritten manuscripts at the University of Minnesota’s Kerlan Collection archives; and visiting several historical societies. Susan discovered Marguerite Henry’s untold life story was just as compelling as the plots of her beloved horse books.
“Marguerite was a total go-getter. She graduated from college in the early 1920s, which was not commonplace for women at the time,” Susan said. “She also got her first writing job by walking into the office of a Chicago publisher and basically saying she wanted a writing job and if her writing was not up to par, they didn’t have to pay her. Her first gig was covering the grand opening of a Chicago skyscraper. It worked out for her and she began writing for a number of publications, later storybooks, then in her 40s began writing books like ‘Justin Morgan Had a Horse,’ ‘Album of Horses,’ ‘King of the Wind’ and ‘Misty of Chincoteague.’”
One of the highlights of Susan’s two-years-plus of research and writing for “Marguerite, Misty and Me” was going to Chincoteague Island for Pony Penning. “I tried to have low expectations for the island and for the famous pony swim from Assateague to Chincoteague,” she said. “I didn’t want to be disappointed if watching the swim and attending the auction was not as exciting as Marguerite described it. My expectations were exceeded. The people were so friendly, the food on the island amazing, and the pony swim was a thrill to experience. I was in a kayak maybe 30 or 50 feet from the ponies as they swam. I could hear the purring of their breaths and see their eyes and ears just above the waterline. I will never forget it.”
FOUR BOOKS AND COUNTING
To date, Susan has written four non-fiction books, the first a memoir titled “Horses Adored and Men Endured,” a memoir she describes as her “compare and contrast of lame men with gentlemanly steeds.” “Dating was not easy for me, and I went on a number of outlandishly bad dates as a young woman that were awful at the time but are hilarious in hindsight,” Susan continued. “I wrote it as a way to make lemonade from life’s lemons and to celebrate the awesomeness of horses. There’s that saying, ‘Horses are God’s apology for men.’ I don’t believe it 100%, but it’s been true for me at different points of my life.”
Susan’s second book, “Strands of Hope: How to Grieve the Loss of a Horse,” was published in 2020, and is a book born from one of her most popular blog posts. “In 2015, ‘How to Grieve the Loss of a Horse in 10 Not-So-Easy Steps’ shared how I processed the sudden loss of my heart horse DC, the one whose saddle inspired the blog name,” she said. “All these years later I still have people read the post, comment and send me emails to share their stories with me.” Susan expanded on the blog post to create a full-length book to help people going through this difficult time. The nature of losing a horse is much different than a cat or dog. Susan knows that the book won’t heal anyone’s heart, but hopefully it will help others feel less alone and more understood.
Published in late 2020, “Unbridled Creativity: 101 Writing Exercises for the Horse Lover” is a writing 
prompt book that merges best practices of writing instruction with equestrian themes. It’s a fun creativity tool for anyone ages 10 to 100 who loves writing and horses. For example, prompt #19 is, “Describe an item from your riding wardrobe that you no longer wear or own, but you loved and you wish you could bring back.” For Susan, “It’s a beautiful green wool hunt coat from the 1990s.”
A CONVERSATION WITH FRIENDS
While she has a variety of literary achievements to be proud of—“Strands of Hope” won an Equus Film and Arts Festival “Winnie Award” in 2020 and her blog won “Best Unconventional Pet Blog” in 2016—she considers her ability to keep writing and connecting with readers to be her biggest accomplishment.
“My writing is a conversation with friends. I strive to be helpful, provide insights and entertain. Sometimes I think, Who am I to share what I know? I’m not a trainer or vet. I didn’t go to journalism school! I’m not even a super brave rider! Imposter syndrome is real,” Susan said. “But the truth is, there are legions of equestrians out there who resonate with my message because they want to be better horse people. We everyday equestrians are in this pursuit of excellence with equines together. And what I learned from my research into the life of Marguerite Henry is she wrote from a heart of love, she remained humble despite winning awards like the Newbery Medal and selling millions of books, and she wanted to tell true, uplifting stories. I will never possess her skills, but her writing and life is my inspiration. I think we all need more true uplifting stories now more than ever, and I hope to trot along in her footsteps.”
For more information, follow Susan at SaddleSeeksHorse.com and grab your copy of “Marguerite, Misty and Me” at SaddleSeeksHorse.shop
Photos by Carolyn Rikje Photography, unless noted otherwise
Photo by Josa Comstock Photography
