Austin Chapter
Reader's Guide
April 2007
Riding the White Horse Home
Teresa Jordan
A heartfelt tribute to the Wyoming family ranch on which Jordan (Cowgirls, 1982) was raised, and to the hardy people who chose that difficult way of life. Part of the proud fourth generation to run cattle on the high, windswept prairie of Iron Mountain, Wyoming, Jordan was also a sad witness to the end of that tradition as the ranch passed out of her family's hands in 1978, lost in an irreversible trend that shrank the local population from 2,000 at the turn of the century to 30 today...
- What kind of role model did Teresa's mom, Jo, provide for her? Did this fit the "normal" ranch mother/wife model?
- What did Teresa seem to admire most in her? What do you?
- Teresa and her brother Blade ran away when she was six (p. 37). How did this episode highlite her parents' parenting styles?
- What does the domestic act of "kneading the bread" represent to Teresa? (p. 43,44)
- How is the role of community important in these peoples' lives?
- Did you think Teresa Jordan successfully conveyed the sense of harmony and grace she felt living in tune with the land and the seasons?
- Who were some of the other women in Teresa's life and what did they teach her?
- What is the rancher's relationship with grief and pain? (p. 124)
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