Born in a dirt dugout in West Texas in 1901, Lily Casey Smith, the heroine of this "true-life novel" lives a truly adventurous life. Growing up on a ranch in the southwest, Lily begins to help her father break half wild horses at the age of six. She becomes a schoolteacher at 15, spends time working menial jobs in Chicago (and marries her "crumb-bum" first husband) and after returning to Arizona races horses, sells bootleg liquor, runs a vast ranch with her second husband, and learns to fly a plane. Recalling the Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Half Broke Horses is a fast moving tale about a strong, indomitable woman.
(Read more about the real-life Lily Casey Smith here)
