BOOK REVIEW
The heart of a horse Well-known author and journalist Candida Baker speaks to AMANDA MAC about life’s lessons, communicating with animals, and her latest book.
lives with her second husband and her equine companions: her beloved Jewel; Taz; Sapphy; Tyra, Eva, and a little Brumby, Sparrow, the only boy in this otherwise all girl line-up. In the book’s prologue, Candida recalls the first time a horse ‘spoke’ to her. It was the first of many such conversations, and the beginning of a spiritual awakening. Acknowledging the way in which horses and other animals have taught her so many important life lessons, she says it was this idea of ‘open’ communication that prompted the experiences that
W
found their way onto the pages of The
thout the company of
Heart of a Horse, a book which was
horses and other creatures,
conceived and written during her three-
great and small, our lives
year stint as editor of HorseVibes.
would be infinitely poorer – a subtle
Over the years, numerous horses have
message that weaves its way through
woven their way through Candida’s life,
the pages of Candida Baker’s intriguing
along with various cats, dogs and other
new book, The Heart of a Horse.
assorted animal visitors, all of whom in
Candida’s love of horses has been life-
one way or another played their part
long. As a young child, she had a dream.
in stirring a curiosity: “I felt that they
“I told my parents that when I grew up I
chose me as much as I chose them,
wanted to be a writer, live in the country
and I began to wonder about what
and have horses,” she tells me. And
seemed to be synchronicities, the odd
that’s exactly what she’s achieved.
coincidences, and the telepathic nature
After a childhood and adolescence
of my conversations with animals,” she
spent in the English countryside,
explains. “I’d been writing fictional short
where horses were always a feature,
stories that had an animal at their centre,
six months with a Royal Shakespeare
and I’d used some of the psychic events
Company theatre tour led a by then
that I’d experienced. I thought if I was
20-year-old Candida to Australia, where she rode horses whenever she could, and experienced a strong knowing that this was to be her future home. She emigrated in 1977 and what followed was life at full throttle: marriage, children, a busy city career editing and writing for a wide variety of newspapers and magazines, culminating with six years as editor of The Weekend Australian Magazine. But circumstances changed and it was time to reassess – a process that eventually led Candida to the Byron Bay hinterland, where she now 66 | H O R S E V I B E S J A N / F E B 2 0 2 1
It’s hard to sum it up, but I’ve seen over and over again that when I’ve given a horse the chance to show me its response to my energy ... some sort of magic happens.
going to write about these things, why not tell them as they really happened rather than disguising them as fiction.” Initially Candida felt resistance to the idea – she thought people wouldn’t believe some of the more ‘far out’ events. But as she continued to write, she discovered a voice that suited what she wished to share. “In a way this book was a little like coming out of the psychic closet. And then when I’d put together enough of the stories I wondered whether my publisher would be interested, and obviously they were,” says Candida.
