Cotati Heart and Soul by Deborah Taylor-French - June 2017
“It’s almost a spiritual experience…dancing, riding a horse, writing— I disappear fully into being alive” Patrice Garrett
“At five I wanted to beRoy Rogers, but then I heard of Dale Evans. Patrice Garrett paused then added, “So I became a dancer and studied ballet in New York City with the Ballet Russe. Mother wanted me to learn modern dance so I took classes with Martha Graham and Jose Limón. Modern was not lyrical enough for me. With ballet I could dance between the notes.” As a young woman in California, Garrett married, had children and raised them. She continued dancing ballet in San Francisco and in Marin County. Garrett taught and performed until turning forty.
Up to then Garrett “rode string horses all over the USA.” Loving the Old West she also loved trail riding. After searching for a year and a half, she found her first horse, Sundance, through a Sonoma County horse trainer. “He’s my meditation,” said Garrett, speaking of her 22-year-old Dun gelding. Most afternoons, Garrett drives forty-five minutes to be with her horse. Garrett rides every other day, alternating with groundwork in a round pen or an arena.
Garrett and I met at Redwood Writers Club, which she joined five years ago. Years ago I had admired Garrett from afar. While my daughter took Western riding lessons from Amy Joe Tolson at Double Bar M Ranch, I watched Garrett too. I saw a patient intelligent and strong woman riding a Dun horse in Western Pleasure Horse style. I wondered if her gelding had been trained for trail riding. Note: No horse is born knowing how to convey a rider calmly by wild animals, face new trail problems or ignore tender green branches swishing by his nostrils. Observing Garrett as she sat, cowgirl style, in her saddle, made me wonder if I would return to my first love, horses. When my grandfather lived and worked as a cowboy, he rode all day, not an easy feat.
After living in New York City, San Francisco and Marin, Garrett chose Cotati after boarding her horse in Sonoma County. She loves living in Cotati because it’s rural yet not remote. Garrett enjoys having the university, cultural diversity, literate people and access to college events. Plus her Mac guy lives down the street. The owner at Mac Advantage fixes her computer and, sometimes, even makes house calls.
Garrett’s soon to be published first novel is a western, set in the1850s in Arizona and Northern California. After being a journalist for the San Francisco Examiner, while still working as a freelance business writer, Garrett began writing fiction in 2012. She has two novels in progress, not westerns. On her Web site Word Wrangling Woman Stories, the Novel,News and Reviews from Writer Patrice Garrett. Please visit and follow Word Wrangling Woman Facebook. Find her business writing bio and contact information under Communications Ink West on her Web site.
I promise to bring you more on Garrett’s book launch soon. Who would not want to stay in touch with the woman who said, “Since childhood I have wished I had a thousand lives to travel and live all over the world.”
Celebrate Fathers Day at the Cotati Jazz Fest, Sat, June 17th
The Cotati Jazz Fest is always a delight, always free plus the bands are staged outdoors. In La Plaza Park, taste local crafter beers, wine and food offerings from noon until 6 p.m. The 37th annual Cotati Jazz Festival is supported in part by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, Exchange Bank, KJZY, Lagunitas Brewing Company and Blairworks.
Check the calendar and Cotati Recreation for upcoming kids camps, adult classes, etc. Please visit my blog, leave me a comment or drop me a note about this column at dtfwriter@gmail.com because I love to hear from you.
