Set 6,000 years ago on the Eurasian steppe, A Clan Chief’s Daughter continues the story of Naya, the first person to ride a horse.
In Book One of the She Who Rides Horses trilogy, Naya and a magnificent chestnut red filly, brought together through a mystical encounter, begin a relationship destined to change the future of humans and horses alike. In Book Two, Naya must contend with the consequences of the forces she and the filly have unwittingly set in motion.
The daughter of a clan chief, Naya returns to her people after a winter spent in the company of the wild horses, only to discover that enemies of her father seek to exploit the horses she has tamed in order to undermine her father’s leadership. Plagued by nightmares of what could happen to the filly and her band at the hands of men seeking power and control, Naya must decide whether protecting the horses and remaining loyal to her father require renouncing her sacred gifts and sacrificing her heart’s desire.
Based on extensive interdisciplinary research, She Who Rides Horses imagines an encounter between a girl and a horse that is both timeless and grounded in fact. A story filled with adventure, peril, love and betrayal, the saga of Naya and the red filly portrays fundamental shifts that occurred when people went from living as herders and hunter/gatherers to becoming mounted nomads, capable of spreading their language, lifestyle and beliefs across a huge swath of Eurasia and beyond. The domestication of the horse altered the course of history, contributing to the rise of patriarchy and accelerating the diffusion of new assumptions about the relationship between humans and the natural world that we are still contending with today. This is how it may have all begun…