Storytelling
Ministry: An interview with Author Catherine Ulrich Brakefield
by Gina
McKnight
No Duplication Without Permission
Few
authors write with the kind of heartfelt clarity and spiritual steadiness that
define Catherine Brakefield. A lifelong horsewoman and celebrated storyteller,
Brakefield’s work carries the unmistakable imprint of someone who has spent
years listening closely — to history, to the land, to her horses, and to God.
Her novels blend faith-driven storytelling with equine insight, creating worlds
where courage, compassion, and grace rise from the everyday rhythms of life.
In
this conversation, Brakefield reflects on the spiritual nature of horses, the
quiet lessons learned in the barn aisle, and the way her Christian faith guides
both her writing and her relationships with the animals she loves. Whether
she’s describing a moment of divine clarity or the spark behind a new equine
character, her voice remains steady, warm, and deeply rooted in purpose.
This
interview invites readers into the heart of her creative world — a place where
storytelling becomes ministry, horses become teachers, and faith becomes the
thread that ties it all together.
Welcome,
Catherine!
GM:
What is one formative moment with a horse that shaped not only your
horsemanship, but also your spiritual outlook?
CUB: My
parents built a home on land located in a rural setting, where the schools were
unable to keep up with the new homes. I was bused to the junior high school on
the other side of town. I didn’t know anyone.
My loneliness led me to seek camaraderie with the family horse,
Black Magic, a black three-gated Saddlebred mare we nicknamed Madge. Not
telling my parents what I was up to, I decided to ride her bareback (because
the saddle was in the house).
It seemed that the only gaits she knew were cantering and
galloping. Spirited to say the least. She wasn’t an easy horse to ride. I had
to use a Twin Pines wooden milk crate to jump up on her back. She stood just long
enough for me to get on halfway. I prayed to God that I wouldn’t fall off or drop
my reins, and she’d take off on me! I prayed to Jesus, because Mom said he was my
Savior, and my best friend. He’d always protect me. It wasn’t until my
third ride, my prayers turned into praise, thanking God and Jesus for not
letting me down. And especially for this opportunity to see my life from a new
perspective.
My life was full of twists and turns, just like the paths
Madge and I liked to canter through. It had bushes and tree limbs that
scratched my legs if I happened to get too close, kind of like the bullies and
jeers of some classmates, but it was maneuverable—what a triumph!
Maneuvering through the web of brambles and trees, coming
to a clearing, I’d catch a glimpse of blue skies and puffy white clouds; I
paused in gratitude. It was so pleasurable to grab an apple off a tree limb without
having to climb its branches. The small pleasures of life had taught me that God
was everywhere. My classmates had noticed that my grumbling countenance had converted
to smiles and new friendships were formed.
Life wasn’t easy—but it can be rewarding. Placing my faith
in God, knowing my best Friend was just a prayer away, and smiling through my
troubles, can conquer the worst relationships—even a spirited horse and ornery people
are manageable.
When writing Wilted Dandelions, my experiences
helped form my character Rachel, who struck out on her own, not knowing anyone,
not even her husband, to travel through the uncharted wilderness as a
missionary in the 1830s.
GM:
How have horses helped you understand patience, humility, or grace in ways that
later found their way into your writing?
CUB: In
high school, I took an elective in equestrian riding. Students were able to go
to a local riding stable and learn English riding. My skill in riding Madge
helped me there. In Waltz with Destiny, I included a dude ranch, that shows
the horses I rode there. Madge had passed away by now, and after I graduated, I
wanted my own horse. By now, my siblings were taking riding lessons. My parents
decided to try breeding horses. Dad bought a farm, then an Arabian stallion and
purchased grade mares from the Fenton Auction. We could sell them with
half-Arabian papers. I was up before dawn, feeding and taking horses to
pasture, then getting dressed for work. Afterward, I went to night school.
Foals came, grew up, and my experiences grew just as quickly.
Patience was never my strong point. I often display this flaw
in my character through my characters. Their sweat was my sweat. Their concerns.
Mine. I learned from years of breeding horses, to pray for an easy birth and a
healthy foal. That always brought positive results, as I show in Swept into
Destiny on Spirit Wind Farms, a plantation during the antebellum era,
Maggie is caught in the throngs of the Civil War, her uncomplaining horse who carries
her needs.
Haying is hard work and humbling. I don’t know of any
farmer who is an atheist, and I know why; you pray when you cut it, when you
roll it, and when you bale it that the rain or dust doesn’t get to it before
you can place it safely in your barn. In Destiny Whirlwind I displayed
this feature graphically amid the Kentucky hill country, as my character tries
to remain a genteel lady while bringing in the crops with her highly bred
horses.
In Destiny of Heart, I show what it takes to be a good
steward of the horses and livestock God places in our care. On the prairies of
Colorado, my character fight dust storms and cares for a sick husband, while
giving the grace of Jesus to a stricken woman who has lost her little girl. God
has a hand in how you handle everything: a foal’s birth, a new baby’s cry, a
farmer’s crop, and a child’s death.
GM: Tell
us about your current horses...
CUB: My
current horse is named Roc N Rose, which I nicknamed Rosy. She is a flea-bitten
grey Arabian with a personality that matches her charm. She always knows when
feeding time is. By the time my husband or I get to the sidewalk, she’s ready
to outrace the other three horses of our family. One whistle (that’s how we
call them from the pasture to the stable) and she takes off at a gallop with
the other horses trailing in her wake!
She was trained as a saddle seat horse. I trained her to ride
hunt seat. She never seemed to care about arena work, but when I took her out
in the fields and introduced her to cross-country riding, she loved it. Never
shied, she soon let me know that she much preferred this over boring arena
work.
GM: Rosy
sounds adorable. Through the years, has there been one horse that stands out?
CUB: That
would be Nibsmar KashaBadi. My dad had purchased an Egyptian Arabian mare we
nicknamed Kashana; she was a Shaikh Al Badi daughter. Shaikh Al Badi was the
son of the legendary Morafic (syndicated).
Kasha started off as a problem child. If she wanted to
escape her stall, we hammered up one day because we needed an extra stall, she
would simply jump out of it! She didn’t care for strangers. She would jump a
fence to get away from them.
She had her own ideas about who would ride her. I was soon
to learn she picked me. I rode her after she was green broke and finished her
off. Then I took her to the shows; she reluctantly put up with me. However,
riding in Metamora Hunt Club, where we chased foxes and jumped coops, fences, and
fallen trees—there she was in her element. She loved it all. Even Opening Day,
when the official hunt season began. My daughter and I would dress up in our
shade bellies, my son, and my husband, Ed, wearing their red hunt coats. A
priest comes to bless the hounds and riders for a safe hunting season. Kasha
was the horse my character, Ruth, rode in Love’s Final Sunrise. Amish
suspense set in a futuristic end-of-times setting when Jesus returns on a
snow-white stallion!
GM: Where
in the world is your favorite arena or place to ride? How much of your own
riding venues and anecdotes do you include in your books?
CUB: I’ve
ridden in Ireland, Kentucky, Canada, and the Little Manistee for a distant
riding, endurance event. But my favorite place to ride was on our and my parents’
farm. At one time my parents owned a hundred acres amid the hills of Addison
Twp, Michigan. My husband, two children and I loved to ride that land in the
morning, at noon, or in the evening. I
have put much of my love for riding horses in my novels, as you can see above.
It has become a part of me and who I am.
GM:
When you write, how do you balance subtle spiritual themes with the natural
storytelling that arises from horses and the people around them?
CUB: I
consider them to be one. I wrote a short story once about that. We had a thoroughbred
who would not nurse her foal due to a bad habit she had acquired of kicking at
anything or anyone who touched her inner hind legs. She loved her foal, but she
was giving him a slow, terrible death of starvation because of this habit. I
explained in my story; that I had played “God” in that instance, prohibiting
her from kicking, so we could milk out the needed colostrum (the first milk a
mare produces after foaling and needed for the foal’s health and survival).
Then harsher treatment was needed before she allowed her foal to nurse. That is
what God does to us—when we refuse to obey and are heading for a disaster. We are our animals’ master—as God is our
master. We know what is best for their well-being as God knows what is best for
our well-being, and following His Ten Commandments leads to a happy
relationship with Him.
GM:
Your equine characters often feel vivid and emotionally present. How do you
bring a horse’s personality to life on the page?
CUB: Through
the horse’s honest actions. Horses can’t lie. A soft neigh, attentive eyes, and
ears pricked forward when you walk forward. The nudge of a head against your
shoulder, and most especially their soft muzzle stretching forward for their
special treat. Horses always tell the truth—they display their feelings about a
harsh person by turning their hindquarters if they feel threatened, throwing
their ears back, and baring their teeth. You know he or she is unwelcome, and
that person has treated them ill.
GM: Is
there a particular experience with a horse that felt like a direct nudge from
God — something that changed your path or deepened your faith?
CUB: Yes!
Which I also wrote about in a short story. My young mare was not acting right. She
was highly competitive, so when the other horses galloped by her and she
continued in a slow trot, I knew something was wrong.
Some heat from her front hooves worried me; I was afraid it
could lead to founder. Founder is another word for laminitis. Laminitis is
something that always sends chills to a horseman’s heart. Laminitis is
inflammation of the laminae of the foot. It is like crippling arthritis in a
person. In severe cases, horses are restricted to limited amounts of grass and
are susceptible to future episodes.
My vet was unavailable that week, so I called others. Most
of the vets thought she had foundered. But I wasn’t convinced. I went to my
knees in prayer. I began claiming Mark 11:22-24: “Have faith in God…whatever
things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have
them.” Then I claimed God’s word over Grace in Psalm 107:20: “He sent His word
and healed them” Lord, please heal Grace.
From my prayers came the thought that God said, ‘not
founder. An X-ray will prove this’. I sent the X-rays to my vet. He called and said,
“X-rays do not show founder; that was a good idea to get that X-ray! Have your
blacksmith trim her short.”
I replied, “That’s a God thing!” My vet laughed. Sure
enough, it proved to be an abscess that eventually came to the surface which my
vet treated with an antibiotic, and she was soon galloping around the fields
again.
GM:
What do you hope readers understand about Christian faith through the way your
characters interact with horses, hardship, and hope?
CUB: With
God as your absolute vet and navigator of your life, the impossible becomes
possible! Faith is an action verb; when used correctly, it takes you through
the darkest roads of your life and though you can’t see your hand before
you—you won’t stumble, fear, or doubt the outcome.
My experiences with horses
helped me to see the reality of this throughout life: “Faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV). That
is the best way that I can say it. Without faith, there is no hope. The past is
behind us, the present is ours to use, and the future—that is our hope to
improve upon what God has gifted us with.
GM:
What does horsemanship mean to you?
CUB: Horsemanship
means being a good steward with the property, wealth, and animals God has given
me to care for. Horse, just an animal until it understands what is
required of it; Man, the means for that horse to learn what it is
capable of; Ship, through the Lordship of God’s grace and love—horse and
man can reach their full potential.
Connect
with Catherine…
More About
Catherine…
Catherine is
the award-winning author of Wilted Dandelions, Swept into Destiny, Destiny’s
Whirlwind, Destiny of Heart, Waltz with Destiny, and Love's Final
Sunrise. She has written two pictorial history books, The Lapeer Area
and Eastern Lapeer, and short stories for Guideposts Books, CrossRiver
Media Group, Revell Books, and Bethany House Publishers. Catherine and her
husband of fifty-three years live on a ranch in Michigan and have two adult
children, five grandchildren, four Arabian horses, two dogs, two cats, one
bunny, and six chickens. See CatherineUlrichBrakefield.com for more
information.
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