Tracey Elliot-Reep

Riding by Faith from Mexico to Canada ACROSS AMERICA

“You are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream.” CS Lewis

THIS is a truly stunning book about the adventurous journey of photographer Tracey Elliot-Reep who set off one day with her two horses Smoky, a grey cutting horse, and Pistol, a newly broken bay, for company and rode from New Mexico to Canada across the heart of America’s Wild West.

Six months later she completed her journey, despite many warnings that it was an impossible task, and now she has turned her personal diary into a gripping 310 pages –long tale filled with adventure, danger and inspiration which takes the reader through the territory of snakes, drug smugglers, wild animals and extreme weather and brings real cow boy and Indian country alive at the turn of every page.

Accompanied by exquisite photography which provides a tangible recollection of the journey, and interspersed with biblical quotes and inspirational sayings this is true unput-downable stuff as you marvel at not only the magnificence of the American wild west, its history and people, but of the bravery of this lone English woman who was living her Wild West dream first played out on Dartmoor 30 years before.

Tracey coaxes a laugh and an unexpectedly receptive insight out of the people she meets and she makes real the danger she and her horses faced and the sheer exhaustion they at times felt.

Things do go horribly wrong on Tracey’s adventure, during which she forsook the typical jeans and chaps attire of cowboys for her own very English jodhpurs, but despite the risks humour is where she finds her cues as well as her faith in God.

This book will educate and amuse anyone, from armchair traveller to horse lover to the rugged outdoorsy type and don’t be too surprised if after reading it you find yourself saddling up in search of your own adventures and fulfilling your own dreams.

Tracey said: “I hope this book will encourage people to live their dreams and that it will stir them up. Decades ago I dreamed about the Wild West while I played cowboys and Indians on Dartmoor and now I have lived that dream. Anyone can do it.”

The book is available on line at www.traceyelliotreep.com. It is also available for stockists  and is published in September.

ENDS

ISBN 798-0-9538231-7-8 *310pp h/b * Format 225mm x  265mm * £24.95

Tracey Elliot-Reep, Shilstone Rocks, Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ13 7TF

For more on Tracey Elliot-Reep visit www.traceyelliotreep.com

Tracey Elliot-Reep

Tracey Elliot-Reep grew up on a Dartmoor farm near Widecombe-in-the-Moor, where she has her base producing Dartmoor cards, calendars and books.

 After completing art college she worked with and sketched the animals in a travelling circus, then travelled through Europe and North America, teaching horse riding before qualifying as a photographer in south Wales. For several years she worked as a freelance photojournalist for magazines, during which time she interviewed Royalty at Buckingham Palace and rode 2,000 miles the length of New Zealand.

 Tracey started her card business sixteen years ago with six local Dartmoor postcards while living in a caravan with Sam, her Jack Russel dog, near Bonehill Rocks. Her faith and her love of horses, adventure and photography has taken her to many places including Africa, Tibet, Israel and Russia. She has ridden horses from the top of Scotland to Land’s End, across Ireland and Wales and has published three photographic books called riding by Faith through New Zealand, Riding by Faith through Southern Ireland and her most recent book is Riding by Faith Across America, which is now being made into a documentary programme.

 Tracey runs a photographic business of postcards, greeting cards, calendars and books based out of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Dartmoor with branches in New Zealand and North America.