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Tales of a Young Rider – Capture the Heart of the Mountains

Tales of a Young Rider

Tales of a Young Rider is a book based on the adventures of a young girl, Leah, who grew up at the YMCA of the Rockies, Snow Mountain Ranch. Leah kept her horses with Rudy and Clara Belle Just, who were original Colorado homesteaders.


Sitting by the wood burning stove in their log cabin ranch house, Rudy and Clara Belle taught Leah what it was like to be homesteaders; the values of life, caring for ranch animals, managing the land, cooking ranch food, and many other aspects of pioneer living.


More Than a Simple Trail Ride in the Rocky Mountains! 

The lessons and adventures of life came alive from the back of a horse. Chickens, rabbits, goats, and sheep became her friends, well bears, lightning, outlaws, and mountain lions wove their way into the story Leah tells.


Life was much more than a simple trail ride in the Rocky Mountains.


Here is a book that can be read to children by their parents or grandparents, much in the way Leah learned to listen to Rudy and Clara Belle. It includes recipes and activities, and is an adventure for everyone!

Here is a book that can be read to children by their parents or grandparents."

MY NAME IS...
Patrice Engle Spyrka

I moved to YMCA of the Rockies, Snow Mountain Ranch when I was four, and had my first horse when I was five. I loved everything about horses.  The way they looked, the way they felt, the way they snorted and the way they smelled.  I could not get enough of them. It was a good day, when my sister and I got to go ride. I hope you enjoy my adventures and plan some for yourself. 

What Others Say

"

Author Patrice Engle Spyrka was blessed to grow up in Colorado Rockies’ high country, where she became a “granddaughter” of Rudy and Clara Belle Just. This well-written book describes not only her experiences with the original homesteaders but gives the readers a picture window of what Homestead life was like.


This book will take you back in time when life was quite different - read and learn, and wish you had been the author.


Robert N. Ruesch

Author: In the Warmth of the Shadow, When We Were Pioneers


"

The Tales of a Young Rider by Patrice Engle Spyrka is an accurate and delightful story of Rudy and Clara Belle Just’s ranch high in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.


Ms. Spyrka uses her ability to create vivid imagery making the horseback trips alive in the reader’s imagination. Ms. Spyrka captures the heart and soul of living off the land, as she weaves the environmental synergy of the seasons and rebirth.


The history of Colorado comes alive with Rudy, Clara Belle and Leah leading the way.


Ann Heckman 

Educator

"

Delightful ... Tales of a Young Rider by Patrice Engle Spyrka 

is a wonderful story for young and old to experience what it 

was like to grow up with Rudy and Clara Belle Just, the early 

pioneers of the Colorado Rocky Mountains.


As a former Snow Mountain Ranch, YMCA of the Rockies staff 

member in the early seventies, every chapter brought back such great memories of the Just ranch and their way of life.  I remember the cabin and the wood burning stove and the amazing aromas 

that always greeted you when you went to visit them.


Patrice captures, through her characters Leah and Kacy, the loving relationship she and her sister Cindy experienced growing up with the original homesteaders Rudy and Clara Belle Just. 


Jerry Donner

Former YMCA of the Rockies Staff

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