Women of the Horse by Jane Corkish is a historical novel about generations of women whose lives are connected through horses, family, trauma, grief, and resilience. Set across decades in British Columbia, the story follows women who find strength, belonging, and healing within an equestrian community that becomes a refuge across generations. Inspired by real people and events, the novel explores abuse, loss, abandonment, courage, and the ways women can help one another break cycles of pain and build more hopeful futures.
AB, Canada - Oct 1st, 2026: At a time when society continues to ask how trauma is inherited, confronted and transformed, Jane Corkish’s Women of the Horse offers a historical novel centered on a related question. What happens when generations of women refuse to remain defined by the violence, grief and limitations imposed upon them?
Spanning decades in British Columbia, the novel follows women whose lives intersect through horses, family, trauma, and a community that gradually becomes a place of refuge. Its narrative moves between the postwar years, the 1960s and later decades, linking the lives of women whose experiences are separated by time but connected by recurring patterns of courage, loss and survival. At its center is an equestrian community in Chilliwack that becomes a sanctuary where young women learn not only to ride, but to recover a sense of agency and belonging.
The novel draws on real people and events, with names and circumstances altered to protect the privacy of those who influenced Jane. That personal foundation gives the story an unusual intimacy. The author’s own professional life has placed her in sustained contact with people shaped by trauma, grief and loss, first as an English teacher and later through work as an equine-assisted healer, grief counsellor and Traumatic Incident Reduction Facilitator.
Horses serve as more than a backdrop. Throughout the novel, they become a language through which trust, physical confidence, grief and connection are expressed. The barn evolves into a multigenerational refuge, where women pass practical knowledge, emotional resilience and a willingness to protect one another from one generation to the next.
The emotional architecture of Women of the Horse is similarly concerned with what survives. Characters confront abuse, abandonment, bereavement and shame, while the relationships they form create opportunities to interrupt those patterns. The novel ultimately presents resilience not as an individual achievement, but as something that can be taught, witnessed and carried forward.
Jane dedicates the book to women who have endured unbearable circumstances and found resilience beyond them, including her sister, Sandi Claire McKinnon.
WOMEN OF THE HORSE is now available in print and digital formats at leading online bookstores.
About the Author
Jane Corkish is an author and longtime practitioner whose work has centered on listening to and learning from people affected by trauma, grief and loss. Her professional background includes teaching, equine-assisted healing, grief counselling and Traumatic Incident Reduction. She currently serves her community as a volunteer firefighter and first responder.
