This week, for some reason, we're talking about romance novels with horses in them! Do we know anything about horses? Of course not! Do we let that stop us? It never has before! We're talking about the ones where the horse dies, the ones where they do it on a horse, the ones where she's a horse whisperer, and the ones where she just really likes horses. Giddyup!

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The Books

• A Kingdom of Dreams by Judith McNaught
• A Very Private Love by Melinda Cross
• This Fierce Splendor by Iris Johansen
• The Secret by Julie Garwood
• Black Lyon by Jude Deveraux
• Montana Sky and Irish Thoroughbred by Nora Roberts
• The Siren of Sussex by Mimi Matthews
• The Trouble with Anna by Rachel Griffiths
• Cold-Hearted Rake by Lisa Kleypas
• Legends Lake by JoAnn Ross
• All Night Long with a Cowboy by Caitlin Crews
• The Wildest Ride by Marcella Bell 
• A Thorn in the Saddle by Rebekah Weatherspoon
• Sanctuary Island by Lily Everett

The Notes

• Who Did it Better… on a Horse? In an elevator? In the library? At Thanksgiving? And on a pool table? 
• “It’s a fun book, there’s no sex in it,” is something Sarah said about Pride and Prejudice, which is just funny. In honor of the 20th Anniversary of the MacFayden/Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice, they are releasing it again in theaters the weekend of April 20th. 
• Horses get stressed out on  movie sets, and that’s why there are so many regulations about how to care for them. There was an HBO show that got cancelled because so many horses died! Why horses have to be put down when they break a leg.
• Based on some research, it was clear that Jen’s friend Bridget said that Lou Diamond Phillips DID know how to ride a horse in Young Guns. But, here’s an interview of him talking about a horse accident on the set of Young Guns 2! LDP, still hot, by the way! 
• We did an episode on A Kingdom of Dreams if you want to listen. 
• In A Very Private Love, the horse is like Secretariat or some shit like that.
• The Budweiser Clydesdales are real horses, and I’m just gonna say, you come across some weird information about the world when you write show notes. Here's an article about them being at the bar near Sarah's house.
• Fetlock are this, not this.
• The entire first season of Unbound Pod with Adriana Herrera and Nikki Payne is about Western romance.

The Sponsors

• Avery Maxwell, author of Cross My Heart, available in print, ebook or audiobook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• 1001 Dark Nights, publishers of Crowns and Courtships: A Royal Romance Collection, with novellas by Claire Contreras, Jennifer L. Armentrout, Lexi Blake and Skye Warren, available in print or ebook, or with your monthly subscription to Kindle Unlimited.
• Piper Rayne, authors of Mr. Swoony, available in print, ebook, audio, from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple Books or wherever you get your books. Stay tuned after the podcast for a sneak peek of the audiobook!

The Rest

• For even more info about this episode, and to explore everything Fated Mates has to offer, visit: https://fatedmates.net/episodes/2025/3/24/0728-horses
• If you wish you had six more days in a week of people talking about romance, may we suggest joining our Patreon? Aside from an additional episode every month you get access to our Discord, where other romance readers are talking about books they love (and many other things!) all the time. It’s so fun! Learn more about the Patreon and go join those cool people who love romance as much as you do at patreon.com/fatedmates.
• Beyond your favorite podcast app, you can find us on Instagram, Threads, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and probably some other places, too, if you look hard enough.
• If you've never listened to our Stop Book Banning episode, there's no better time than now.