DREAMS HAVE A WAY OF CHANGING. That’s what Cowgirl is always reminding her fourteen-year-old daughter, Lizzy. They certainly changed eight years earlier when Cowgirl’s husband and Lizzy’s father was incapacitated in a bull riding wreck.

But for Cowgirl, one dream has remained constant. That she and Lizzy would one day complete the Tevis Cup, the world-famous, hundred-mile, one day endurance horse race over the Sierra Nevada mountains. Lizzy shares the dream but it is Cowgirl’s life mission on race day.

COWGIRL is the story of their attempt. The challenges they face from both the natural world and the human condition drive the evocative plot. Taking place over twenty-four hours, the saga chronicles a number of heroic journeys, not all of which involve a horse race.

Judith Ayres Burke is a horsewoman, conservation biologist and university lecturer. She is a former U.S. Senate confirmed Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for International Affairs having previously served as Regional Administrator for the EPA Southwest Region. A Harvard University Kennedy School of Government graduate, Judith has served on both corporate and nonprofit boards including as a Virginia Nature Conservancy Trustee. She is also a fly fisher, birder and occasional harmonica player. Judith and her husband live in Middleburg, Virginia and enjoy sharing their horse farm with family and friends. COWGIRL is her first novel.