The Truth About Horses Actress & Author Christy Cashman
By Bennet Marcus
Literary Triumph
From the silver screen to literary triumph, actress, producer and owner of Ireland’s Kilkea Castle, Christy Cashman, has released her debut novel, The Truth About Horses. The project took nine years to come to fruition. Despite having appeared in more than twenty Hollywood movies, including Ted 2, American Hustle and The Golden Boys, and publishing two children’s books, Cashman felt trepidation on becoming a novelist. “I don’t think I had the confidence earlier; my life was going in a lot of different directions, I was producing films, and my kids were younger.” With the story long gestating in her mind and her children now young adults, she finally decided to eschew other projects and concentrate on writing.
She need not have worried; reviews have been terrific. No less than Joyce Carol Oates, the National Book Award-winning novelist, described it as “irresistibly readable… a book that plunges us into a beautifully evoked rural world in which horses are both magnificent beasts requiring human love and devotion, and iconic creatures out of mythology.”
Magical Realism
While Cashman has a lifelong love of horses, like Reese, the book’s young protagonist, the story does not reflect her real, fairytale-like life at all. The Truth About Horses tells the story of a young woman whose fierce spirit and determination guide her in facing adversity and life’s unexpected challenges, framed by the extraordinary bond between humans and their equine companions. Reese’s mystical encounters with a herd of wild horses led by a mysterious black stallion led to the book’s setting in South Dakota.
“I wanted it to be in a place where you actually might see wild horses,” Cashman said. “Somewhere in middle America felt right for the story, also because of the wild horses and what the land and the environment look like there.”
Started out to write a Screenplay
Cashman took some writing classes to hone her skills, but originally planned to write a treatment that could be developed into a screenplay. In the process, she found the main character’s voice, which came across much more in long form as a novel. “Once I started writing, this voice luckily came to me and was very clear. Her voice was probably the easiest part of the process because once I had her voice, I was able to tell the story, I think, in a convincing way.”
The book’s magical realism also came naturally. “Once I had my vision of the wild horses, I knew that I wanted it to be… almost like a leitmotif in a song, a recurring theme,” Cashman told us from her home in Boston in early December, during a short break in her 60-stop book tour. She was headed to Miami the next day for an appearance at Books & Books during Art Basel, and later that month would be back in her hometown at a bookstore in Chatham, MA, and to read The Night Before Christmas at the Boston Pops.
Book launch at Dublin Horse Show
In August, Cashman’s novel made its grand debut at the prestigious Dublin Horse Show, near her family’s castle, hosting footballers, actors, fellow authors and the horsey crowd at a luncheon in a private suite with views overlooking the Main Arena.
The work required to promote her book has been eye-opening, but also a fun experience. “Writing is kind of isolating, but this part is very social, so it is really having to claim both identities,” she said.
She and actress Jane Seymour are working together on developing the story as a TV series.
Cashman has found that she loves the process of writing and character development and is now working on her next book. “It’s set in the ‘80s in a small town in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and there’s not a horse in the book.”
A real-life fairytale
So how did Cashman come to own an Irish castle? She was living in New York and her horseback riding group went annually to Ireland. “I tagged along one year, and then they couldn’t get rid of me,” she joked. After meeting her now-husband, Jay, he asked her to visit him in Boston, and Cashman told him she was heading to Ireland to ride the following week.
He replied that since he’s half Irish, he’d join her, and invited himself along. “I said, ‘I’m going to be riding every single day, and gone all day long. What are you going to do’? And he said, ‘I’m going to look for a castle.’” Thereafter, they went every year, even after they’d married and had children, and she rode, and he looked at property. “And then 20 some years later, he truly bought a castle.” Kilkea, which dates to 1180, had been abandoned for a number of years. They bought it in 2012, began renovations in 2016, and opened it as a resort hotel in 2018. “It was fast and furious, and then it’s just been a constant renovation project. Now we’re renovating yet again.” She chuckled.
