A horse-crazy girl growing up in the Midwest, Deborah Smith Parker longs to live a cowboy's life in the West. When she turns 13 her parents allow her to live her dream on a western ranch where she meets her first love -- a horse named Tank. After a bumpy start, their extraordinary relationship begins to emerge, complete with the poignancy, hilarity and drama that tested relationships undergo. Set against the backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, Parker's coming-of-age-memoir takes place in the 1950s during three magical summers at a horse ranch and chronicles the development of her friendship with Tank. Looking back on that time decades later, Parker comes to realize that Tank was a kind of spiritual guide who protected her from danger and guided her to a greater understanding of the connections of the seen with the unseen worlds that would come to play a greater part in her life. With humor and well-wrought description, Parker paints a vivid picture of life on the ranch -- the dirt, hard work, risky antics, and dangers on the trail while learning about the consciousness of horses and the language in which they express it.