Journeys: Finding Joy on Horseback

A Memoir

Joy S. MillerUpton with her current Quarter Horse, Libby. Photo by Don Wallbaum
With two horses, a dog and a used Gibson guitar a young woman set out in 1973 for a month-long adventure, following trails and back roads deep in Appalachia in southeastern Ohio. A few weeks before, Joy MillerUpton had been a journalism student at Ohio University, but now with a BS degree in hand, she was taking time off before beginning her writing and photography career. At first riding with her 12-year-old son for a week, then by herself, Joy had time to contemplate the first 31 years of her life. That journey was the first in a series of horseback adventures Joy and her horses took over the next three decades. You will read about living on the road traveling with horses—sleeping under the stars and sometimes thunderclouds, riding through Bigfoot country, tracing parts of John Hunt Morgan’s ride through Ohio, and riding portions of Underground Railroad routes. This is a story about a woman raised when becoming a homemaker was the end-game. But Joy pointed her horse in a different direction, and, by her 26th birthday started college and began a journey full of rich experiences. Release Date: October 17, 2021. Published by Monday Creek Publishing, Buchtel, OH. Available in Trade Paperback from Amazon and Barnes & Noble ISBN-13: 978-0-578-68573-1Length: 289 pages Language: EnglishDimensions: 6 X 9 inches BISAC: Memoir, Non-Fiction, Horses $14.98 plus tax and shipping
Born 11 days after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Joy S. MillerUpton has always felt the tug of history. Journalists, in Joy’s eyes, are historians. After graduating with a BS in Journalism from Ohio University, she began working as a journalist. Over a period of more than four decades Joy’s career has included freelance writing and photography, newspaper journalism, and marketing. She has always valued accuracy and balance in all her forms of story-telling; trying to get it right, for history. Joy has had hundreds of articles and photos published, including for The Saturday Evening Post, Horse & Rider, The Columbus Dispatch, Associated Press, United Press International, The Advocate (Newark, Ohio) and The Athens Messenger, as well as in many marketing venues. Joy and her husband, Don, share a love for all creatures. Currently, the hoof and paw count on their hilly Appalachian farm is historically low—12 hooves and 20 paws. All special. All loved.
To contact Joy, please email her at joy.millerupton37@gmail.com

Give as a gift and we will include a handmade card

Purchase "Journeys: Finding Joy on Horseback" as a gift and we will send a personalized, signed copy of the book and include a handmade card with your message. Email joy.millerupton37@gmail.com to order your gift book. $14.98 plus tax and shipping.

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Horses and Joy logo illustration at top by Hannah Sickles