Half Broke Horses: Chapter 2  Summary & Analysis

The family travels for three days to reach the Casey Ranch, which Dad likes to call the “KC ranch,” where the countryside is so green that Lily can hardly believe her eyes. The ranch is farm-like, with tomato vines and peach orchards. The house is made of sturdy adobe and stone, and contains two bedrooms, plus a woodshed and barn stall for Lupe and Apache. To Lily, it feels like “grandeur.” The next day they spot a mirage on the horizon that looks like an upside-down town. They are all mesmerized, even as Dad explains the science behind it. He draws a diagram in the dirt and explains how cold air bends light. When Lily finally understands, he says, “Eureka!” Lily feels a rush, like she might “get a handle on this old world after all.”

Despite being only eleven, Lily oversees the hiring of farmhands for her father. Dad is distracted by training horses, and continues to write to politicians and newspapers “railing against” modernization. He is also working on a book on phonetic spelling and a biography of Billy the Kid—who had swapped a horse out at the Casey Ranch when Dad was a teen. Dad considers the Kid “a good American boy” who only shot people who deserved it. He also admires that he stood up for Mexicans. Dad’s biography will vindicate the Kid and prove to the world that despite his speech impediment, Dad is good with words.

That fall Lily turns twelve and Buster enrolls in a Jesuit school, despite being two years younger than Lily. When Lily turns thirteen, her parents finally let her attend a Catholic girls school in Santa Fe, 200 miles away. Lily is impressed with the beauty of Santa Fe and takes an immediate liking to the strict but fair Mother Albertina, the Mother Superior of her new school. Mother Albertina explains that the staircase to the choir loft in the school chapel has 33 steps, the same age as Jesus when he died. It was built by a mysterious carpenter, seemingly in answer to the nuns’ prayers.

Compared to the ranch, school feels like a vacation to Lily, and she excels academically. She begins to tutor other students and notes the differences between the soft-spoken girls from rich families and herself, who is so used to yelling and “hollering like a horse trainer.”

One day Mother Albertina calls Lily into her study and tells her that while many girls are at the school to become marriage material, Lily does not have to get married. Though women continue to have few professional opportunities, she encourages Lily to think about becoming a teacher. She says that Lily, like her, has a “strong personality.” Lily reflects that she loves learning and that she could be her “own boss” in the classroom. Unfortunately, Mother Albertina calls Lily back to her study later to tell her that Dad has failed to pay her tuition for the next semester, and she will need to leave school.

Mother Albertina sees a tearful Lily to the train station and assures her that when God closes a window he opens a door. Dad meets Lily in the town of Tinnie, along with four huge Great Danes in the back of the carriage. Dad spent the tuition money on the dogs, which he plans to breed. Lily is outraged, especially upon learning that Buster gets to stay in school because he is a boy. The ranch is in mild disrepair when they arrive, and Lily wonders if Dad stopped paying tuition so she would have to help out there again.

The Caseys have brought in tenant farmer Zachary Clemens, his wife, and daughter, Dorothy, to help out on the ranch. Lily admires Dorothy’s work ethic. One day Dorothy finds all four dogs shot dead by neighboring Old Man Pucket, who accuses them of chasing his cattle. A furious Dad grabs his shotgun, but Dorothy wrestles it from him and tells him that shooting Pucket would just start a feud—and a feud had killed her own brother years earlier. Lily reminds Dad that a feud killed his father as well.

Dad decides to file a legal claim against Old Man Pucket instead and appoints Lily to speak for him in court. Lily is well-prepared to make a presentation, but the judge cuts her off and quickly rules that Pucket needs to pay her father back in horses or cattle. Pucket later brings a string of horses to the Casey corral and hands them off to Lily, who sees no point in holding a grudge against a neighbor. Pucket tells Lily should would make a good lawyer.

Old Man Pucket’s horses are “half-broke,” meaning no one had properly trained them and they will be very difficult to ride due to their fear of humans. Lily takes to a mare who seems less skittish than the rest, saying that though she is not a beautiful horse, she is smart. Lily names her Patches after her white, brown, and black coloring. Lily accepts that her chance at education is behind her, so she needs to make the most of what she has. She begins to break Patches properly, and the horse proves a quick learner. They start racing in small races.

That summer Buster finishes eighth grade and does not feel the need to continue to high school, having already achieved a higher education than most out West. Lily notices that he and Dorothy like each other and observes that he would need someone hardworking like Dorothy beside him if he were ever to run the ranch on his own.

Lily receives a letter from Mother Albertina. With World War I starting there is a shortage of teachers, and Lily would just need to pass a test to get a job—despite being only fifteen. Mom thinks leaving the ranch would reduce Lily’s chance of finding a husband, and Dad wants her to stay and help, but they allow her to take the test. She passes easily and is assigned to a school in Red Lake, Arizona, five hundred miles west.

Lily rides Patches to Red Lake, packing light and planning to stop at towns along the way. She estimates the trip will take four weeks. She plans to hide her hair and keep her “voice low,” and Dad gives her a small gun for added protection. The morning of her departure, he also gives her “all sorts of advice,” mostly in the form of clichés, and says she has “horse blood in her veins” and will be back. Lily waves goodbye as she and Patches begin their journey.