Author Biography
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Susan O'Brien taught in Middle School for 31 years. She taught English, creative writing, journalism, drama as well as other subjects in the humanities. She produced the school newspaper and plays that kept her students engaged and energized. Her love of the written word earned her an award from the Greater San Diego Reading Association as an Outstanding Teacher of Reading/Language Arts. She is a graduate of San Diego State University with a degree in English and drama. She continued on to earn a teaching credential at SDSU and then completed her master's degree in Educational Psychology at United States International University. But before all this, she developed a life-long love of horses. Because of this passion, she pursued excellence in her horsemanship in Parelli Natural Horsemanship. Attending a conference in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, at the Parelli Ranch she was introduced to an incredible athlete named Lauren Barwick. Lauren's life story and talent as a rider as well as her dream to go to the Summer Olympics in 2008 peaked Susan's interest. She contacted Lauren and followed her incredible journey through to the Olympics and back through her childhood, the accident that took her from able-bodied rider in eventing and show jumping to para-equestrian and later paralympian. She and Lauren have worked closely to create a biography that is not only true to fact but engaging and often surprising.
