Salt Draw

The main setting of "Half Broke Horses" by Jeannette Walls is located in western Texas. The Casey family lived on High Lonesome, a ranch in the heart of a difficult land. Lily describes the property: "When you looked out across the land, most everything you could see - the horizon, the river, the fence lines, the gullies, the scrub cedar - was spread out and flat, and the people, cattle, horses, lizards, and water all moved slowly, conserving themselves." (Part 1, p. 6).

The Caseys own 160 acres in west Texas; land used to raise carriage horses. The land was also known as the Salt Draw, resting alongside the Pecos River. The land was dry and hard. The region had its share of tornadoes and flash floods. The latter is recounted in Part 1 when Lily talks about the flash flood that nearly claimed the lives of the animals as...