Barbara Libby is an author, artist, and book designer who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio. A graduate of the Pratt Institute, Libby has worked for textbook publishers in New York, Boston, and Cincinnati, designing layouts and covers. Her first children's book, Old Cat, was published in 1993.

Q: How did the idea to do a children’s picture book on Secretariat come about?

A: The idea was my husband’s. He’s been very athletic his whole life, and he admires true athleticism in all forms. One afternoon, he waved his book at me and said, “I know what your next project should be. You should do a children’s book about my favorite athlete!” He was reading a collection of sports writing; the first piece was “Pure Heart,” by William Nack, which was written for Sports Illustrated as a eulogy after Secretariat died. It’s a beautiful tribute, and was enough to grab my interest as a great subject.

Q: Were you a fan of Thoroughbred horse racing and of Secretariat before beginning this book or if not, did you become a fan along the way?

A: Okay, a big admission…I knew Secretariat was a horse, and I knew he was supposed to be something special, but really did not know why. I wish I could say I was born on a horse, but that just isn’t true. My admiration for Secretariat and his team grew along the way. William Nack’s book Secretariat: The Making of a Champion was more or less my “bible,” along with Raymond Woolfe’s book, Secretariat, and I found as much press coverage from 1972 and ’73 as I could, as well as the Daily Racing Form, and so on. The first time I watched “The Life and Times of Secretariat” (I think it’s an ESPN video, an older one), I burst into tears. It is so rare to see something with such physical perfection.

Q: What came first for I Rode the Red Horse? The words or the images? In other words, how do you approach both writing and illustrating a children’s book? Did you use a similar method for your previous book, Old Cat?

A: The text has to come first, although because I’ve drawn all my life, I tend to think visually. I know I’m really into a project when I spend half the night laying out pages in my dreams! Along with finding the factual information, I like to acquire as much visual reference as I can…it just helps me think about it.

My intention was to write a full biography from birth to retirement, with lots of illustrations and I did…it was about 50 pages, with 4 pages of footnotes, and so on. I sent it to (Secretariat’s jockey) Ron Turcotte for his input, and he sent it back full of pencil corrections. But along the way, something happened…I had quotes of Ron’s running through my head, and I realized there was an entirely different book there, much shorter, much more intense, and focusing on the Belmont race which defined Secretariat’s place in history…I sat down one afternoon and began to type, and it almost came out all at once. This was after reading and thinking and writing for a year and a half, so it didn’t come out of a vacuum.

Once the text was finished, I did a type dummy, breaking the text into pages, and one sample drawing. After (editor) Jackie (Duke) gave me the go-ahead, I did some very very rough thumbnails of text blocks and art for approval, and then started on full-size sketches.

Old Cat, my first book (published in 1993), had a definite pattern to the text and illustrations. I actually had to stop writing to work out the pattern and design of it; then I could finish the writing. That was a very home-grown project since it was our cat, and all the illustrations reflect our home, yard, dogs, etc. With Old Cat, people wrote and said, “You really know your cats, this is just like my (old, black and white, one-eyed, etc.) cat.” We lived with this cat, so we did know him, all his postures and expressions.

And here I was taking on this Myth-in-Life of a horse! I visited the Kentucky Horse Park, and several horse farms, watched the grooming and breaking to saddle; watched horse movies (The Black Stallion is a favorite. It also plays on “the horse as mythological symbol”), watched the Secretariat video over and over, and collected as many photos as I could find. And then I jumped in!

Q: Tell us about your background as an artist/illustrator. When did you start drawing? What kind of training do you have?

A: I may not have been born on a horse, but I was close to being born with a pencil in my hand…there is no memory of not drawing. I have just always loved it, particularly figurative work (alas, I’m no landscape artist...but I’d like to work on that). After attending public school, I began a fine arts degree and then switched to Pratt Institute, in Brooklyn, N.Y. I actually graduated as a fashion major, however, one of my drawing teachers illustrated books. She was very encouraging to me. After graduation, I got a job in publishing as a paste-up artist (an old-fashioned term for someone who assembles type and illustrations into page form), which began an education in making books. As I worked my way up to designer, I also studied children’s books, bought children’s books, took writing and drawing classes, attended conferences and workshops, read Publisher’s Weekly and The Horn Book, submitted work -- in other words, really did my homework to learn about the industry.

Q: Your illustrations for I Rode the Red Horse seem to capture Secretariat’s essence so well. Do you prefer to work in pastels and what about the medium do you like?

A: Thank you so much. I LOVE pastels. To me, pencils and pastels are more like a natural extension of the hand. Maybe that is because I am simply most familiar with them, and not quite at the same point with paint. I love the texture of the paper, and the slight resistance of the chalk against it.

The art in this book is done on 140 lb. Arches watercolor paper. I traced the sketches onto the finished paper on a lightbox, then applied a detailed watercolor base. Over that, I used water-soluble pastel. They have a litte grit, but you can wash into them and dissolve them, and go over them again. Then here and there, I used some oil pastel to give the grit of the racetrack, and so on. It’s the texture you see floating on top of everything else. Secretariat’s color was so brilliant. Most of my drawing is fairly quiet and subdued, but here was that coppery orange! I just decided to not fight it and go bold. As the race got faster, the drawings got bolder.

Q: What do you hope readers, both young and old, will take from this book?

A: Secretariat came at a time when this country was disgusted with its politicians because of Watergate, and angry about Vietnam. We craved something we could feel good about. And there, blazing across every TV screen and magazine cover, was this brilliant red horse in blue and white colors. It was what America wanted to be. George Plimpton said there was such purity to his image on the track. He had no political agenda. He simply loved to run, and was better at it than anyone. His records still stand 30 years later. He should be remembered.

There’s another message which is less apparent from my text, but which is an important one for children. Achievement doesn’t come out of a vacuum, it comes step by small step. One has to keep at it, following one’s own sense of the correctness of one’s path. Michael Jordan wasn’t born doing slamdunks. Even the prince of horses, Secretariat, began as a chunky, slow colt until he found his stride. Ron Turcotte, (groom) Eddie Sweat, and (trainer) Lucien Laurin put in long years around the track before this horse came along. You learn the trade, whatever that is. You put in the practice. If you are lucky, one day, or one season, or one moment, you will have a sense of everything coming together for you. In the case of Secretariat and his team, that moment was magnificent.

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