Peanut, a ranch horse that’s afraid of cows, could soon give wheat a run for its money as Eastern Washington’s most favored export — at least for children.
SaDonna Heathman and her husband, Lee, own Heathman Farms north of Hartline, Wash. They currently grow wheat and canola, but spent many years also raising cattle. In 2013, they bought a cutting horse named Peanut for their then 10-year-old son. Even though Peanut had been trained, he hadn’t gotten much real-world experience, and it turned out he was afraid of cows.
“It wasn’t just cows. It was everything — his reflection, shadows, flags, anything that moved or he hadn’t seen before,” Heathman said. “When you live on a farm, it’s easy to attribute human qualities to animals because they have so much personality. Everybody’s felt anxiety at one point in their life. Everybody’s been fearful of something. It was interesting to watch Peanut work through those fears and eventually get to the point where he and my son could move cows and take part in a cattle drive together.”
That experience became the inspiration for the children’s book, “Cowboy Up, Peanut,” written by Heathman and illustrated by Eastern Washington artist, Don Nutt. The book was published in September and is available wherever books are sold online, including Amazon and Heathman’s own publishing website, gallopbooks.com.
“I think children have big imaginations that can often make something seem bigger and scarier than it really is,” Heathman said. “While Peanut’s story is funny, underneath the humor is this idea that courage doesn’t mean never being afraid. Sometimes courage is simply facing the things you’re afraid of and taking that next step anyway.”
“Cowboy Up, Peanut” is Heathman’s second children’s book. The story took shape over the course of nearly 10 years, as Heathman returned to it between other projects and raising the couple’s three children: Ava, Garrett, and Zane. When it came time to illustrate the book, there was only one person Heathman really considered. Nutt is well known for his western-style paintings that are often based in the Eastern Washington landscape. He owns Cariboo Trail Studio in Coulee City, Wash.
“Don and I have known each other for years. I knew he had illustrated children’s books before, but I also knew that he was not necessarily looking to do another one. He was busy with his own business and other commitments,” Heathman said. “But he had grandkids now, and I thought they might enjoy this story and get a kick out of seeing their grandpa’s illustrations in the book.”
Nutt agreed to do the watercolor illustrations for the book. The process took some time, not only because it had to happen around Nutt’s commission work, but also because Nutt had to come up with a style that accurately reflected both the realistic parts of the story and the parts of the story that happen in Peanut’s head.
“I’ve painted horses since I was a kid, but I’ve never painted some of the crazy things that Peanut does in the story,” Nutt said. “I love caricatures. I love cartoons, but I’ve never really done them. The real difficult part was when Peanut faints in the story. I didn’t want kids to think he’s dead. Or, when he’s imagining getting squished by a cow; you can’t really do that. You have to make it whimsical, and it’s out of my nature to be whimsical.”
Heathman said she gave Nutt free rein to create the illustrations. They would spread the illustrations on tables in Nutt’s studio and talk about how the story flowed, page turns, and the feelings they wanted to evoke in readers.
“It was a great experience. We live in a very rural area, so having someone just 15 minutes away to share that kind of creativity with was something I really enjoyed as a writer,” she said.
Nutt said his grandchildren have given positive reviews of the book, especially because Peanut is a real horse and the book includes pictures of him in the backmatter pages.
To help celebrate the release of “Cowboy Up, Peanut,” Heathman and Nutt will be signing copies of the book, which will be for sale, during Nutt’s annual fall sale at Cariboo Trail Studio in Coulee City on Oct. 9, from 5–9 p.m., and Oct. 10, from 10 a.m.–5 p.m.
Peanut still lives at Heathman Farms. Heathman said he and the other horses mostly spend their days roaming the pastures now, but whenever the Heathman kids are home, they’ll saddle up the horses, including Peanut, and go for a ride.
“He’s still very much part of the family, he just has a much easier job these days,” she said.
