In which I digress from horses

I wanted to mention some of my favorite truly kick-ass women protagonists in book series. Just in case you are looking for some non-horse, non-work, non-intellectual reading material.

Charlie Fox (Zoe Sharp) - ex-special forces officer now a bodyguard. This is a series of (so far) 8 or 9 books. Charlie is tough, complicated and in love with her tough and complicated boss. She is both a killer and a survivor. If you like Lee Child's Jack Reacher, you are likely to like Charlie.

Tara Chace (Greg Rucka) - Tara is a British government assassin - or as she is called a minder. There are three books in this series so far and it is hard to tell if there will be more.

Kate Daniels (Ilona Andrews) - is the daughter of a truly powerful and evil magic guy, who has her own magic and over the course of the books (5 so far) ends up mated to the Beast Lord, head of the Atlanta were-animal group in an alternate US where magic and technology rise and fall.

Eve Dallas (JD Robb) - is a police officer with the NYSPD (Safety and Police Department) in the 2050s and now 2060s following the US Urban Wars. She ends up with the richest guy ever, who has a criminal history. She survived abuse as a child and became an incredibly good homicide cop. Very interesting police procedurals with just a touch of difference for being in the future and a good romance line as well.

Diane Tregarde (Mercedes Lackey) - was in 3 full length books a long while ago. There are some kindle short stories now. She is a witch who lives in modern day NYC, ends up partnered with a Vampire (one of the few stories including a "good" vampire).

Vic Nelson (Tanya Huff) - is a police officer who becomes a private eye when she develops vision problems, teams up with a vampire (another generally good one) who is the bastard son of Henry VIII and writes romance novels. Vic's love interest is another cop and eventually she ends up a vampire. There are two fairly recent spin off books about Henry (the vampire) and another character, but no recent ones about Nelson.

I'm sure there are many others. Feel free to add. I will say that I read and really enjoy the Kinsey Millhone, Sharon McCone, VI Warshawski, both characters by Linda Barnes, Kayla Neya (sagara), and practically all other strong female characters in both mystery and fantasy, but while all are strong in various ways, I think the ones I have listed best exemplify kick-ass

In which I ride Keegan at Blue Hill

It was not an ideal day for a ride. The sun was shining in Philadelphia, but in Unionville it was raining away. Keegan was less affected than I was by the rain thundering on the roof of the indoor, plus actual thunder. He was well behaved though needs to figure out where all his body bits are. If anything, when he gets confused, he just quits moving forward. There was only one small leaping event during the ride. Then we hung out for a while in the barn and watched it pour. More this weekend.