Janie and Judy Hendricks, originally from Lakeport, Calif., and descendants of the early pioneering Hendricks family, were recently awarded a fifth place finish in the 2018 Will Rogers Medallion Award contest for their memoir, “Makin’ Tracks With My Horses and Mules.”

The Will Rogers Medallion Award honors those books that represent an outstanding achievement in the publishing of Western media.

The Will Rogers awards help to expand the heritage of literature which honors the traditions and values of the American Cowboy.

“Makin’ Tracks With My Horses and Mules” was entered in the Biographies & Memoirs category.

The book is set in Scotts Valley from 1944 through 1981, and tells of the life of two girls who grew up horseback, in a place not much different from when their ancestors homesteaded in 1850.

“Makin’ Tracks With My Horses and Mules” is written to honor their horses, and the adventures they provided, and makes for lively reading, because ranch kids live life at a full gallop.

The sisters co-authored the first half of the book. The second half chronicles older sister, Janie as she moves to Western Montana in 1981, and follows her horse/mule adventures into hunting camps, wilderness areas and the show ring, and covers from then, until the present.

Now known as Jane Lambert, Janie and her husband, Eric, were in Fort Worth, Texas, on Oct. 27, for the Will Rogers Medallion Awards banquet.

In 2014, Jane Lambert’s earlier book, “Charlie Russell, The Cowboy Years” received a Bronze Medallion.

Will Rogers was a respected writer as well as being an entertainer, and to receive an award with his name on it, carries great honor.

Many illustrative photographs spotlight the fifty horses and mules featured. The adventures will make you laugh, perhaps cry, and offer some life lessons along the way.

“Makin’ Tracks With My Horses and Mules” retails for $20 and is available on Amazon.