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A big-city lawyer leaves her firm to become a ranch wrangler. That sounds like the start of a Hallmark movie, right? For years, Ami Cullen’s life could have been the inspiration for a feel-good flick. After the Philadelphia native graduated from law school at Washington D.C.’s Catholic University of America in 2004 and passed the bar exam, her friend dragged her out to Granby’s C Lazy U Ranch for a getaway. “I didn’t really want to go on a horse vacation,” Cullen says. “Couldn’t we just go to the beach or something?”
Cullen’s vacation wound up being life-changing. Visiting the dude ranch became an annual tradition, and, while working as an attorney in Maryland, she soon found herself fantasizing about becoming a wrangler. She cooked up a deal with her law firm to switch to contract work and made her fantasy a reality. “I went from making six figures to like $10 an hour. I lived in a dorm-style room, and I had a great time,” Cullen says.
Cullen’s wrangling journey started in 2012 at C Lazy U Ranch, and since then, she’s worked her way up to director of equestrian operations. Instead of drafting legal documents and consulting with clients, she now oversees horse boarding, the guest riding program, and acquisition of new horses. Her story was idyllic—until 2020’s East Troublesome Fire.
The fire sparked on October 14 just north of Kremmling, and over the course of a single week, grew to 170,000 acres. Cullen, her team, and an army of good samaritans raced to save each and every horse on the ranch—a feat that inspired the release of her first novel, Running Free, which was published in August. Although the book is fiction, readers will notice quite a few similarities between the protagonist, Emme, and Cullen.
We caught up with Cullen to learn more about her journey to the ranch, how much of her novel is autobiographical, and what she’s working on next.
Editor’s note: The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
5280: Did you have any experience with horses prior to visiting C Lazy U Ranch?
Ami Cullen: I started riding at four or five years old and was your typical horse girl. I had horse posters on my wall, took riding lessons every week, got my own horse, and ended up competing. I’ve ridden horses for as long as I can remember, and there was even a time in high school when I was really into competitive riding and even reconsidered whether I should go to college or just keep competing. I ended up forcing myself to go to college.
Read More: 5 Real-Deal Colorado Ranches to Stay at This Winter
Walk me through what you remember about the East Troublesome Fire.
It seemed like there were constant wildfires during the summer of 2020. So when this one started near us, I just didn’t really think it would actually affect us. About a week before the fire actually hit the ranch, we started evacuating. We only had one or two trailers at the time and well over 200 horses. My manager put out a call for help to the local community, and so many people came out to help. We had trailers lined a mile down the driveway to load up horses and bring them to a safe pasture.
Unfortunately, about a week later, that pasture went under an evacuation order, too. Then it got scarier. That’s when people from all across the state turned out to help—some people told us they drove five hours with their trailer just to help some horses they didn’t even know about. We got our horses over Berthoud Pass to a kind person in Evergreen who lent their land for all 200 horses.
Had you written creatively prior to this?
I’ve never written a book before. I actually really struggled writing this because my only experience writing was in law. My first draft definitely read like a factual legal brief. [In the end, I ended up] fictionalizing all of the people involved, even the character based on myself. The main character closely follows my life experience, but a lot of the relationships were fictionalized for the story. It’s my first book, and I don’t know if I’ll ever write another one. I feel like I went through this huge life experience and just had to write it down.
Why did you choose to fictionalize the story instead of writing autobiographically?
It actually started out as a memoir, but I really struggled with writing about myself like that. I also didn’t want to call out any specific people who were part of my life story. It became more fun for me to write fictionally and get to embellish it a bit. The one thing I didn’t change was the names of the horses, which is fun when guests come to visit the ranch and they say things like, “I got to ride Fred, my favorite horse from the book.”
What do you hope people take away from Running Free?
It is mainly an ode to the Colorado equestrian community. It almost feels like a thank you to everyone who came out and helped us. Also, I have a lot of young women who work for me, and I feel like part of me wrote this for them. I want to inspire young people to go beyond checking off life experiences like I did. You don’t have to go to college, get a job, and get married. I really want to inspire people to think outside the box and pursue what they really want.
What’s next for you?
Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve had a few people reach out about evolving the story into a screenplay, which is something I want to pursue. It would be funny if my life actually turned into a Hallmark movie, wouldn’t it?
