HORSE MASTER
Hollis Wayne and her husband, Beaux Graham, mix fun, riding, music at Happy Horse Hotel.
Meet an artist with a life too big to corral
A hotel for horses in Bastrop County serves as a respite for travelers and as a museum of a life’s work for its artist owner.
The road to Hollis Wayne’s house is clear, open country until just before her doorstep, when the brush and bushes rise up along the street like walls of a tunnel.
On nights when the moon is bright, it’s not uncommon to hear campfire songs about dusty days riding trails echoing off the stumps of old Cedar trees that died in the drought.
Wayne, 67, has been many things in her life — among those, always, an artist. She never fancied herself a singer, but these days, she’ll hum a tune on a whim and is likely found perched behind a piano. Most of her songs are about horses — the beautiful, distinguished creatures that inspired much of her life’s work.
Decades ago, Wayne bought nine acres of land in Bastrop County. She and her husband built a single, small bungalow and opened their land to weary travelers who needed a place to hitch their horses overnight.
They called it the Happy Horse Hotel, a perfect destination for riding, located at 860 Pope Bend N. Road in Cedar Creek, just two miles from the trailhead at McKinney Roughs Nature Park.
Now, the 22-acre refuge includes cabins, corrals, rig spaces, covered stalls, an outhouse and two miles of hand-cleared trails. Its rooms are open to tourists on Airbnb, an online rental marketplace, or people who want to pitch tents overnight in the brush for a $20 fee. Many of the walls are decorated with ink drawings of horses and tile mosaics with dragons and wizards — things Wayne crafted over the years as a working artist.
The art. The hotel. Her marriage to photojournalist Beaux Graham. All of it is punctuated now by music. Her moments with her Happy Horse Band have become the pinnacle for the Midwest girl who made her home in Austin.
“They say save the best for last,” Wayne said from inside her home studio. “Being inside of that sound, with all the amps