Casey’s best-known novel was ‘The Horse of Selene’ (1971) which brought her popularity in both Ireland and North America whilst her first book of short stories ‘Hath the Rain a Father’ (1966) became a secondary school set text.

Inspired by an uncle with Romany and horse breeding links, Casey and her gypsy wagon parked outside Berlin’s St. Ives studio in 1948 when she met Berlin.  He was a renowned bon vivant and the couple became known for charging through the town and Carbis Bay in a Bullnose Morris.

Following serious disagreements in St. Ives with other members of the St. Ives School of Painters,  Casey and Berlin left and moved to the New Forest where Casey bred horses and attempted, unsuccessfully, to produce a ‘zorse’ by cross breeding a zebra and a horse. 

Berlin and Juanita divorced in 1963 when she left with their groom, Fergus Casey, and lived, variously, between Devon, Cornwall, the New Forest and Ireland.  When Fergus drowned, Juanita ended up living, as she loved to, with a circus working as a horse master.