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Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal
In the bestselling tradition of works by such authors as Susan Orlean and Mary Roach, a New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize finalist explores why so many people—including herself—are obsessed with horses.
It may surprise you to learn that there are over seven million horses in America—even more than when they were the only means of transportation—and nearly two million horse owners. Acclaimed journalist and avid equestrian Sarah Maslin Nir is one of them; she began riding horses when she was just two years old and hasn’t stopped since. Horse Crazy is a fascinating, funny, and moving love letter to these graceful animals and the people who—like her—are obsessed with them. It is also a coming-of-age story of Nir growing up an outsider within the world’s most elite inner circles, and finding her true north in horses.
Nir takes us into the lesser-known corners of the riding world and profiles some of its most captivating figures. We meet Monty Roberts, the California trainer whose prowess earned him the nickname “the man who listens to horses”; George and Ann Blair, the African-American husband and wife who run a riding academy for inner city youth on a tiny island in the middle of Manhattan’s East River; and Francesca Kelly, a wealthy London socialite whose love for an Indian nobleman shaped her life’s mission: to rescue an endangered Indian breed of horse and bring them—illegally—to America.
Woven into these compelling character studies, Nir shares her own moving personal narrative. She details her father’s harrowing tale of surviving the Holocaust, and describes an enchanted but deeply lonely upbringing in Manhattan, where horses became her family. She found them even in the middle of the city, in a stable disguised in an old townhouse and in Central Park, when she chased down truants as an auxiliary mounted patrol officer. And she speaks candidly of how horses have helped her overcome heartbreak and loss.
Infused with heart and wit, and with each chapter named after a horse Nir has loved, Horse Crazy is an unforgettable blend of beautifully written memoir and first-rate reporting.
It may surprise you to learn that there are over seven million horses in America—even more than when they were the only means of transportation—and nearly two million horse owners. Acclaimed journalist and avid equestrian Sarah Maslin Nir is one of them; she began riding horses when she was just two years old and hasn’t stopped since. Horse Crazy is a fascinating, funny, and moving love letter to these graceful animals and the people who—like her—are obsessed with them. It is also a coming-of-age story of Nir growing up an outsider within the world’s most elite inner circles, and finding her true north in horses.
Nir takes us into the lesser-known corners of the riding world and profiles some of its most captivating figures. We meet Monty Roberts, the California trainer whose prowess earned him the nickname “the man who listens to horses”; George and Ann Blair, the African-American husband and wife who run a riding academy for inner city youth on a tiny island in the middle of Manhattan’s East River; and Francesca Kelly, a wealthy London socialite whose love for an Indian nobleman shaped her life’s mission: to rescue an endangered Indian breed of horse and bring them—illegally—to America.
Woven into these compelling character studies, Nir shares her own moving personal narrative. She details her father’s harrowing tale of surviving the Holocaust, and describes an enchanted but deeply lonely upbringing in Manhattan, where horses became her family. She found them even in the middle of the city, in a stable disguised in an old townhouse and in Central Park, when she chased down truants as an auxiliary mounted patrol officer. And she speaks candidly of how horses have helped her overcome heartbreak and loss.
Infused with heart and wit, and with each chapter named after a horse Nir has loved, Horse Crazy is an unforgettable blend of beautifully written memoir and first-rate reporting.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published August 4, 2020
112 people are currently reading
2142 people want to read
About the author
Sarah Maslin Nir
7 books61 followersSarah Maslin Nir is a staff reporter for The New York Times. Nir was a Finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for “Unvarnished,” her more than yearlong investigation into New York City’s nail salon industry that documented the exploitative labor practices and health issues manicurists face. Before becoming a staff reporter, Nir freelanced for eleven sections of the paper, traveling to the Alaskan wilderness in search of people who prefer to live in isolation, and to post-earthquake Haiti. She began as the New York Times’s nightlife columnist, covering 252 parties in 18 months, and continued on to a career that has taken her from covering kidnappings by terrorists in Benin, West Africa, to wildfires in California, and everything in between. A born and raised Manhattanite, Nir earned a masters at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, and graduated from Columbia University, where she studied politics and philosophy. She is the author of Horse Crazy. She loves horses.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 136 reviews
January 19, 2025
I wrote it! I hope you love it.
April 20, 2021
There are many people, self included who love animals. Witness the obsession with animal videos on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. In another category are the people who love animals but find an overwhelming affection for a particular animal or breed of animal.
Horse Crazy is Sarah Maslin Nir's aptly named tale of her love of and obsession with horses. At a young age, Sarah fell in "love" with horses. Her need to be with horses led her to become an accomplished equestrian. Even as she grew into adulthood and became a New York reporter, it was the companionship of horses that ranked above friends and family.
Sarah Nir's book is am interesting blend of facts, history, statistics and personal stories of her life with horses, both, real and toy.
After reading this book, you will absolutely believe that Sarah Maslin Nir has a true love of the magnificent equines she has encountered. It was an interesting read that touched upon the humor, the sadness, and the love one experiences when beloved animals are involved. I think that horse lovers will understand this more deeply than someone like me whose only "horseback ride" occurred when I was five. I have the photo of me happily astride a "gigantic" pony being led around a ring at my schools Spring Fair. The photo I have says it all.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. #NetGalley #HorseCrazy
Horse Crazy is Sarah Maslin Nir's aptly named tale of her love of and obsession with horses. At a young age, Sarah fell in "love" with horses. Her need to be with horses led her to become an accomplished equestrian. Even as she grew into adulthood and became a New York reporter, it was the companionship of horses that ranked above friends and family.
Sarah Nir's book is am interesting blend of facts, history, statistics and personal stories of her life with horses, both, real and toy.
After reading this book, you will absolutely believe that Sarah Maslin Nir has a true love of the magnificent equines she has encountered. It was an interesting read that touched upon the humor, the sadness, and the love one experiences when beloved animals are involved. I think that horse lovers will understand this more deeply than someone like me whose only "horseback ride" occurred when I was five. I have the photo of me happily astride a "gigantic" pony being led around a ring at my schools Spring Fair. The photo I have says it all.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. #NetGalley #HorseCrazy
August 10, 2020
I can’t tell if I hated the book or if I was just in a really sour mood the entire time I was reading it.
On paper, I should love everything about this book. It’s nonfiction. About horses. By a New York Times Journalist. While it is charming and contains a mixture of light-hearted, childhood memories and adult struggles to keep you engaged as you flip through each page.
It’s part fun-facts and quick tales about a jet-setting reporter, but also part memoir--about a child, then adolescent, then young woman who struggles to feel a sense of belonging.
It reads as if she took a list of her favorite horses, every horse-related article she ever wrote, and therapy notes and tried to jam them into something that might sell. She needs to figure out who she is writing to. Is she writing this book as an emotional history for her family to herself? Is she writing this book TO horse people or AS a horse person?
My biggest issue is tone. I do NOT mean the author is insincere in her writing or that she actually feels nonchalant about her wealth. But it READS like this, which is it is so frustrating. Her writing is strong and her attention to detail is there.
I will not discredit the author’s hardships and emotions. To be the only person in your entire family obsessed with horses is not easy and neither is growing up being called “the horse girl.”
Details like living on the Upper Eastside, attending a private school, having a somewhat famous father, rich elder brothers, and rubbing shoulders with the aristocracy of equestrians does not meld with the imagined poverty and forced conscientiousness.
Poor me—my parents were not wealthy, but I grew up with a lifestyle 99.999% of the world will never know. You have no idea how awful it was when my parents did not “get” that I was in love with horses—so bad--they paid for everything or helped me work them off. My mother BOUGHT me my dream horse, finally.
And further tone-deaf— No need to remind the reader how cruel fox hunting is. I am a proud vegetarian. Anyways, so I went fox-hunting….yadayadayada.
I do feel for anyone who loses a parent. When someone references she’s “mastered” riding, she is reminded that her father said true happiness can only come from mastery. She feels a deeper connection with his memory as she learns more about herself.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a copy of this book.
On paper, I should love everything about this book. It’s nonfiction. About horses. By a New York Times Journalist. While it is charming and contains a mixture of light-hearted, childhood memories and adult struggles to keep you engaged as you flip through each page.
It’s part fun-facts and quick tales about a jet-setting reporter, but also part memoir--about a child, then adolescent, then young woman who struggles to feel a sense of belonging.
It reads as if she took a list of her favorite horses, every horse-related article she ever wrote, and therapy notes and tried to jam them into something that might sell. She needs to figure out who she is writing to. Is she writing this book as an emotional history for her family to herself? Is she writing this book TO horse people or AS a horse person?
My biggest issue is tone. I do NOT mean the author is insincere in her writing or that she actually feels nonchalant about her wealth. But it READS like this, which is it is so frustrating. Her writing is strong and her attention to detail is there.
I will not discredit the author’s hardships and emotions. To be the only person in your entire family obsessed with horses is not easy and neither is growing up being called “the horse girl.”
Details like living on the Upper Eastside, attending a private school, having a somewhat famous father, rich elder brothers, and rubbing shoulders with the aristocracy of equestrians does not meld with the imagined poverty and forced conscientiousness.
Poor me—my parents were not wealthy, but I grew up with a lifestyle 99.999% of the world will never know. You have no idea how awful it was when my parents did not “get” that I was in love with horses—so bad--they paid for everything or helped me work them off. My mother BOUGHT me my dream horse, finally.
And further tone-deaf— No need to remind the reader how cruel fox hunting is. I am a proud vegetarian. Anyways, so I went fox-hunting….yadayadayada.
I do feel for anyone who loses a parent. When someone references she’s “mastered” riding, she is reminded that her father said true happiness can only come from mastery. She feels a deeper connection with his memory as she learns more about herself.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a copy of this book.
July 25, 2020
"It was a moment I will never forget; when three frightened horses looked at me and called me tribe."
My seventy-something mother dearly loves horses -- still keeps two on her acreage. As a child I had my own pony, was obsessed with books like "Misty of Chincoteague" and Black Stallion books, drew horses incessantly (although I never got them quite right =(), and have loved reading about horses like Seabiscuit and Snowman. When I saw this ARC available, I was in. The cover is spectacular! The different chapters followed her life chronologically and also featured a particular horse. I appreciated that structure and the different horse stories and information we learned along the way. Although I do not think the bits about her father's history needed to be left out, sometimes they were distracting and/or it was not clear how that piece was relevant to the horse theme. All in all, the "horse lover" theme was more successful than the "memories of my father" theme. I would still recommend to horse lovers and even to book groups.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.
My seventy-something mother dearly loves horses -- still keeps two on her acreage. As a child I had my own pony, was obsessed with books like "Misty of Chincoteague" and Black Stallion books, drew horses incessantly (although I never got them quite right =(), and have loved reading about horses like Seabiscuit and Snowman. When I saw this ARC available, I was in. The cover is spectacular! The different chapters followed her life chronologically and also featured a particular horse. I appreciated that structure and the different horse stories and information we learned along the way. Although I do not think the bits about her father's history needed to be left out, sometimes they were distracting and/or it was not clear how that piece was relevant to the horse theme. All in all, the "horse lover" theme was more successful than the "memories of my father" theme. I would still recommend to horse lovers and even to book groups.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.
May 6, 2020
Special thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected pub date: October 7, 2020
Sarah Maslin Nir writes for the New York Times, and has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She has traveled across the world reporting on everything from exploitive labour practices, to terrorism-sparked kidnappings and the damaging effects of earthquakes. Needless to say, she has seen her share of humanity’s darkest and seediest. Her first novel, however, tackles the exact opposite- the connection between human and horse, and the powerful magic that resides within a horse’s spirit.
“Horse Crazy: The Story of a World and a Woman in Love with an Animal” is not generally a book I would pick up, as I am not typically a non-fiction reader. However, my passion and love for all things horse made this an absolute must-read.
Nir and I are from very different backgrounds. She lived on Park Avenue in New York, had a summer home in the Hamptons, and had two psychiatrists for parents, one of whom was even featured on Oprah. Clearly, I am on the opposite end of that spectrum. However, I can relate to Nir on at least one very important level- we share a common love and obsession with horses. Nir identifies at the beginning of the novel, when asked “why horses”? she simply answers “because horses”. This was when I knew that Nir and I would get along famously.
“Horse Crazy” has a little bit of everything, it provides a lot of really useful and interesting information on the species of horses, their history, and even their (often mal)treatment over time. Interspersed with snippets of Nir’s background and upbringing (where she attributes her neglect by her parents and half-brothers as one of the main reasons for finding that connection with horses) while hearing first-hand about the handful of horses that have personally changed Nir’s life. All of this helped to form an emotional bond with the story, and with the author herself.
The novel is broken down into chapters but they aren’t numbered, they are simply identified with the name of a horse that entered Nir’s life in some way and changed it. Nir also covers all aspects of horse life, from jumping, to rodeo roping, to New York City Central Park mounted police horses, and everything in between. She is exceptionally thorough in her research, and honest in her telling.
Those who do not hold a strong connection to horses may not find this book entertaining, but it is definitely full of interesting facts and knowledge. I found a kindred spirit in Nir through my life-long obsession and connection with horses. Now unlike Nir, I have never been able to own a horse, but through reading “Horse Crazy”, I feel that Nir lent me some of her four-legged beauties, for the novel’s duration.
Expected pub date: October 7, 2020
Sarah Maslin Nir writes for the New York Times, and has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She has traveled across the world reporting on everything from exploitive labour practices, to terrorism-sparked kidnappings and the damaging effects of earthquakes. Needless to say, she has seen her share of humanity’s darkest and seediest. Her first novel, however, tackles the exact opposite- the connection between human and horse, and the powerful magic that resides within a horse’s spirit.
“Horse Crazy: The Story of a World and a Woman in Love with an Animal” is not generally a book I would pick up, as I am not typically a non-fiction reader. However, my passion and love for all things horse made this an absolute must-read.
Nir and I are from very different backgrounds. She lived on Park Avenue in New York, had a summer home in the Hamptons, and had two psychiatrists for parents, one of whom was even featured on Oprah. Clearly, I am on the opposite end of that spectrum. However, I can relate to Nir on at least one very important level- we share a common love and obsession with horses. Nir identifies at the beginning of the novel, when asked “why horses”? she simply answers “because horses”. This was when I knew that Nir and I would get along famously.
“Horse Crazy” has a little bit of everything, it provides a lot of really useful and interesting information on the species of horses, their history, and even their (often mal)treatment over time. Interspersed with snippets of Nir’s background and upbringing (where she attributes her neglect by her parents and half-brothers as one of the main reasons for finding that connection with horses) while hearing first-hand about the handful of horses that have personally changed Nir’s life. All of this helped to form an emotional bond with the story, and with the author herself.
The novel is broken down into chapters but they aren’t numbered, they are simply identified with the name of a horse that entered Nir’s life in some way and changed it. Nir also covers all aspects of horse life, from jumping, to rodeo roping, to New York City Central Park mounted police horses, and everything in between. She is exceptionally thorough in her research, and honest in her telling.
Those who do not hold a strong connection to horses may not find this book entertaining, but it is definitely full of interesting facts and knowledge. I found a kindred spirit in Nir through my life-long obsession and connection with horses. Now unlike Nir, I have never been able to own a horse, but through reading “Horse Crazy”, I feel that Nir lent me some of her four-legged beauties, for the novel’s duration.
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August 4, 2020This book is part memoir, part information, with some travel reminiscence, science, and history added in.
At first I found it difficult to get into, as more of the book appeared to be about the author and her family than about horses. She came off as a very privileged rich girl despite her self-deprecation, which I found off-putting, but I got drawn into the story via her anecdotes illustrating the complexity of her Holocaust-survivor father. I began to think that this was two books fighting for the same space, and where were the horses?
They came, slowly at first. Another bump in the road for me was the chapter on competition over horse models. I have little interest in any type of competition, especially over plastic models, but Nir drew me in by recounting anecdotes of those passionate about it. Model horses were for those who can’t have horses—that much I understood, as I grew up in a community where the closest the “horse girls” in my classes could get was watching MY FRIEND FLICKA on TV—and collecting, and endlessly talking about, their plastic horse models. Through this chapter I got more insight into this passion, without ever feeling that Nir was condescending or finger-pointing.
And then came the horses themselves, and I was hooked. Each horse came with a story, sometimes with scientific info, sometimes historical, with quotes from experts. These chapters were often interwoven with bits about Nir’s father—the payoff being the result of a riding competition.
Then on to all kinds of horses, from the Chincoteague swim, to dressage horses to stables in the heart of New York City, horses in opera and at parties, racing. Then there are the heavy horses, such as Samson, who she rode as a teen park ranger. Ranch horses, and posh riding schools. Horses all over the world, and what they mean in different cultures. How horses communicate, and a glimpse at their thinking.
Finally it all tied back to Nir’s father, forming altogether a lovely, insightful, informative and richly storied read.
Copy provided by NetGalley
At first I found it difficult to get into, as more of the book appeared to be about the author and her family than about horses. She came off as a very privileged rich girl despite her self-deprecation, which I found off-putting, but I got drawn into the story via her anecdotes illustrating the complexity of her Holocaust-survivor father. I began to think that this was two books fighting for the same space, and where were the horses?
They came, slowly at first. Another bump in the road for me was the chapter on competition over horse models. I have little interest in any type of competition, especially over plastic models, but Nir drew me in by recounting anecdotes of those passionate about it. Model horses were for those who can’t have horses—that much I understood, as I grew up in a community where the closest the “horse girls” in my classes could get was watching MY FRIEND FLICKA on TV—and collecting, and endlessly talking about, their plastic horse models. Through this chapter I got more insight into this passion, without ever feeling that Nir was condescending or finger-pointing.
And then came the horses themselves, and I was hooked. Each horse came with a story, sometimes with scientific info, sometimes historical, with quotes from experts. These chapters were often interwoven with bits about Nir’s father—the payoff being the result of a riding competition.
Then on to all kinds of horses, from the Chincoteague swim, to dressage horses to stables in the heart of New York City, horses in opera and at parties, racing. Then there are the heavy horses, such as Samson, who she rode as a teen park ranger. Ranch horses, and posh riding schools. Horses all over the world, and what they mean in different cultures. How horses communicate, and a glimpse at their thinking.
Finally it all tied back to Nir’s father, forming altogether a lovely, insightful, informative and richly storied read.
Copy provided by NetGalley
June 30, 2020
Ohhhh..... this book reached right into my chest and grabbed my heart....my 5 year old little girl heart, my 12 year old pre-teen heart and the junior- senior citizen heart that i now have! I'm the one who cut out pictures of this animal, to glue into a notebook. ( my bestie did the same for dogs !)
No, i never owned a horse. In fact, I've ridden just once. Sneakers, bareback, and simply walking.... i was proud as hell when the owner told my father i was a natural!
Did Sarah Nir write this memoir with me in mind? It seemed like it, but no. She wrote it for the millions of girls who grew up horse crazy tho. For all of us who read this book in gulps! Her worldwide travels and the horses and the people she came to know along the way are enviable.
This author has the guts and intelligence i wish i had, mixed in with the self-doubt i do have. Maybe it accounts for why her writing is so relateable?
So as i sit here here looking around at my paintings of this magnificent animal, that decorate my living room, i must thank Sarah for sharing with the rest of us!
No, i never owned a horse. In fact, I've ridden just once. Sneakers, bareback, and simply walking.... i was proud as hell when the owner told my father i was a natural!
Did Sarah Nir write this memoir with me in mind? It seemed like it, but no. She wrote it for the millions of girls who grew up horse crazy tho. For all of us who read this book in gulps! Her worldwide travels and the horses and the people she came to know along the way are enviable.
This author has the guts and intelligence i wish i had, mixed in with the self-doubt i do have. Maybe it accounts for why her writing is so relateable?
So as i sit here here looking around at my paintings of this magnificent animal, that decorate my living room, i must thank Sarah for sharing with the rest of us!
August 15, 2020
Oh, my horse girl heart! This book is the ultimate love letter to a life long love obsession with horses. Aptly named, Sarah Maslin Nir writes a beautiful book that tells the tale of her life and the horses that shaped it. She explores the magic of the human and horse connection while taking us through her various equine experiences.
I adored the fact that Nir named each chapter after a horse that had an impact on her life. This is a tribute to the horses that make up who we are as horse girls. Even though Nir and I had different backgrounds (I've never even been to Manhattan), I was able to widely relate this book, because, well, horses...
Through Nir's musings of a life spent in the pursuit of horses, she is able to provide history and information about much of the equine world. She seamlessly wove her life story in as well. I felt a connection with Nir throughout this book, bonded by our connection to all things equine. I appreciated Nir's honest and straight-forward story-telling, at times these stories were humorous, while other times sad or heartwarming.
This book is for anyone that, much like Nir and myself, have spent our lives revolving around horses. But also, for anyone that has ever found themselves to be an outsider or just enjoy reading a deep investigation about why the world is so drawn to the horse.
I adored the fact that Nir named each chapter after a horse that had an impact on her life. This is a tribute to the horses that make up who we are as horse girls. Even though Nir and I had different backgrounds (I've never even been to Manhattan), I was able to widely relate this book, because, well, horses...
Through Nir's musings of a life spent in the pursuit of horses, she is able to provide history and information about much of the equine world. She seamlessly wove her life story in as well. I felt a connection with Nir throughout this book, bonded by our connection to all things equine. I appreciated Nir's honest and straight-forward story-telling, at times these stories were humorous, while other times sad or heartwarming.
This book is for anyone that, much like Nir and myself, have spent our lives revolving around horses. But also, for anyone that has ever found themselves to be an outsider or just enjoy reading a deep investigation about why the world is so drawn to the horse.
May 22, 2020
For fans of THE EIGHTY DOLLAR CHAMPION, HALF-BROKE, SEABISCUIT. Books that are about horses but so much more.
Sarah Maslin Nir writes about her adventures in the horse world, adventures she seeks out on her travels as a journalist. Wherever she goes, she looks for the horses.
She paddles a kayak with the Chincoteague Ponies, rides a Marwari stallion at a full gallop in a quarry in India, she flies in the cargo hold with show horses, she chases truants through Central Park on the back of a massive Belgian, watches backstage at the Metropolitan Opera as horses are readied for their scene in AIDA. Along the way she meets fascinating people and wraps the history of each horse and person into this amazing life she's chosen. And its all a tribute to her father, a Holocaust survivor, who taught her that mastery of a craft, of the self, is the true victory.
Sarah Maslin Nir writes about her adventures in the horse world, adventures she seeks out on her travels as a journalist. Wherever she goes, she looks for the horses.
She paddles a kayak with the Chincoteague Ponies, rides a Marwari stallion at a full gallop in a quarry in India, she flies in the cargo hold with show horses, she chases truants through Central Park on the back of a massive Belgian, watches backstage at the Metropolitan Opera as horses are readied for their scene in AIDA. Along the way she meets fascinating people and wraps the history of each horse and person into this amazing life she's chosen. And its all a tribute to her father, a Holocaust survivor, who taught her that mastery of a craft, of the self, is the true victory.
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July 25, 2020My review for Women's Review of Books: https://www.wcwonline.org/Women-s-Rev...
The last sentence in Sarah Maslin Nir’s author biography states simply, directly: “She loves horses.” In this lifelong love, she is far from alone. As she writes in the introduction to her entertaining and erudite nonfiction debut Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal, “There are over 7 million horses in America, far more than even when they were our only way to get around. They are not necessary at all, yet for many they seem more so. Here, they are furls of an American flag in equid form, imbued with our narratives of national identity. They carry on their backs the tales we tell ourselves about who we are” (2-3).
Part personal memoir, part investigation, Nir’s book offers an exploration of America’s equestrian community, looking deeply into the history of humans’ relationship to horses both in person and in art and literature, as well as the state of the contemporary riding world. She lets us in equally on the dynamic of her parents—her father a Polish Holocaust survivor and her mother “born out of wedlock, illegitimate issue of an illicit rendezvous of an Irish nurse and a Jewish doctor” (22)—as she does the origins of the colossally popular children’s classic Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry’s based-on-a-true-story tale of a wild foal who was “corralled and gentled by two local children” on Virginia’s wind-whipped Outer Banks (64).
In this thoroughly researched and charmingly written book, Nir tells the story—or rather, tells myriad stories—of Equus ferrus caballus, better known just as the horse, sweeping all the way back to the fact that the modern horse has been around for two million years, whereas humans are only about 350,000 years old. In her quest to impress upon her reader the magnitude of the horse’s evolution and its intertwined arc alongside humans, she takes us inside the New York Museum of Natural History in order to point out that “the antecedents to the equine […] can be 55 million years old” and that “horse ancestors are older than grass” which dates back only 15 million years (42). Her facility in toggling from the epic to the intimate gives the book a pleasing tension and energy, a vitality it would likely lack were it strictly an autobiography or purely an objective nonfiction account.
Not unlike Mary Roach in her books Stiff and Spook, or Susan Orlean in Animalish and The Library Book, Nir breezily blends her own experiences and idiosyncrasies with delightful bits trivia and enchanting anecdotes. Did you know that before the ascendancy of the automobile, as many as 200,000 horses were working in the five boroughs of New York? Or that there used to be a New York City Black World Championship Rodeo run by Dr. George E. Blair and his wife Ann to raise awareness of the unsung legacy of African American cowboys?
Nir’s claims of feeling “like an outsider” (23) during her childhood and adolescence don’t always hold up considering that her family had a home in Manhattan on Park Avenue, as well as a second house in East Hampton, that she grew up “outsourced to nannies,” (37), and that she attended “tony private school” (21) Brearley, frequently watching her mother, a psychologist, make appearances on Oprah, Geraldo, and the Phil Donahue Show. Luckily, Nir acknowledges that she “can’t help but think harder and unpack all of what equestrian sport represents in my society” as “the sport of kings and Kennedys, a pursuit dripping with elitism and Americana,” concluding that “As the progeny of immigrants, of people who did not belong to this land, I was claiming rights to the leisure of the Other” (24).
She waxes nostalgic at times, pronouncing of Amigo, the first of five free horses she has been given over the course of her life, “I was in love” (96). Later she reminisces, “When I was tiny, I dreamed of marrying a horse. (Oh come on. Who hasn’t?)” (243) But Nir never loses sight of the ethics of owning another living being, or of making a sentient creature submit to human will. The reality of horses, she points out, is that “as big as they are, they often fall through the cracks of a life” because “there are new jobs too far from the barn and ugly divorces” (96), as well as the inevitability that even the most stereotypically head over heels horse-crazy little girl grows up and realizes, “there is something more interesting than her pony: boys” (96).
Nir names each chapter after “a horse who told me its story or helped me write my own” (3) beginning with Guernsey, the first horse she ever rode as a two-year-old in Amagansett, New York, and ending with Tango, a black-and-white tobiano she borrows to ride along on a fox hunt. In between, she treats her readers to disquisitions on Breyer horses, those coveted plastic replicas of the real thing, and All Tame Animals, a talent agency that supplies horses for movies and the stage, not to mention Monty Roberts, legendary horse whisperer, best-selling author, and founder, in 1966, of Flag is Up Farms in Solvang, California.
Drawing on her ethos as a horse person as much as her logos as a reporter, she dedicates the book “To all the horses I’ve loved, Amigo, Willow, Trendy, Bravo, Stellar, and every single one I’ve ever set eyes on.” But her expertise extends well beyond the horses she’s known and adored personally and into the realms of a dizzying assortment of specialized breeds, including—but not limited to—the Tennessee Walker, the Peruvian Paso Fino, the Percheron, the Palomino, the Marwari, the Lippizzaner, and the Icelandic Horse whose rhythmic tolt gait, she writes, “gives it moves like Travolta” (32).
A staff reporter for the New York Times, Maslin Nir was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for her exposé on the working conditions of nail salon workers. The investigative series, titled “Unvarnished,” led both to new regulations to prevent wage theft and enhance worker safety, as well as widespread criticism that Nir had overstated her findings. The Times’ public editor Margaret Sullivan ultimately concluded that the series and its author “had admirable intentions in speaking for underpaid or abused workers. And the investigation did reveal some practices in need of reform. But, in places, the two-part investigation went too far in generalizing about an entire industry. Its findings, and the language used to express them, should have been dialed back — in some instances substantially.”
Here, her zeal finds a balance between her own ecstatic adoration of the elegant beasts and the anxiety-ridden way humans often force these sensitive creatures to live. Nir touches on such less than dreamy activities as “cribbing,” a “jailhouse behavior” (100) in which horses grind their teeth against hard objects while locked in their stalls to stave off boredom, and the spook, or horses’ propensity to shy violently away from unfamiliar objects. She also acknowledges that thoroughbred racing in particular and other horse-related sports more broadly—from fox hunting to the Olympics—all too often involve beatings, cocktails of performance enhancing drugs, and the casual abandonment of animals who either lack or are perceived to have outlived their talent.
She also takes to task the Hampton Classic in Bridgehampton, New York, an annual show jumping event where the world’s elite riders compete for a $700,000 pot on the backs of million-dollar show horses. She writes of her attendance in 2019 “I couldn’t even bring myself to applaud” because of the naked cruelty of many of the competitors, including one who confessed to smashing a horse’s leg to collect an insurance payment.
In the end, though, Nir’s book is far more of a celebration than an exposé. Yet much as this book is absolutely, unapologetically a love story, Nir admirably resists the urge to romanticize the human-horse relationship. “That’s the gift of a horse,” she writes, “the thing we take from them and never really return. We take pleasure in their life, find freedom in their hoofbeats. They stir me, but I often wonder, Do we do more than succor them in return? Does anything make a horse feel the way a horse makes me feel?” (16-17).
In general, it can feel easier to explain one’s dislikes and irritations than to illuminate one’s passions and fascinations. When it comes to the latter, the ineluctable affinity can tempt the speaker to tautology: I love this thing because I love it; I love this thing because it’s undeniably loveable. Here, Nir’s fervor for everything equine shines through with every word and she offers abundant ardent outbursts. Horses in a herd “school across fields like minnows” and “turn and wheel like larks, guiding each other with shoulders and flanks, ear and eye, ripple of muscle and stomp of hoof” (126). But so too does she apply her reporter’s training in the asking of “why?” to go deeper into the explanations underlying an elemental love that can sometimes seem inexplicable.
The last sentence in Sarah Maslin Nir’s author biography states simply, directly: “She loves horses.” In this lifelong love, she is far from alone. As she writes in the introduction to her entertaining and erudite nonfiction debut Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal, “There are over 7 million horses in America, far more than even when they were our only way to get around. They are not necessary at all, yet for many they seem more so. Here, they are furls of an American flag in equid form, imbued with our narratives of national identity. They carry on their backs the tales we tell ourselves about who we are” (2-3).
Part personal memoir, part investigation, Nir’s book offers an exploration of America’s equestrian community, looking deeply into the history of humans’ relationship to horses both in person and in art and literature, as well as the state of the contemporary riding world. She lets us in equally on the dynamic of her parents—her father a Polish Holocaust survivor and her mother “born out of wedlock, illegitimate issue of an illicit rendezvous of an Irish nurse and a Jewish doctor” (22)—as she does the origins of the colossally popular children’s classic Misty of Chincoteague, Marguerite Henry’s based-on-a-true-story tale of a wild foal who was “corralled and gentled by two local children” on Virginia’s wind-whipped Outer Banks (64).
In this thoroughly researched and charmingly written book, Nir tells the story—or rather, tells myriad stories—of Equus ferrus caballus, better known just as the horse, sweeping all the way back to the fact that the modern horse has been around for two million years, whereas humans are only about 350,000 years old. In her quest to impress upon her reader the magnitude of the horse’s evolution and its intertwined arc alongside humans, she takes us inside the New York Museum of Natural History in order to point out that “the antecedents to the equine […] can be 55 million years old” and that “horse ancestors are older than grass” which dates back only 15 million years (42). Her facility in toggling from the epic to the intimate gives the book a pleasing tension and energy, a vitality it would likely lack were it strictly an autobiography or purely an objective nonfiction account.
Not unlike Mary Roach in her books Stiff and Spook, or Susan Orlean in Animalish and The Library Book, Nir breezily blends her own experiences and idiosyncrasies with delightful bits trivia and enchanting anecdotes. Did you know that before the ascendancy of the automobile, as many as 200,000 horses were working in the five boroughs of New York? Or that there used to be a New York City Black World Championship Rodeo run by Dr. George E. Blair and his wife Ann to raise awareness of the unsung legacy of African American cowboys?
Nir’s claims of feeling “like an outsider” (23) during her childhood and adolescence don’t always hold up considering that her family had a home in Manhattan on Park Avenue, as well as a second house in East Hampton, that she grew up “outsourced to nannies,” (37), and that she attended “tony private school” (21) Brearley, frequently watching her mother, a psychologist, make appearances on Oprah, Geraldo, and the Phil Donahue Show. Luckily, Nir acknowledges that she “can’t help but think harder and unpack all of what equestrian sport represents in my society” as “the sport of kings and Kennedys, a pursuit dripping with elitism and Americana,” concluding that “As the progeny of immigrants, of people who did not belong to this land, I was claiming rights to the leisure of the Other” (24).
She waxes nostalgic at times, pronouncing of Amigo, the first of five free horses she has been given over the course of her life, “I was in love” (96). Later she reminisces, “When I was tiny, I dreamed of marrying a horse. (Oh come on. Who hasn’t?)” (243) But Nir never loses sight of the ethics of owning another living being, or of making a sentient creature submit to human will. The reality of horses, she points out, is that “as big as they are, they often fall through the cracks of a life” because “there are new jobs too far from the barn and ugly divorces” (96), as well as the inevitability that even the most stereotypically head over heels horse-crazy little girl grows up and realizes, “there is something more interesting than her pony: boys” (96).
Nir names each chapter after “a horse who told me its story or helped me write my own” (3) beginning with Guernsey, the first horse she ever rode as a two-year-old in Amagansett, New York, and ending with Tango, a black-and-white tobiano she borrows to ride along on a fox hunt. In between, she treats her readers to disquisitions on Breyer horses, those coveted plastic replicas of the real thing, and All Tame Animals, a talent agency that supplies horses for movies and the stage, not to mention Monty Roberts, legendary horse whisperer, best-selling author, and founder, in 1966, of Flag is Up Farms in Solvang, California.
Drawing on her ethos as a horse person as much as her logos as a reporter, she dedicates the book “To all the horses I’ve loved, Amigo, Willow, Trendy, Bravo, Stellar, and every single one I’ve ever set eyes on.” But her expertise extends well beyond the horses she’s known and adored personally and into the realms of a dizzying assortment of specialized breeds, including—but not limited to—the Tennessee Walker, the Peruvian Paso Fino, the Percheron, the Palomino, the Marwari, the Lippizzaner, and the Icelandic Horse whose rhythmic tolt gait, she writes, “gives it moves like Travolta” (32).
A staff reporter for the New York Times, Maslin Nir was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for her exposé on the working conditions of nail salon workers. The investigative series, titled “Unvarnished,” led both to new regulations to prevent wage theft and enhance worker safety, as well as widespread criticism that Nir had overstated her findings. The Times’ public editor Margaret Sullivan ultimately concluded that the series and its author “had admirable intentions in speaking for underpaid or abused workers. And the investigation did reveal some practices in need of reform. But, in places, the two-part investigation went too far in generalizing about an entire industry. Its findings, and the language used to express them, should have been dialed back — in some instances substantially.”
Here, her zeal finds a balance between her own ecstatic adoration of the elegant beasts and the anxiety-ridden way humans often force these sensitive creatures to live. Nir touches on such less than dreamy activities as “cribbing,” a “jailhouse behavior” (100) in which horses grind their teeth against hard objects while locked in their stalls to stave off boredom, and the spook, or horses’ propensity to shy violently away from unfamiliar objects. She also acknowledges that thoroughbred racing in particular and other horse-related sports more broadly—from fox hunting to the Olympics—all too often involve beatings, cocktails of performance enhancing drugs, and the casual abandonment of animals who either lack or are perceived to have outlived their talent.
She also takes to task the Hampton Classic in Bridgehampton, New York, an annual show jumping event where the world’s elite riders compete for a $700,000 pot on the backs of million-dollar show horses. She writes of her attendance in 2019 “I couldn’t even bring myself to applaud” because of the naked cruelty of many of the competitors, including one who confessed to smashing a horse’s leg to collect an insurance payment.
In the end, though, Nir’s book is far more of a celebration than an exposé. Yet much as this book is absolutely, unapologetically a love story, Nir admirably resists the urge to romanticize the human-horse relationship. “That’s the gift of a horse,” she writes, “the thing we take from them and never really return. We take pleasure in their life, find freedom in their hoofbeats. They stir me, but I often wonder, Do we do more than succor them in return? Does anything make a horse feel the way a horse makes me feel?” (16-17).
In general, it can feel easier to explain one’s dislikes and irritations than to illuminate one’s passions and fascinations. When it comes to the latter, the ineluctable affinity can tempt the speaker to tautology: I love this thing because I love it; I love this thing because it’s undeniably loveable. Here, Nir’s fervor for everything equine shines through with every word and she offers abundant ardent outbursts. Horses in a herd “school across fields like minnows” and “turn and wheel like larks, guiding each other with shoulders and flanks, ear and eye, ripple of muscle and stomp of hoof” (126). But so too does she apply her reporter’s training in the asking of “why?” to go deeper into the explanations underlying an elemental love that can sometimes seem inexplicable.
September 10, 2020
Ms. Nir titles her chapters for each of the horses in her life that held special meaning. As the only child of a Holocaust survivor father and a social butterfly mother she used horses to dissipate her loneliness and search for a sense of inclusion from a very early age. Horses become her "herd" and her comfort with them, despite injuries and separations sustains her through awkward at best and emotionally crushing at worst social situations. In her book she takes us to varied corners of the horse world, from a neglected stable on Rikers Island with its African-American cowboy devoted to giving inner city children a sense of equine perspective to Monty Roberts, the California "Horse Whisperer" whose training techniques turned the horse world upside down (in a good way!). She gains access to corners of the horse world closed to most of us, using her credentials as a New York Times reporter to tell us some amazing stories of horses rescued from the brink of extinction, sometimes in ingenious and nefarious ways.
This is an autobiography but also a touching tribute to horses she has loved throughout her life. Her connection with them is contagious, compelling the reader to root for the underdog in many cases and share the strong sense of compassion for this most marvelous and ingenious gift of nature.
This is an autobiography but also a touching tribute to horses she has loved throughout her life. Her connection with them is contagious, compelling the reader to root for the underdog in many cases and share the strong sense of compassion for this most marvelous and ingenious gift of nature.
February 27, 2021
Sixteen days to read fewer than 300 pages. I did not exactly gallop through this book.
The author’s bio in the inside back cover says “She loves horses.” But I don’t agree. I think she loves to ride horses. She loves the thrill of galloping and jumping. She loves to compete and collect ribbons that attest to her skill as a rider. Most of all, she loves to feel that she, a nice Jewish girl, has cracked the WASP enclave of equitation.
She has spent a lot of time with horses. Yet she doesn’t seem to get this plain fact: horses don’t want to be ridden. They don’t want to have saddles strapped on their backs, cold (and often painful) bits thrust in their mouths, riders jabbing heels (if not spurs) into their sides.
They are animals. They want to be with their buddies — other horses — cropping grass in a pasture. They are creatures of habit and can be trained to do all of the silly things we demand of them. That doesn’t mean we should be stabling them in narrow stalls where they doze (but don’t really sleep) standing up. Or flying them around the world in capsules. Or giving them away to unknown persons because you want to frustrate your soon to be ex-husband.
That said, Sarah does tell some horse stories that were new to me. Though I often wished for more background and more of the basic facts that she must have learned to gather in J school.
1
—
The chapter on the Breyer model horse competitions was fascinating. I, like every horse-mad girl, had models of horses, standins for the live herd I couldn’t have in a suburban tract house. But it never occurred to me that they could be taken to a ... competition? And though Sarah does a good job describing the people she met, she doesn’t tell us how frequently these competitions occur, how many people compete, the amount of money involved, the Breyer company contribution. Insight from a psychologist would also have enriched the story.
2
—
I was astonished, if horrified, to learn that horses were stabled in an apartment building on west 89th Street. And that there was a small stable on Randall’s Island underneath the FDR expressway. And that the reprehensible “sport” of fox hunting is just drunken riders clinging to horses as they stampede over hill and dale.
But I am disappointed that Sarah does not see how we frustrate horses’ natural impulses, condemning them to misery so we can enjoy the thrill ride.
The author’s bio in the inside back cover says “She loves horses.” But I don’t agree. I think she loves to ride horses. She loves the thrill of galloping and jumping. She loves to compete and collect ribbons that attest to her skill as a rider. Most of all, she loves to feel that she, a nice Jewish girl, has cracked the WASP enclave of equitation.
She has spent a lot of time with horses. Yet she doesn’t seem to get this plain fact: horses don’t want to be ridden. They don’t want to have saddles strapped on their backs, cold (and often painful) bits thrust in their mouths, riders jabbing heels (if not spurs) into their sides.
They are animals. They want to be with their buddies — other horses — cropping grass in a pasture. They are creatures of habit and can be trained to do all of the silly things we demand of them. That doesn’t mean we should be stabling them in narrow stalls where they doze (but don’t really sleep) standing up. Or flying them around the world in capsules. Or giving them away to unknown persons because you want to frustrate your soon to be ex-husband.
That said, Sarah does tell some horse stories that were new to me. Though I often wished for more background and more of the basic facts that she must have learned to gather in J school.
1
—
The chapter on the Breyer model horse competitions was fascinating. I, like every horse-mad girl, had models of horses, standins for the live herd I couldn’t have in a suburban tract house. But it never occurred to me that they could be taken to a ... competition? And though Sarah does a good job describing the people she met, she doesn’t tell us how frequently these competitions occur, how many people compete, the amount of money involved, the Breyer company contribution. Insight from a psychologist would also have enriched the story.
2
—
I was astonished, if horrified, to learn that horses were stabled in an apartment building on west 89th Street. And that there was a small stable on Randall’s Island underneath the FDR expressway. And that the reprehensible “sport” of fox hunting is just drunken riders clinging to horses as they stampede over hill and dale.
But I am disappointed that Sarah does not see how we frustrate horses’ natural impulses, condemning them to misery so we can enjoy the thrill ride.
August 4, 2020
While I'm not a "horse person", I have known horse people, have been around horses at times, and even took a few riding lessons in my 20s. Horses are magnificent animals, but they do scare me to a point, with their height and their big teeth. (I'm afraid of heights and being bitten by an animal with big teeth.) Sarah Nir's book combines her life story with horse stories, since she has been riding for most of her life. For me, it was not enough of her life story, and I only found some of the horse stories interesting.
One of the most interesting was how the author discovered a black couple in New York, George and Ann Blair, who were busing in kids from inner city neighborhoods to their stable to see their horses. Dr. Blair gave Ms. Nir a brief history lesson on black riders, namely that many, many cowboys and rodeo riders have been black; unlike what one sees in history books, movies and television shows. After recently seeing blacks riding horses in the recent police brutality protests, I thought how I did think it was unusual to see those riders, and I live in a city that is 50% black.
Sarah Nir is Jewish and her father was the prominent psychiatrist Yehuda Nir, who was in his fifties when she was born. He survived the Holocaust as a child, and once when she didn't hear her name being called at a horse show; the Hampton Classic, no less; he went up to claim her red ribbon. When he got up there, he held up his arms and announced: "I defeated Hitler!" Certainly can't beat that as an interesting story. All and all, though, I did not think this book, with all its various people and horse tales, worked well as a whole. But maybe that's because I'm not a "horse person".
(Note: I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher.)
One of the most interesting was how the author discovered a black couple in New York, George and Ann Blair, who were busing in kids from inner city neighborhoods to their stable to see their horses. Dr. Blair gave Ms. Nir a brief history lesson on black riders, namely that many, many cowboys and rodeo riders have been black; unlike what one sees in history books, movies and television shows. After recently seeing blacks riding horses in the recent police brutality protests, I thought how I did think it was unusual to see those riders, and I live in a city that is 50% black.
Sarah Nir is Jewish and her father was the prominent psychiatrist Yehuda Nir, who was in his fifties when she was born. He survived the Holocaust as a child, and once when she didn't hear her name being called at a horse show; the Hampton Classic, no less; he went up to claim her red ribbon. When he got up there, he held up his arms and announced: "I defeated Hitler!" Certainly can't beat that as an interesting story. All and all, though, I did not think this book, with all its various people and horse tales, worked well as a whole. But maybe that's because I'm not a "horse person".
(Note: I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher.)
August 20, 2020
First of all, the cover is so pretty!! And the author herself voiced the audio!!
So I got the audio and I loved every second of it.
Everyone knows I am a horse girl. And I’m pretty sure, at the very core all horse girls and boys are the same. But, I am a german horse girl. My backround, my growing up and my „horse education“ where quite different. This glimps into the same, yet so different world was simply beautifil, very entertaining and interesting. Sarah (i hope i may call you that!) is a very likeable horse person. (Come on, we all know they are not all like that..!) her love for horses is showing all the way. It was great to see, how non-judgemental, not mean nor arrogant she dived into other parts and forms of the horse world and other people’s love for horses. And while I would really liked her to have gotten in a little deeper into some of her personal relationships, I get why she didn’t. This was about her horses. And I get that. It was a beautiful told story and now I’m sad that I never got to meet her horses.
But I do hope very much so that this book will be translated, so my mom, who is a horse girl, an my best friends, who are horses girls can love it to. Because horses. And because horses deserve all the love. And Sarah’s book does, too.
So I got the audio and I loved every second of it.
Everyone knows I am a horse girl. And I’m pretty sure, at the very core all horse girls and boys are the same. But, I am a german horse girl. My backround, my growing up and my „horse education“ where quite different. This glimps into the same, yet so different world was simply beautifil, very entertaining and interesting. Sarah (i hope i may call you that!) is a very likeable horse person. (Come on, we all know they are not all like that..!) her love for horses is showing all the way. It was great to see, how non-judgemental, not mean nor arrogant she dived into other parts and forms of the horse world and other people’s love for horses. And while I would really liked her to have gotten in a little deeper into some of her personal relationships, I get why she didn’t. This was about her horses. And I get that. It was a beautiful told story and now I’m sad that I never got to meet her horses.
But I do hope very much so that this book will be translated, so my mom, who is a horse girl, an my best friends, who are horses girls can love it to. Because horses. And because horses deserve all the love. And Sarah’s book does, too.
June 22, 2020
This was an interesting look at the world of diehard horse lovers. The author goes into a variety of horse-related subjects that were quite fascinating such as 'horse shows' involving Breyer molded plastic horses for children but with adult participants. This is certainly not a dull read. I had a bit of a problem with the jumping back and forth with time lines, and the author's obvious political views, which had no place in this book, but I really enjoyed reading about her father and his life. It's also a somewhat sad book, to be a child and be raised by a nanny, the yearning of the author for more parental oversight was palpable. I'm not a rider but I have always loved the animal albeit in an aloof manner, those teeth! those hoofs! that sheer size! but after the author deemed riding an 'extreme sport' I've certainly felt justified.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with an ARC.
August 12, 2020
Thanks to NetGalley for an e-arc of this book. Although I was never as fortunate as Sarah Maslin Nir to own a horse, I could relate to her obsession that creates the book’s framework. Through the wide variety of horses in her life, Nir lets us in to her life, but also into the lives of her parents, particularly her father, and to an amazingly wide variety of topics. This book is eminently readable and would intrigue non-horse lovers as well. For me, though, it was a wonderful reminder of why I love horses: “because horses.”
April 27, 2021
(NF) 08.23.2020: per NYTimes Book Review recommendation...; 04.27.2021: each chapter is dedicated to a horse in the author’s life but there is a whole lot more about personal stories intermingled…some of it was a bit too much, others not so intense (considering the author is an attempted rich girl by genetics); 2020 NF hardback via Madison County Public Library, Berea, 290 pgs.
* the mere fact that it took me 20-days to read a book of this length speaks volumes as to my
enjoyment level…I should have put it down
* the mere fact that it took me 20-days to read a book of this length speaks volumes as to my
enjoyment level…I should have put it down
November 2, 2020
I decided to read this book after watching a very interesting conversation of the author and interviewer, hosted by Atlanta History Center.
I found this book to be well-written and well-organized. Still a young woman, the author has led an eventful and unusual life. There are many Google-worthy names and subjects presented and discussed, so I'm going to get Googling.
I found this book to be well-written and well-organized. Still a young woman, the author has led an eventful and unusual life. There are many Google-worthy names and subjects presented and discussed, so I'm going to get Googling.
July 27, 2020
I could not finish this book. It was just so slow and took awhile to get to the point. DNF @ 40%
August 4, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir and I thought this was a very creative way for the author to tell her story, through her love of horses and the identity, and friendships that they gave her.
The author pretty much grew up from the age of two, depending on Horses to be her companions, to whom she could confide in, and give her love.
Her parents were intellectuals, who had busy lives and not as much time to give to her as she needed, but getting to know the horse world and the people in it, gave her a community to be with.
She traveled the world as a reporter and in each place that she went, she would seek out horses.
One can learn so much about horses from this book, from stories that fascinated her to breeds and habits of horses that she found so interesting.
A wonderful read that I highly recommend. This book has one of the prettiest covers I have seen in awhile,and I think it is of a Marwari horse, which is a breed from India.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a copy of this book.
The author pretty much grew up from the age of two, depending on Horses to be her companions, to whom she could confide in, and give her love.
Her parents were intellectuals, who had busy lives and not as much time to give to her as she needed, but getting to know the horse world and the people in it, gave her a community to be with.
She traveled the world as a reporter and in each place that she went, she would seek out horses.
One can learn so much about horses from this book, from stories that fascinated her to breeds and habits of horses that she found so interesting.
A wonderful read that I highly recommend. This book has one of the prettiest covers I have seen in awhile,and I think it is of a Marwari horse, which is a breed from India.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for a copy of this book.
November 28, 2020
I loved every word of this book. I was a horse-crazy child (even though it evolved into dog-craziness), and I still read a lot about horses and dream about the day when I can have my own. Sarah Nir is just a REALLY GOOD writer, and when a REALLY GOOD writer writes about a subject that I love, well, how could it not be a 5-star book? She explores a lot of different aspects of horsemanship and different kinds of human-horse bonds, everything from the old stable near Central Park in NYC to the role of black cowboys in the American West to the Marawa breed of horse in India to fox hunting. But my favorite chapter in the book was the one on Breyer horses. I collected them as a child, forgot all about them, read the chapter, remembered them, and now I have... I don't know... perhaps more than 40 of them in my house. I appreciate this book for reminding me of Breyers, and because it was just a damn good book if you love horses.
December 18, 2020
Admittingly I fell in love with the cover of this book! What horse lover wouldn't? But, this book was so much better than what I had expected! It not only had many stories of the author's experiences with horses, but it was also the story of her personal struggles of continuously feeling like an outsider and how her refuge in horses comforted, encouraged, nurtured and helped her mature to become a more confident woman. I learned lots about the history of various breeds and even some terms specific to horses, all told in an interesting and sometimes even humorous way.
If you love horses, I strongly recommend this well-written book!
If you love horses, I strongly recommend this well-written book!
August 24, 2020
I absolutely adored this book. I was thrust into an internal battle, not wanting to put it down but also hoping it would never end. It is the kind of story that is beautiful in plot but also language. As a horse girl myself, I saw Sarah in me and some of the horses that have woven themselves within the chapters of my own life. I could hear the leather saddles creak, smell the horses sweat, and feel the ocean on the tip of my toes from the back of a Marwari mare. I only wish the ride had never ended. A treasure of a book for horse crazy or book crazy alike.
April 2, 2020
A book about a girl and her love of horses. I wanted to read this book because like the author I adore horses. It wasn’t quite what I was expecting but I did enjoy the book. Some of her stories were more interesting than others. Horse lovers will definitely love this book. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the early copy
September 10, 2020
A fascinating look into the author's life through the lenses of horses and her family life as well as a detailed and wonderful exploration of horses--their history, behavior, and the personalities of specific horses Nir has known. A must read for teen and adult "horse people" as well as anyone who enjoys quality narrative nonfiction.
February 21, 2025
I loved this book! Every chapter was named after a horse and its story with the author. I really enjoyed the chapters about the fox hunting, the Claremont Riding Academy (a barn in NYC) and the chapter about the Breyer horse event. This book had me reflecting on all the horses I’ve come across in my life.
February 3, 2022
The author is a kindred spirit. She grew up much like me- playing with Breyer horses, riding, showing, and basically obsessed with all types of horses. Her book is a memoir and a tribute to her heritage and the horses in her life. The writing fits with her profession- a reporter. A light read.
August 25, 2020
Because horses. What a life the author has had so far.
November 19, 2020
I was looking for something light and entertaining to read and this book fit the bill. I found the author's writing and audio narration delightful. I learned a lot about horses and Sarah Maskin Nir's personal history in an engaging manner. Although I consider the book light reading, there were also elements of race, ethnicity, and class that gave me food for thought. I'll be recommending this book to friendy who are horse lovers and those who are not.
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October 21, 2020I thank my mother for finding me this wonderful book and knowing how much I would love it! Thanks, Mom, and thanks Dad for the horse book mark I used while reading! It was a great read for a horse crazy person. I hope others who read it will "get" the love we have for horses!
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