Bøger af Jim Squires

BIGGER 'N TEXAS is a roller coaster ride through the lives of people who make the horse the center of their existence. These cowboys, cowgirls, grooms, riders, trainers, horse owners and horselovers are so passionate they defer to this bewitching beast the most important of life's decisions--where they live and work, when they eat and sleep, who they marry, even whether or not they raise a family. It is as if they realize that the horse can read their mind better than they can read that of the horse--which after you've owned horses long enough you begin to believe and is likely true. Getting to know these whacky people will be both entertaining and educational. In SWEET MENTAL REVENGE, for example, Merle, the red-headed barrel racer, will explain why she was in jail before she became a barmaid, why her ex-husband Kyle wandered off into the coastal hay patch and how her new live-in got the nickname Daddy Rabbit. Her new best friend Reba, who has a secret, had rather talk about why their boss wants to show every new female employe what is in the trunk of his Mercedes. Readers of the title story will end up knowing why handsome Guy's famous Christmas party was BIGGER N TEXAS than in Oklahoma, why it was the whores almost didn't get there because of the firemen, and why RUBY FROM ALABAMA was as critical to both locations as the biscuits. But for pure entertainment there is BULL, CHAPPED and THE BRUNETTE ROSE, all boy/girl adventures in the grand world of the rustic and rural, and readers can just dance their way home to FIDDLE MUSIC. None of this is true, of course, only true to life and from the mind of an author as passionate about horses and goofy in his life as the characters he created.

For fans concerned about the future of horse racing, "a well-told cautionary tale about greed and willful inattention" (Kirkus)."An insider's stunning account of the corrupt practices that threaten both the horses and the game . . . an engrossing read." -Minneapolis Star-TribuneJim Squires was in trouble. He was in the horse business, an enterprise seemingly intent on committing suicide, led over the cliff by visionless leaders. A clannish group called "the Dinnies" had long refused to share power, as vast overproduction and unbridled greed created a subprime-like bubble in the market. Overpriced animals of dubious quality and drug-enhanced performance on the track were undermining the integrity of competition and ultimately the very breed itself. With its economic model broken, its tawdry sales practices under attack, and its public image in tatters, the sport was overdue for a reckoning. Headless Horsemen is Squires's critique of what is happening to the sport and the animals he loves, as he and a small group of unlikely heroes agitate for a return to fair dealing. For anyone who cares about the soul and survival of horse racing, this book is an impassioned call to arms.