I was perhaps all of three feet tall, that little length of me now stretched out in a rocky field. They loom large, like a city skyline gone sideways. Those stones come to me in a silhouette of massive, misshapen pebbles. I recall the shape of the rocks in front of my eyes, my scraped cheek pressed to the ground. I don’t remember the first time I was on a horse. 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. And she speaks candidly of how horses have helped her overcome heartbreak and loss.

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. 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. Woven into these compelling character studies, Nir shares her own moving personal narrative. We meet Monty Roberts, the California trainer whose prowess earned him the nickname “the man who listens to horses,” and his pet deer George and Ann Blair, who at their riding academy on a tiny island in Manhattan’s Harlem River seek to resurrect the erased legacy of the African American cowboy and Francesca Kelly, whose love for an Indian nobleman shaped her life’s mission: to protect an endangered Indian breed of horse and bring them to America. Nir takes readers into the lesser-known corners of the riding world and profiles some of its most captivating figures. 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. Horse Crazy is a fascinating, funny, and moving love letter to these graceful animals and the people who-like her-are obsessed with them.

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. 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. 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. ONE OF USA TODAY'S “20 SUMMER BOOKS YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS”

Horse crazy by sarah maslin nir