Long Shot
My Bipolar Life and the Horses Who Saved Me
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- € 7,49
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- € 7,49
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An inspiring and searingly honest memoir of how one woman had the strength and courage to change her life. Sylvia Harris was homeless, her children had been taken from her, and she was using crack cocaine. She is also a manic depressive. Now she’s a prize-winning jockey with the world at her feet.
Sylvia’s life was dominated by the fear of a faceless madness that could take hold without warning, causing terrifying hallucinations, delusions and bizarre behaviour. These could at any moment fluctuate back to ruthless clarity or all-consuming depression.
She had been labelled a ‘neglectful mother’, was beaten by her boyfriend, snubbed by family and neighbours and in trouble with the law. There seemed no way out.
Until she discovered that her childhood love of horses could offer a means of escape, a sanctuary from her isolation.
Sylvia felt the exhilaration and danger of riding, the joy of connection to these strong and graceful creatures, the redemptive focus and intuition of the race, the pure ecstasy of finishing, of winning, of beating her demons and all the people who never believed she would succeed, and never looked back.
As unforgettable as Seabiscuit and as touching as Horse Boy, Long Shot is for anyone who has been at life’s lowest ebb – and survived.
Reviews
“An edgy, unapologetic account of [Harris’s] race to outrun the illness that consumed her[…] a tribute to the power of the horse to calm, contain and inspire”
The Economist
“An inspirational story”
Kirkus Reviews
“A truly compelling tale of the havoc that mental illness can wreak and how a passion can lead to healing”
Booklist
About the author
Sylvia Harris is a jockey. She lives in Wilmington, Delaware. This is her first book.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Harris struggled for decades with bipolar disorder, which surfaced shortly after she left high school. Her love of horses became her salvation. She first owned a horse at age 12 when her family "was living the American dream on a cul-de-sac in Santa Rosa," but hard times followed for Harris, along with wild manic episodes. Her illness led to bizarre behavior; at a party she hurled handfuls of chocolate pudding at the walls "as if I were Jackson Pollock (another manic-depressive) throwing paint onto a huge canvas." Buddhism and medications helped, but her personal life was in disarray until she transitioned from homelessness to horse grooming in Ocala, Fla. Working with horses, riding, and training, she got a jockey's license, overcoming the problems of being a woman in a male-dominated sport. "Against all odds," she writes, "at forty years old, I became the first African American woman in Chicago racing history to win a race and only the second in U.S. history." As the book goes into the homestretch, Harris details how she discovered the healing power of horses and got her life back on track.
