In The Ghost Horse, Joe Layden (The Last Great Fight) has crafted an inspiring, and true, love story infused with fate and coincidence, second chances and hope.
Tim Snyder was a gruff, nomadic horseman who fled hardscrabble beginnings to train "cheap horses." While working in a second-tier horse barn in upstate New York, a runaway colt in his care knocked over his quiet, unassuming co-worker, Lisa Calley, with whom he became instantly smitten--and vice versa. Lisa, 10 years younger than Tim, had already survived a broken marriage, cancer and a traumatic brain injury from a previous horse-riding incident. Their shared passion for horses united them as they built a married life together; her emotional sensitivity ultimately softened his unsentimental rough edges.
When Lisa's cancer returned, she promised Tim, "I'll see you again. I'm coming back as a horse." Her death left a gaping hole in her husband until, years later, he scraped together enough money to purchase a filly whose winning pedigree was offset by a blind left eye and congenital abnormalities in her left foot and shoulders. No one but Tim believed she would make it to the starting gate. But "Lisa's Booby Trap," as Tim named her, took the racing world by storm, and their bond helped Tim rebound from grief and loneliness. He came to believe the filly's personality reflected the sweet, resilient disposition of his late wife.
Layden has teamed up previously with a variety of superstars, from Kobe Bryant of the NBA to heavy metal's Dave Mustaine, as a co-author. In The Ghost Horse, Layden's writing shines on its own--insight and compassion weaving the narrative threads of this dual love story. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines