The sad reality is that many of the books published in this Age of Woke are extremely disappointing – particularly those books authored by females. Many … but not all. There are some absolute gems buried in the tedious sludge. Such a book is “Half Broke: a Memoir” by Ginger Gaffney, ISBN 978-1-324-00307-6, 247 pages (2020).
A well-established horse trainer in northern New Mexico, Ms. Gaffney received a very strange call for help in 2013. The horses at an area ranch had gone feral, and were biting, kicking, and terrorizing the people on the ranch. She was intrigued because she had never heard of such a thing, and went to investigate.
It turned out this was no ordinary ranch. It was a “prison-alternative” establishment where about a hundred selected convicts, male & female, were given the opportunity to complete their sentences in a largely self-governing community. At some point during the slow turnover of the convict population, the knowledge of how to deal with horses had been lost – resulting in the current take-over of the ranch by the animals. Ms. Gaffney agreed to help on an unpaid basis.
Along the way, she bleeds some of her relevant past into the book. She was a very withdrawn silent child who became an athletic teenage tomboy and slid into lesbianism. She never felt at home anywhere in any society … and then she met horses. Horses are honest; people are not.
Since horses are herd animals, her first challenge at the ranch was to establish dominance over the lead horse, and then to win the trust of all the horses. She was a very close observer of horses, noticing subtle behaviors which helped her understand them and manage them. She applied some of the same close observations to the small group of convicts assigned to the Livestock Team.
Dealing with these particular convicts was also a challenge. Most of their criminal behavior had been related to the abuse of drugs. One man had been born into a multi-generational drug-dealing family where it was understood that at least one member of the family would usually be in jail while the other family members carried on the trade. One woman had been taking off her clothes for men since she was 13 years old in her parents’ strip club. But Ms. Gaffney managed to get them interested in the horses. For most of them, this was the first time in their lives they had cared about anything other than themselves.
This well-written memoir develops into a fascinating tale about people and horses; about the hard work, the difficult skills, the uplifting successes, and the heart-breaking disappointments among damaged people and animals. Well worth a read!
