Half Broke: A Memoir

Half Broke: A MemoirAt the start of this remarkable story of recovery, healing, and redemption, Ginger Gaffney answers a call to help retrain the troubled horses at an alternative prison ranch in New Mexico, a facility run entirely by the prisoners. The horses are scavenging through the dumpsters, kicking and running down the residents when they bring the trash out after meals. One horse is severely injured. The horses and residents arrive at the ranch broken in one way

At the start of this remarkable story of recovery, healing, and redemption, Ginger Gaffney answers a call to help retrain the troubled horses at an alternative prison ranch in New Mexico, a facility run entirely by the prisoners. The horses are scavenging through the dumpsters, kicking and running down the residents when they bring the trash out after meals. One horse is severely injured.

The horses and residents arrive at the ranch broken in one way or many: the horses are defensive and terrified, while the residents, some battling drug and alcohol addictions, are emotionally and physically shattered. With deep insight into how animals and humans communicate through posture, body language, and honesty of spirit, Gaffney walks us through her struggle to train the untrainable.

Gaffney peels away the layers of her own story--a solitary childhood, painful introversion, and a transformative connection with her first horse, a filly named Belle--and she, too, learns to trust people as much as she trusts horses. As her year-long odyssey builds toward a dramatic conclusion, the group experiences triumphs and failures, brave recoveries and relapses, as well as betrayals and moving stories of trust and belonging.

Resonant, smart, and beautifully written, Half Broke tears at the heart of what it takes to find wholeness after years of trauma and addiction and offers profound insight on how working with animals can satisfy our universal need for connection.

Binding Type: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 02/04/2020
ISBN: 9781324003076
Pages: 272
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.60w x 1.10d

Review Citations: Library Journal Prepub Alert 09/01/2019 pg. 52
Publishers Weekly 11/11/2019
Kirkus Reviews 11/15/2019
Booklist 12/01/2019 pg. 14
Shelf Awareness 03/06/2020