Harrison includes plenty of people in her story as well, from classic trainers like Buster Welch, Pine Johnson and Leon Harrel, to avid non-pros. All of these people give anecdotal explanations of why the sport and the horses have such a hold on them. Letting people like this tell their stories makes for entertaining and often rather moving reading.

There's one odd, and rather amusing, aspect of this book -- when I tried to look up Leon Harrel in the index I couldn't find him. Then I realized that none of the humans quoted or described in the book are listed in the index. You can look up every passing reference to Smart Date or Doc O Lena, but Harrison appears to have left the people out of the index entirely. That alone tells you all you need to know about Harrison's love for horses and cutting.

My only complaint is that I wanted more and yet more details. This book could have been twice as long and I would still have read it in a sitting.