Sylvia Rideoutt Bishop Had A Way With Horses: A Pioneering African American Woman’s Career Training Race Horses

(Hardcover, 2020 by Vicky Moon)  Sylvia Rideoutt Bishop (Oct. 5, 1920-Dec. 27, 2004) was one of seventeen children born to a West Virginia family whose ancestors were enslaved. Sent to live with a nearby childless couple as a toddler, she was indulged with fancy dresses and one mesmerizing pony ride that changed her life. Her love of horses took her to the Charles Town racetrack at age fourteen to work as a groom, hot walker and then trainer, all the time fighting sexism and racial bigotry against a backdrop of the swirling Civil Rights movement. She prevailed to break barriers, shatter stereotypes and celebrate countless transforming victories in the winner’s circle with many wealthy clients. As a single mother after two failed marriages, financial reality forced her to take on extra work in the shipping department at a nearby Doubleday publishing factory. Never wavering in her passion, she returned to the track to train horses at age eighty. And finally, with little fanfare, she was