BIGGER 'N TEXAS is a roller coaster ride through the lives of people who make the horse the center of their existence. These cowboys, cowgirls, grooms, riders, trainers, horse owners and horselovers are so passionate they defer to this bewitching beast the most important of life's decisions--where they live and work, when they eat and sleep, who they marry, even whether or not they raise a family. It is as if they realize that the horse can read their mind better than they can read that of the horse--which after you've owned horses long enough you begin to believe and is likely true.

Getting to know these whacky people will be both entertaining and educational. In SWEET MENTAL REVENGE, for example, Merle, the red-headed barrel racer, will explain why she was in jail before she became a barmaid, why her ex-husband Kyle wandered off into the coastal hay patch and how her new live-in got the nickname Daddy Rabbit. Her new best friend Reba, who has a secret, had rather talk about why their boss wants to show every new female employe what is in the trunk of his Mercedes.

Readers of the title story will end up knowing why handsome Guy's famous Christmas party was BIGGER N TEXAS than in Oklahoma, why it was the whores almost didn't get there because of the firemen, and why RUBY FROM ALABAMA was as critical to both locations as the biscuits. But for pure entertainment there is BULL, CHAPPED and THE BRUNETTE ROSE, all boy/girl adventures in the grand world of the rustic and rural, and readers can just dance their way home to FIDDLE MUSIC.

None of this is true, of course, only true to life and from the mind of an author as passionate about horses and goofy in his life as the characters he created.

"An insider's stunning account of the corrupt practices that threaten both the horses and the game . . . an engrossing read." --"Minneapolis Star-Tribune"""

Jim Squires was in trouble. He was in the horse business, an enterprise seemingly intent on committing suicide, led over the cliff by visionless leaders. A clannish group called "the Dinnies" had long refused to share power, as vast overproduction and unbridled greed created a subprime-like bubble in the market. Overpriced animals of dubious quality and drug-enhanced performance on the track were undermining the integrity of competition and ultimately the very breed itself. With its economic model broken, its tawdry sales practices under attack, and its public image in tatters, the sport was overdue for a reckoning.

"Headless Horsemen" is Squires's critique of what is happening to the sport and the animals he loves, as he and a small group of unlikely heroes agitate for a return to fair dealing. For anyone who cares about the soul and survival of horse racing, this book is an impassioned call to arms.

Everybody in the thoroughbred horse business wants to win the Kentucky Derby, but the odds on making it to the winner's circle at Churchill Downs are about 35,000-to-1. How did a former Chicago newspaper editor bring together the stallion and mare and breed the winner of the world's most famous and important horserace? Jim Squires's Horse of a Different colour tells the story of his wild ride from absurdity to glory at the pinnacle of horseracing success alongside Monarchos, the charismatic gray colt blessed with the extraordinary speed, poise, and stamina necessary to carry his motley band of human handlers to the highest level of their profession. Squires takes you on an exciting journey through the close-knit and secretive world of horse breeders, buyers, sellers, owners, and trainers. And his hilarious tour of racehorse culture ends with a blazing sprint down the homestretch of the second fastest Derby in history in the company of a crowd of Kentuckians driven mad with "Derby Fever."