SKU: 60973804924

The Last Diving Horse in America: Rescuing Gamal and Other Animals- Lessons in Living and Loving

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The Last Diving Horse in America: Rescuing Gamal and Other Animals- Lessons in Living and LovingNamed Best Equine Non Fiction Book at the 2022 Equus Film & Arts Fest The rescue of the last diving horse in America and the inspiring story of how horse and animal rescuer were each profoundly transformed by the otherfrom the award winning animal rescuer of retired racing greyhounds and author of the best selling Adopting the Racing Greyhound It was the signature of Atlantic Citys Steel Pier in the golden age of Americas Favorite Playground: Doc

Named Best Equine Non-Fiction Book at the 2022 Equus Film & Arts Fest

The rescue of the last diving horse in America and the inspiring story of how horse and animal rescuer were each profoundly transformed by the other—from the award-winning animal rescuer of retired racing greyhounds and author of the best-selling Adopting the Racing Greyhound


It was the signature of Atlantic City’s Steel Pier in the golden age of “America’s Favorite Playground”: Doc Carver’s High Diving Horses. Beginning in 1929, four times a day, seven days a week, a trained horse wearing only a harness ran up a ramp, a diving girl in a bathing suit and helmet jumped onto its mighty bare back, and together they sailed forty feet through the air, plung­ing, to thunderous applause, into a ten-foot-deep tank of water.
 
Decades later, after cries of animal abuse and chang­ing times, the act was shuttered, and in May 1980, the last Atlantic City Steel Pier diving horse was placed on the auction block in Indian Mills, New Jersey. The au­thor, who had seen the act as a child and had been haunted by it, was now working with Cleveland Amory, the founding father of the modern animal protection movement, and she was, at the last minute, sent on a rescue mission: bidding for the horse everyone had come to buy, some for the slaughterhouse (they dropped out when the bidding exceeded his weight). The author’s winning bid: $2,600—and Gamal, gleaming-coated, majestic, commanding, was hers; she who knew almost nothing about horses was now the owner of the last div­ing horse in America.
 
Cynthia Branigan tells the magical, transformative story of how horse and new owner (who is trying to sort out her own life, feeling somewhat lost herself and in need of rescuing) come to know each other, educate each other, and teach each other important lessons of living and loving. She writes of providing a new home for Gamal, a farm with plentiful fields of rich, grazing pasture; of how Gamal, at age twenty-six, blossoms in his new circumstances; and of the special bond that slowly grows and deepens between them, as Gamal tests the author and grows to trust her, and as she grows to rely upon him as friend, confidant, teacher.
 
She writes of her search for Gamal’s past: moved from barn to barn, from barrel racer to rodeo horse, and ending up on the Steel Pier; how his resilience and dig­nity throughout those years give deep meaning to his life; and how in understanding this, the author is freed from her own past, which had been filled with doubts and fears and darkness. Branigan writes of the history of diving horses and of how rescuing and caring for Gamal led to her saving other animals—burros, llamas, and goats—first as company for Gamal and then finding homes for them all; and, finally, saving a ten-year-old retired greyhound called King—despondent, nearly broken in spirit—who, running free in the fields with Gamal, comes back to his happy self and opens up for the author a whole new surprising but purposeful world.
 
A captivating tale of the power of animals and the love that can heal the heart and restore the soul.

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SKU: 60973804924

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Gordon Hastings
Houston, US
★★★★★ 5
UNDERSTANDING THE COLONIAL POPULATING OF THE NEW WORLD. AN ACADEMIC WORK.
Format: Paperback
Pulitzer Prize winning author Bernard Bailyn writing The Barbarous Years opens a sweeping and authoritative discourse into the peopling of North American between 1600 and 1675. From Jamestown, Virginia to Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, who were these individuals who braved three plus months voyages on small, crowded and disease infested ships to arrive at the edge of the American wilderness? You will learn not only who they were but why some succeeded while others were destined to fail. images No one needs tout Bailey's credentials as historian and researcher. He is brilliant. However, what is most remarkable is his ability to keep the subject flowing, fascinating and understandable for the lay reader. Bailyn delivers in brilliant digital display the complexity and challenges of the people responsible for the early settlement of North America. Think of this: Why did the Jamestown fail numerous times? Why did the Catholics establish a foothold in Maryland and the Finns and Swedes in Delaware? Why did The Massachusetts Bay Colony begin to work from day one.? Was it religious fervor or the composition of the settlers themselves? What role did the varied Native American tribes play in the success or failure of early settlement. How did the Pilgrims differ from the Puritans and the aforementioned from the Quakers and the Dutch? Were indentured servants a precursor to slavery? Winthrop, Bradford ,Stuyvesant, Keift, Underhill, King Philips War. The Barbarous Years that marked the original settling of America is a most accurate title for the book. Adventurers, scoundrels, orphans, preachers, doctors, lawyers, Native Americans, politicians, merchants and perhaps most important, the hundreds of unnamed families with children who came to America during the Great Migration of the 1630s , bringing with them the skills and the ethic to permanently settle on the land. The " New World" was British North America during its early settlement but Bailyn clearly identifies the complexity of cultures, trade and geography that would eventually become America. The Barbarous Years is a fabulous foundation for understanding colonial America's formative years. Also by Bernard Bailyn: The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, The Ordeal of Thomas Hutchinson, and Voyages to the West, which won a Pulitzer. A wonderful different perspective of the settlement of the Massachusetts Bay Colony comes from reading Anya Seton's historical novel Winthrop Women. A second suggestion is Philbrick's book Mayflower. Search Gordonsgoodreads.com for overviews of both.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2014
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Dr. Kevin M. Derby
Dallas, US
★★★★★ 5
A Sweeping, Memorable Book From One of America's Greatest Historians
Format: Paperback
Bernard Bailyn offered this third volume of his “Peopling of British North America” by looking back at a far earlier period. Instead of looking at the 1760s and 1770s, Bailyn turned his attention to the seventeenth century. Always a fine writer, especially for an academic, Bailyn presented a sweeping look at the founding of Virginia, Maryland, New York, New England and other parts of the Atlantic coast. Bailyn was able to cover a great deal of ground, looking at Native Americans, Swedes, the Dutch and a host of various religious groups from England from the Pilgrims to Catholics. Scholars and general readers alike will profit from this look at the rough, often bloody, birth of America. It is easily one of the most memorable additions to colonial American history in recent years. Highly recommended.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2020
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Sheldon Sharray
Charlottesville, US
★★★★★ 5
Perfect for law students taking criminal procedure
Format: Paperback
Goes perfectly with the textbook for law students and for anyone that needs to know the rules of criminal procedure. Very well put together.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2025
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Aidan Sophie Goldsmith
Fort Morgan, US
★★★★★ 5
Lightweight, Readable Font, Great Quality
Format: Paperback, Format: Paperback
Excellent quality. No marks or damage; exactly as described. This has helped significantly in class. It is lightweight as well, which is nice considering most law books are not.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2025
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Chips
Battle Creek, US
★★★★★ 5
Good condition
One of the books I needed for class :)
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Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2022

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