Join Vicky Moon as presents her latest book:
Sylvia Rideoutt Bishop
Had A Way With Horses
A Pioneering African American Woman’s Career Training Race Horses
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 honored for her pioneering accomplishments as the first black woman licensed to train racehorses in the United States.
This never-before-told story will bring to life Sylvia’s love of horses and demonstrate her resolve and grit in confronting a litany of obstacles. They included the limited opportunity for an education and the precarious odds of getting her fractious Thoroughbred racehorses to the starting gate when factoring in their health and soundness.
Sylvia Rideoutt Bishop made her mark in the alluring sport of kings long before the tennis-playing Williams sisters or Olympic track star Jackie Joyner ever made the evening news. She traveled the half-mile track racing and fairground circuit in Cumberland, Timonium and Hagerstown Maryland, not far from Washington, D.C.. Well past nightfall, she checked on her charges, often mixing poultices for their aching legs and constantly demonstrating her wonderful way with horses.
Vicky Moon is a writer, editor and photographer. She ‘s chronicled the lives of the famous and the not so famous and covered major murders and prominent lives for People Magazine and The Washington Post. She writes a monthly life-in-the-Virginia-countryside column “Over the Moon” for Washington Life magazine. She’s reported on hunt balls, steeplechase races, and parties from Palm Beach to Saratoga Springs for Town and Country and Millionaire magazines.
She’s written about homes and gardens for Veranda and Southern Accents and served as a contributing editor for House and Garden. She appeared on the A&E network’s “City Confidential” and served as a producer for Dominick Dunne’s “Power, Privilege and Justice.” This is her tenth book, many involving horses and racing.
Ms. Moon can be reached at vickyannmoon@aol.com or 540-454-3113.
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