Written By Megin Potter

Suspense sizzles in The Shady Side of Saratoga, the recently released debut novel by author Richard Cobello, a former Saratoga TODAY magazine contributor who uses his 40+ year career in cybersecurity, and his background in enterprise technology, to create realistic portrayals of how nonprofit data can be manipulated in Saratoga, a town simmering with secrets.

In this fast-paced contemporary cybercrime thriller, Cobello blends high-stakes digital espionage with mystery and intrigue, while introducing us to Catherine King, a senior FBI cybersecurity investigator tasked with rooting out a criminal enterprise hidden in the data’s shadows.

This book is the first of five in the Catherine King Enigmatic Quest series, where, to solve the crime, this plucky analyst must uncover the secrets lurking within the digital infrastructure - and risk it all - in a place where gamblers grandstand, while the underpinnings of a sinister underworld linger in the rarified air.

At the oldest track in America, tradition, wealth, and modern interests collide in dangerous ways. Among so much high society and old money is hiding a threat that’s all too real. As Catherine wages a silent battle against those who make quiet allowances for digital discrepancies, and corruption is a legacy as much as it is a way of life, she must unmask those willing to avoid disruption at all costs.

Find The Shady Side of Saratoga on Amazon, through Ingram Spark, and at Northshire Bookstore, 424 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, where author, Richard Cobello, will be hosting a launch event, reading, and book signing at 2 p.m. on September 5. For updates, follow @authorrichardcobello on Facebook.

The Shady Side of Saratoga - BUY NOW on AMAZON Paperback | Kindle

This article originally appeared on Simply Saratoga and is published here with permission.

There are lots of fascinating reads in our section for Books.

We love our horses but how do we know if they love us back? Is our love a one-way street where they just love anyone with feed and treats? Let’s learn more about how horses show affection.

Horses express love and deep trust through gentle, physical actions rather than vocalizations, commonly by nuzzling, grooming, resting their head on your shoulder, or following you. They signal affection by lowering their guard, breathing softly near you, or nickering in greeting, indicating a strong, secure bond.

Key signs a horse is saying "I love you"

• Nuzzling and Grooming: Nibbling at your shoulder or clothes (called "allogrooming") or gently pushing with their nose.
• Resting Their Head: Placing their head on your shoulder or chest is a sign of immense trust.
• Following You: Following you around without a lead rope or halter shows they feel safe with you.
• Relaxed Body Language: Lowered head, soft eyes, or sleeping/lying down while you are in the stall with them.
• The "Greeting Nicker": A soft, low-pitched vocalization when they see you, which is a common greeting.
• Breathing on You: Blowing warm air from their nostrils onto your face or neck is a significant sign of trust and affection.

These behaviors show that the horse views you as part of their herd and trusts you completely, often mimicking the affection they show to other horses. How do you know your horse loves you? Let us know on Facebook, X, Instagram and Bluesky!

You can find more interesting articles in our section on Recreation & Lifestyle

This excerpt is adapted from The Greatest Horse Trainer on Earth: The Sylvia Zerbini Story by Rebecca M. Didier from Trafalgar Square Books, an imprint of The Stable Book Group.

To ninth-generation circus performer and world-renowned liberty trainer Sylvia Zerbini, “working with horses is about freedom—for her, but also for them” (The Press Democrat). “The way I work with horses is different than anyone that I know because of the energy that happens between us,” says Sylvia. That energy is the result of both participants in the interaction, animal and human, as well as the setting, the surroundings, the sights and sounds and smells that the horse’s senses take in and how he interprets and reacts to them. It is the ability to not only tap into the energy but to manage it—to “turn it up” and “turn it down” and move how, where, and when it is concentrated—that, while partly an innate skill, can be nurtured and better employed in each and every one of us, if we’re willing to put in the time.

“Horses react to the energy of those around them,” Sylvia explains, “and when they like what they are doing, they will show off, they will be proud—they need their form of a ‘purpose’ or a ‘reason’ and when they have that, they are fulfilled as an animal. I pick the best parts of a horse and make them bigger.”

I wonder how Sylvia can reconcile the fact that when she trains her own horses, she plays to their strengths and has the space within the realms of liberty performance to showcase what might be a horse’s preferred behavior, but when she is teaching others and perhaps helping them with “problem horses,” there are specific behaviors that are either required or undesired. This, I know, can be perceived the more challenging ask.

“Every time I go into a clinic, I am fixing the person, not the horse,” she explains over her kitchen table. “I have the attitude there is nothing wrong with the horse. He is misunderstood, or the person is applying some kind of pressure unknowingly…. But the biggest thing I come across is people’s timing. They don’t react in the moment. They have to analyze everything.

Sometimes I have auditors [people watching a clinic] and I tell them, ‘I know you are writing your notes, and that is what you are here for, in a way, to learn. But what I am teaching you right now is timing, and when you look down to write your notes, you are missing a big part. For just fifteen minutes this morning, I want you to put your books down while I teach you to be in the moment.’ I need them to watch because when you are working a horse, it is a form of multitasking. You are doing one thing while maybe asking for something else and watching something else…and it all comes down to the timing. I need those I teach to be in the moment and be able to react in the moment. I learned this from my years on the trapeze. My bar was not forgiving—either your timing is on or you’re on the ground. Most of us are so slow, mentally—our thought process is slow, and it is not our fault, but when you are trying to communicate with an animal, that slowness can be very challenging. That, and that lack of confidence that is so common. Horses know I’m not scared. I spent all those years on a trapeze thirty feet up…when I’m on the ground, I have no fear, and horses sense that and I use it.”

It’s not just a physical energy that Sylvia uses. It is an emotional and mental one. And being so “in the moment,” over any length of time, can be exhausting.

“But when you figure out, it’s magic,” she says. “You can honestly look at a horse and feel the energy coming back to you from the horse, and you can hear this silent language between you, and there is nothing like it. As hard as I work to do what I do, I wouldn’t change it for the world. Life, whatever shape it takes, is hard. We were put here for a reason. Mine is horses.”

To achieve that place where you have a sense of who your horse is, and where he has a sense of who you are, and where you can spend time together that is fulfilling for both of you—that is all life is. Life is about community, whether in a church or a school or a job or a family, where you give something of yourself and others give something of themselves back. When you establish that sense of giving energy and being given energy back, you have achieved the same connection, the same community, with a horse.

“Sylvia’s been called a horse whisperer, but it’s no secret that her close rapport with these graceful steeds is based on love and mutual respect…she insists on personally cleaning the stalls and carefully grooming each horse daily,” notes William G. Johnson in his article for The Ohio Motorist. Luisina Dessagne, author of the biographical retrospective Lorenzo, The Flying Frenchman, highlights a similar trait in her internationally renowned subject. “The countless hours that he spends with his horses,” she writes, “actually lives together with them, observes them, plays with them, and trains them, is one of the secrets of Lorenzo’s success.” The amazing feats Sylvia and Lorenzo (Laurent) achieve with their large groups of horses in performance spaces is proof that taking the necessary time to truly value a horse and who that horse is can yield amazing results.

“Horses just won’t want to do something when there is no connection,” Sylvia says emphatically. “Being a ninth-generation circus performer, I grew up in a world where there was always ‘the trainer.’ Nobody else worked the animals that were performing, whatever animals they may be. The horses had the horse trainer. The elephants had an elephant trainer. Same with the lions and tigers—they had their ‘person.’ The connection was built between them, and you felt it. You felt the animals were a lot calmer, a lot happier, and a lot more relaxed when they weren’t constantly changing which people they’re supposed to listen to and do things for.” She pauses before saying, “It’s hard for horses to trust so many people.”

The last statement is an incredibly important one for anybody involved in the modern-day world of equestrian pursuits, and one I feel isn’t considered often enough as the ways of having horses and showing horses continue to evolve away from the model from earlier centuries when most Americans had a horse on their own property for agricultural or transport purposes. As open land shrinks and human lives grow ever busier, many horses experience a parade of caretakers rather than one or two. If they’re boarded elsewhere, their daily needs are met by any number of humans, who may be permanent staff or temporary staff, may have some equine knowledge or very little, and all communicate in different ways. Some may be confident, others timid; some speak constantly, others not at all. They may use their bodies to touch, or they may give wide berth. Add to the mix a “trainer” or “trainers” who work with and ride a horse in order to prepare him for the individual who intends to perform with him, and perhaps exercise riders who condition him when the owner-rider doesn’t have time, and you have even more room for potential confusion and dilution of the connection the horse seeks. If we really think about how the industry works today—how often horses trade hands and how people ride many different horses and how they often aren’t responsible for the hands-on care of their horses—what may truly cause stress in performance horses is not the activity in question, but a lack of connection the horse feels with the human partner in that pursuit.

“I was brought to this farm where they had Warmbloods, top-dollar dressage horses,” Sylvia tells me. “And there were stallions, and I was told they were aggressive. Well, I spent a little time developing a relationship with one of them, and I warmed him up, taught him a little bit of liberty, and got the rider back riding her stallion. But then my rules for that rider are I want absolutely nobody else handling this horse except her and her groom. She needs to not let anybody else handle her horse, for now—maybe in time that can change—but for now, the less contact from different people, the better. A lot of times when I meet a really aggressive horse, I have to ‘wean back’ the number of people that are around him. I can tell right away when there’s multiple hands confusing a horse.

“Think about how, in history, top racehorses or high-level competition horses look for their special groom? That person, that’s their one point of contact, right? There’s that relaxation place, because there is that known person where there’s established trust and the horse is able to go to a relaxed point in a moment of stress. Sometimes, with some horses, it is just a case of too little connection…and a lack of communication.”

This excerpt adapted from The Greatest Horse Trainer on Earth: The Sylvia Zerbini Story by Rebecca M. Didier, reprinted with permission from Trafalgar Square Books, an imprint of The Stable Book Group.

There are more interesting articles in our section on Recreation & Lifestyle.

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Another Kind of Motherhood: Reflections on the Occasion of Mother’s Day by Diana du Pont

This Mother’s Day I will not receive a Hallmark card, a dozen roses, or a box of Shari’s Berries. Not because I am estranged from my children, or they met some tragic fate before their time. Rather, it is because my children have four legs and fur.

Having been cradled in the arms of a troubled mother who repeatedly lamented, “All I have are kids, kids, kids!” and then marinated in the battle cries of second-wave feminism that valued career over children, I had never thought of myself as maternal. When I was a young girl, lost in those daydreamy moments of childhood in which I would imagine my future incarnation, I could not fathom becoming a mother. And, as a young woman, I never noticed the ticking of my biological clock. It was not that I felt it and then ignored it, I simply never experienced it.

Unlike my mother who married and started a family too young, seemingly the root cause of her ever-present regrets and destructive drinking, I delayed marriage until my mid-thirties after having focused on furthering my education and establishing my career, all while never entertaining the notion of a family. By then, I had become a die-hard careerist and grinding workaholic, having flipped my mother’s desperate alcoholism into another form of addiction that was socially acceptable.

In time, I was offered a new post in a new town known for its rich equestrian legacy. Magically nestled between the mountains and the sea, Santa Barbara still featured an active equine community in spite of the relentless pressures of growth, an important quality-of-life factor in my having accepted the position of curator of modern and contemporary art at the city’s main art museum. If I did not know precisely when, I knew that somehow, someday, here in this equine haven, I would return to the wonderful world of horses (and dogs) that had defined my childhood. I can do this! I thought, I can finally make life with horses work while still pursuing career success full tilt.

Read more: Another Kind of Motherhood: Reflections on the Occasion of Mother’s Day

LOVLEI Ranch Founder Robin Hoffman Haack grew up with one foot in the surf and the other in the stirrup. Splitting her childhood between the beach and the ranch, she dreamed of blending both worlds into something meaningful.

Though her family were surfers, Haack discovered her passion for horses at just 8 years old. From all -around western events to jumping and finally cutting, she immersed herself in competition. That love eventually took her to Weatherford, Texas — the cutting horse capital of the world. There, she established herself as a formidable competitor, earning more than $600,000 in winnings, securing numerous championships, including the NCHA Super Stakes Non – Pro Champion and cementing her legacy with an induction into the National Cutting Horse Association Non-Pro Hall of Fame.

Texas gave her lifelong friends and cherished memories in the show pen, but her heart eventually pulled her back home. In the early 1990s, Haack returned to Southern California to help run the family’s fabric business, a legacy started by her grandfather in 1924. Today, she carries the responsibility alongside her brother as a third-generation leader, joined by her daughter and nephew as the fourth generation of a company that has thrived for more than a century.

That deep connection to fabric, combined with her champion Western roots, sparked her own brand of Western apparel, LOVLEI Ranch.

“We had always been behind the scenes designing and printing fabric for manufacturers and fabric stores all over the world,” Haack said. “I finally found the energy and ambition to create something of my own. We have a world of prints and fabric at our fingertips. I wanted to build a legacy for my family.”

Read more: From Coast To Country