Jim Gath was a corporate executive for many years. Although he grew up around horses, including race horses, his adult career path took him in a very different direction. Jim Gath was one of the founders of USA TODAY and worked for the Turner Broadcasting System. He even ran a couple of his own marketing companies. Along the way, though, Jim realized that none of this was making him happy. He made a decision that would change his life forever. He had to get back to his roots. He realized that he was happiest when he was around horses. So, he changed his life. He got a few horses, gave riding lessons and happily hung out with his horses, until he was touched by the realization that there were many, many horses throughout this land that needed a happy, healthy home. That day was the day that Tierra Madre Horse Sanctuary was born. Through Jim's eyes and spirit displayed in his writing, you can almost live that life with him. In Jim Gath's book, Diary of a Horseman: My Life and Times at Tierra Madre Horse Sanctuary, you will meet some horses - some famous, some that no one has ever heard of - until now. You will learn what it's like to live on "Tierra Madre" - Mother Earth. His essays will make you laugh and make you cry. You might even decide to change your own life in one way or another. You will learn what dedication is all about.
About the Author: It's funny how life's trails can lead a person into strange and wonderful diversions before eventually leading him back home. Jim Gath comes from a family of horsemen - his grandfather was a trick rider, trainer and horse trader, one of his uncles was a jockey and another was an owner of rather questionably talented racehorses. As a kid, horses were an important part of his life, but he began his adult life taking a different trail. There was a time when the first thing Jim Gath did when he got to work every day 6:30 a.m. was look at the prior day's revenue figures. Now, the first thing he does every morning is walk around Tierra Madre Horse Sanctuary and makes sure that the 31 horses living there have spent a comfortable, quiet night.Tierra Madre Horse Sanctuary in Cave Creek is a sanctuary rescue ranch - a "Forever Home" to 31 previously unwanted, neglected, injured or abused horses. Ex-racehorses, ex-show horses, ex-rodeo horses, ex-ranch horses, ex-trail horses - horses of all sizes and breeds have found their way to Tierra Madre. The one thing they all have in common is that they had nowhere else to go and are now living out their lives in a happy, healthy, loving home. Jim Gath was one of the founders of USA TODAY and eventually rose through the ranks to become the head of its advertising sales department. He moved on to Turner Broadcasting, where he worked with CNN, TBS, TNT and The Cartoon Network, before developing the marketing platform for the 1998 Goodwill Games. He was the publisher of College Sports Magazine. He produced the first-ever Insight.com Bowl, a post-season college football game. He produced Phoenix 2000, a huge turn-of-the-century extravaganza in downtown Phoenix that drew tens of thousands of revelers. He became a concert promoter in Las Vegas producing, among other things, the first-ever major open air concert in the Las Vegas suburb of Summerlin, the country's largest master-planned community. And here he is. At Rancho Tierra Madre, home of Tierra Madre Horse Sanctuary, with thirty-one rescued horses. And his dog, Levon. He has never, ever met a horse he didn't like. "You just have to listen to them", he says. "They'll tell you everything you need to know." Gath is also the author of, "I Hear You, Horse." and "264 West 40th Street".