Hardboot Rules combines personal history and storytelling in a way that captures the uniqueness of the horse world of the Bluegrass as well as the joys and disappointments of emergence into adulthood. With direct reference to events now a half century old, and with a nod to young lives that were influenced by those events, the story touches on universal dreams and experiences. Told with respect for horsemen and horsewomen and reverence for the equines they cared for, the novel also pays homage to an environment that is rapidly disappearing.