Crossing the Line: A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport That Changed Their Lives Forever

This book was incredible. It’s not only a discussion of race and representation in the sport but also a good brief commentary on the horse world. I just loved it. It was hard and heartbreaking, it was inspiring and spoke to my inner horse girl. It’s also local, I know the work to ride farm so it ft a little more personal to me; especially the retraining of the ottb: speaking right to my soul there. I loved every second of this book and want to shove it into everyone’s hands now.

After finishing this book, I imagined a multiple-choice sports quiz, where one of the questions would be: <i>Kareem Rosser started playing which sport as a child in his violent Philadelphia inner-city neighborhood? A) Football B) Basketball C) Baseball D) Polo.</i> Of course, most anyone who never heard of Mr. Rosser would laugh as soon as they saw “polo”, knowing it could not possible be polo! Only, it was polo. One day, when he was a child growing up in a poor family of six kids, his two older brothers discovered <i>The Work To Ride Stables</i> in a nearby park. Founder Lezlie Hiner was giving inner-city kids the chance to ride horses, which would hopefully motivate them to do well in school, stay out of trouble, and have a future that didn’t involve jail or the cemetery. <br /><br />For Kareem Rosser, riding horses not only did all that, but also stopped the panic attacks he was having. He lived in a very violent area, where he said a disagreement with another kid could easily involve a gun. There were no real father figures in his or his sibling’s lives, although he regularly saw his father around the neighborhood, drinking in a field. His mother had a drug problem at times, but still kept the family together, until a kid could no longer be controlled. Horseback riding and polo provided the structure Mr. Rosser, an older brother and a younger brother needed to move forward in life in a constructive manner. Unfortunately, his older brother Bee, a star in the polo world, would quit riding, stop moving forward in life, and ended up going to prison. <br /><br />The incarceration of his two older brothers, as well as his fears of what direction his other siblings might take, weighed heavily on Kareem Rosser. As a teenager, his best friend met a horrid fate, too. Horses and polo gave him something else to focus on, something to excel in, something to dream about, not have nightmares about. The reader learns a lot about polo from this memoir; plus learns a lot about trying to move upward in life, as well as upward in an exclusive type of sport; when many were expecting a downward direction for you, a doomed life one way or another; because of your background and the color of your skin. This is a highly readable, extremely well-written and unique memoir. There’s not an ounce of self-pity or cries of injustice, either. An outstanding, truly heartfelt read.<br /><br />(Note: I received a free e-ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher or author.)

I read this in two sittings only because I had to eat dinner in between those two sittings—otherwise, you couldn't tear me away from CROSSING THE LINE. It's a fantastic book, visceral but poised, from an author and an athlete that we all need to watch. Gripping, powerful, highly recommend.

Wow, what a book. What an inspiring life from a men who had everything against him as a child and through the inspirational program, “Work to Ride,” learn discipline and the love of polo. And through the love of Polo found a whole world that taught him to strive to be the best and to never give up even when his life was the hardest. I love the affection the whole family had toward one another even when some let them down and I loved the stories of all the horses and how they encouraged the kids that went to the ranch to keep striving to do better.<br /><br />The book is very easy to read and it was hard putting it down when I had to go to sleep. I would love to see this as a documentary.<br /><br />I want to thank St. Martin Press and Netgalley for an advance copy of this wonderful memoir.

Kareem Rosser is a wonderful writer and story-teller. And he plays polo. His memoir is probably the best I’ve read. I stayed up way too late to finish reading this in one sitting because I so much wanted to know how it all turned out. Just excellent.

Crossing the Line is for anyone who loves a good underdog story, although this one has some tough subject matter. The author suffered from crippling, debilitating anxiety because of the trauma in his life at a young age. His home life was unstable, and a few tragedies happen in his childhood that would leave a lesser person broken. Rosser, however, found sanctuary in the Chamounix Equestrian Center, where he was able to immerse himself in the game of polo. Here, Rosser found hope and saw a path out of the poverty in which he lived and was raised. He was averse to the drug culture that swallowed so many of his peers and three of his six siblings.<br /><br />Rosser's story is as much about him as about the teacher at the equestrian center that does not give up on the children who go there for escape &amp; to have a sense of greater purpose. It sounds like a ragtag operation, with horses that were meant for the glue factory, and weather conditions that disallow practice year-round. Despite all this, Rosser found his passion, kept with it, and was able to earn scholarships to prestigious institutions. The book is sad, but overall inspirational. It has all the best ingredients for a tear-filled triumphant ending. The story is not over as the center is still operational and Rosser plays a supporting role in keeping the center funded.

Thank you to #NetGalley, Kareem Rosser and the publisher for providing me with a digital copy of this book prior to publication in exchange for my honest review. Crossing the River by Kareem Rosser is his story of growing up in the projects of Philadelphia and overcoming the odds to become the captain of the first all black squad to win the National Interscholastic Polo championship. It is an inspiring story but one that comes with many heartbreaking moments. From the time he was ten, Rosser knew he wanted to go to college and play polo. Thanks to Lezlie Hiner, who founded the Work to Ride stables and introduced him to polo, he was able to fulfill that dream. Hiner offered children an opportunity to escape the violence and poverty of their neighborhoods in exchange for riding lessons and Rosser took advantage of that. In his neighborhood children were more likely to drop out of school and go to jail than they were to finish high school and go to college. Rosser had the determination and the discipline to succeed while he was struggling to keep his family from falling apart. This is a powerful book and I highly recommend it. It should definitely be made into a movie.

Crossing the Line is a peek into a whole world I didn't know existed. I grew up in the country, surrounded by horses; when I briefly moved to a city, there were exactly zero horses that weren't pulling tourist's carriages downtown. But in Philadelphia, not only are there horsemen called the Black Cowboys, there's a little barn with a program called Work to Ride that teaches kids how to play polo!<br /><br />Kareem Rosser is brutally honest about his life growing up in West Philadelphia, but he is never bitter. He speaks with love and respect of the people in his life, and with awe of the bittersweet circumstances that brought him where he is today. The stories of his younger life with his siblings are tough, but the stories of his years at military school are no easier. He is tough, despite describing his fears; he is strong, despite his personal history of anxiety and panic attacks. This is a story for people who love polo. This is a story for people who love horses. This is a story for people who love underdogs. This is a story for people who are anxious, or caring, or lost, or bold, or hopeful.

I'm not crying, you're crying. 'bout sums up this book. <br /><br />I can see why it was a JLG adult pick for our HS library collection. I had pulled it to start reading it when it came in but thought I'd give it a little more focus this summer and I'm glad I did. What a phenomenal story told by a guy who isn't a writer, but a man who wanted to tell his story. This is the best of memoir for sure because in telling his story he can be both an inspiration and beacon to others but also talk about voices that are marginalized. In addition to discussing polo as a sport the same way Ibtihaj Muhammad talked about fencing in her book <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/36589118.Proud_My_Fight_for_an_Unlikely_American_Dream" title="Proud My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream by Ibtihaj Muhammad" rel="noopener">Proud: My Fight for an Unlikely American Dream</a> and Arshay Cooper talked about rowing in his book <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/56750085.A_Most_Beautiful_Thing" title="A Most Beautiful Thing by Arshay Cooper" rel="noopener">A Most Beautiful Thing</a>-- being Black and competing in a sport known for it's whiteness. <br /><br />I'm gushing over Rosser's storytelling. Following a generally chronological approach from when his siblings discovered the barn in West Philadelphia run by Lezlie through his intercollegiate awards for playing in college and becoming the finance director for the Friends of Work to Ride program that allowed him to Work to Ride when he was a young one, there are scenes that jump around a bit but focus on the emotional, physical, mental, socioeconomic elements of his life in a way that lays it bare while being respectful of his family's life, his upbringing in The Bottom, and his interactions with racist, classist folks. <br /><br />Ultimately, he doesn't need to be heavy-handed because his story speaks for itself. You never know what can save you at any time. There's grit and determination. There's people that believe in you. There's people that will actively root against you- how do you keep out the haters? There's times where you'll break down and where tragedy could drag you down with it (because who didn't bawl when he told Mecca's story). Yet, his story needs a megaphone for so many reasons.<br /><br />"I heard the neigh again. My heart started to pound. I knew that sound. I couldn't be anyone else. I turned around slowly, afraid to say his name out loud. Even louder. A trumpet of pure joy. He had seen me. And finally, I saw him, at the end of the stables, his neck stretched out over the stall door, the little white star shining on his forehead, straining toward me and making excited little nickers. I burst into tears and ran to him, not caring that Harris and Jones were watching, not caring that I looked like a big baby, wrapping my arms around Cholo's neck, burying my face in his mane. Lezlie had sent me my pony. She'd given me a reason to stay." <br /><br />"We were strong because of our mothers. Lazette and Tanya might have raised us in different ways and made different kinds of parenting choices, but they both ended up with confident, accomplished children who were working hard to figure it all out... We were strong because of Lezlie. Having a coach who loved you like a mother might be a little embarrassing sometimes, but I'd realized that her warm encouragement and pride was worth a hundred ten-goal coaches screaming out plays and berating their teams for not doing what they were told. Lezlie had given her life over to us and the barn; there was nothing she wouldn't do to see us succeed. Without her, we might just be kids on the street, with no particular future in sight. Lezlie shaped our lives, she taught us to work and play, she brought us once-in-a-lifetime opportunities and then made sure we followed through on them. She gave us horses. And because we loved her just as fiercely as she loved us, we worked as hard as we could to make her proud."<br /><br />"We were strong because of The Bottom."

A compelling autobiographical story of a young African-American boy growing up in one of the toughest areas of Philadelphia. He and his brothers discover a stable of horses in their neighborhood and it sets them on a most unlikely path to the world of Polo. Kareem, the narrator goes through periods of rebellion and darkness but the horses are always there to keep him centered. Leslie, the stable owner makes it her life purpose to keep Kareem, his brothers and the other at-risk boys and girls in her sights and out of harms way. She doesn't always succeed. Kareem's two older brothers wander away despite the obvious talent and love of the game of Polo. There are moments of terrible sorrow as Kareem comes face to face with the realities of living in West Philly: murder, domestic violence, drug and alcohol addiction. But he is given the opportunity to leave it behind when a generous scholarship to Valley Forge Military Academy becomes his ticket out. The road is never a smooth one but, gradually, Kareem learns to use his talent and intelligence to make a better life for himself and his younger brother, Gerb. Watching this young man mature throughout the book is one of the most remarkable stories I have ever read.