A Cavalcade Of Horses In Fact, Fantasy And Fiction (1961)

A Cavalcade Of Horses In Fact, Fantasy And Fiction
edited by Florence M. Peterson and Irene Smith, il. Wesley Dennis
1961, Thomas Nelson & Sons

Must we drag on this stupid existence forever,
So idle and weary, so full of remorse,
While every one else takes his pleasure,
and never Seems happy unless he is riding a horse?
The Nutcracker and the Sugar-Tongs, Edward Lear
 

An anthology with a wide variety of topics and themes, with shorter entries than most anthologies, and clearly geared to younger children.  The Wesley Dennis illustrations are confined to small collages at the start of each section.

Horses To Find
The Blind Colt by Glen Rounds (1941)
Hunted Horses by Glen Rounds (1951)
The River Horse by Nina Ames Frey (1953)

Horses To Tame
The Black Stallion And The Red Mare by Gladys Francis Lewis
A Battle For Mastery by Shannon Garst from Cowboy Boots (1946)

Horses To Rescue
Elijah, The Hermit Horse by Bill Hosokawa
The Outlaw Roan by Stephen Holt from The Phantom Roan (1949)
Easy Does It! by Robert L. McGrath

Horses To Ride
Trapped! by Arlene Hale (1960)
Lessons From Holley by C.W. Anderson from High Courage (1941)
Riding Song by Anonymous from Songs Of The Cattle Trail (1919)

Horses To Cheer
Black Gold by Marguerite Henry from Black Gold (1957)
The Good Luck Colt by Genevieve Torrey Eames from The Good Luck Colt (1953)

Horses To Know
Ancestors and Modern Relatives in the Family of Horses by Irene Smith
Justin Morgan, Vermont Horse Hero by Harland Manchester (1954)
The Runaway by Robert Frost (1951)
The Arabian by Robert Sidney Downs from Canyon Fury (1952)
A Horse Afraid Of His Shadow by Frances Carpenter from Wonder Tales Of Horses And Heroes (1952)
Alexander The Great by Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon from Heroes And Heroines (1933)
An Immortal Horse by Florence K. Peterson
Cream White Marengo by Florence K. Peterson
Buffalo Bill by Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon from Heroes And Heroines (1933)
Jeb Stuart, Boy In The Saddle by Gertrude Hecker Winders, from Jeb Stuart, Boy In The Saddle (1959)

Horses To Dream About
Pegaus, The Winged Horse by Irene Smith
Pegasus In Pound by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Mud Pony by Frances Jenkins Olcott from Red Indian Fairy Book (1945)
The Nutcracker And The Sugar-Tongs by Edward Lear from The Complete Nonsense Book
The Horse On The Chuch Tower by Baron Munchhausen
Carrots And Hay For Saint Nicholas' Horses by Florence K. Peterson
The Three Horses by Ivy O. Eastwick from I Rode A Black Horse Far Away (1960)

Horses To Thank
Comanche Of The Seventh by Margaret Leighton (1957)
Myles Keogh's Horse by John Hay from Poetry's Plea For Animals
General Putnam's Ride by Florence K. Peterson
Paul Revere's Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Old Cavalry Horse by Frances Margaret Fox from The Last Run Of Uncle Sam's Fire Horses
Western Wagons by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet from Book Of Americans (1933)
Pony Express Sage by Florence K. Peterson
Stage Coach Days by Florence K. Peterson
Not So Long Ago by Irene Smith
The Last Run by Frances Margaret Fox
Old Doctor Dobbin by Irene Smith
From The Book of Job - The Bible

Horses To Keep
Little Vic by Doris Gates, from Little Vic (1951)
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell (intro by Noel Streatfeild), from Black Beauty

Synopses

"The Blind Colt" by Glen Rounds (1941) from The Blind Colt
10-year-old Whitey convinces his uncle that they don't need to shoot a blind foal to forestall it dying in an inevitable accident; he'll look after it.

"Hunted Horses" by Glen Rounds (1951) from Wild Appaloosa
A crafty mustang stallion narrowly escapes an equally crafty trap.

Glen Rounds (1906-2002) wrote and illustrated many children's books about the West.  His horse books include Blind Colt, Blind Outlaw, and the Whitey books.

"The River Horse" by Nina Ames Frey (1953) from The River Horse
Arana, a Guatemalan boy, longs for a horse that his simple forest family could never support. But one day, he spies a small, striped creature that looks oddly like a tiny horse.

The danta of The River Horse is a tapir, which just tickles me. An excerpt from this book appears in another horse anthology, The Big Book Of Favorite Horse Stories, which seems to indicate a great latitude for what constitutes a horse story than I'd have expected.


"The Black Stallion And The Red Mare" by Gladys Francis Lewis
Donald and his father are baffled by the odd behavior of a mustang stallion who is caught when he refuses to leave a chestnut mare.

Also known as "The Wild Horse Roundup, and also appears in the anthology The Big Book Of Favorite Horse Stories.

"A Battle For Mastery" by Shannon Garst from Cowboy Boots (1946)
Summering on his uncle's Wyoming ranch, Bob idolizes the cowboy Montana.  Montana bets the other hands that he can ride and train the worst bucker on the property, Dynamite.

Shannon Garst (1894-1981) wrote many children's books, often with Western themes.  Among her horse-themed books were Cowboy Boots, Silver Spurs For Cowboy Boots, Crazy About Horses, Tall In The Saddle, The Burro Who Sat Down and A Horse And A Hero.

"Elijah, The Hermit Horse" by Bill Hosokawa
A packhorse named Bugs escapes his corral and vanishes; months later, a pilot spots a horse standing atop a Colorado mountain, stranded in the deep snow. The story catches the public imagination, leading to a rescue effort.

William Kumpai Hosokawa (1915 – 2007) was a Japanese-American journalist at The Denver Post.  His story for Reader's Digest, coming on the heels of a Life Magazine story, made a one-day wonder out of a random packhorse who'd become stranded on a mountain.  The Colorado blog Restless Native goes into the story further.

"The Outlaw Roan" by Stephen Holt from The Phantom Roan (1949)
Stung by the death of his horse, Glenn leaves his uncle's faltering ranch to go work in the city, leaving behind his dreams of becoming a vet. He stumbles across a notorious mustang, a vicious roan, lamed by a sharp rock, and is drawn back to his passion for healing.

Stephen Holt (1894-1987) was a pen name for Harlan Thompson, who produced several Western-themed horse books including Prairie Colt, Spook, The Mustang and The Whistling Stallion.

"Easy Does It!" by Robert L. McGrath (originally in Scholastic Magazine, 1959)
An Eastern orphan transplanted to his uncle's ranch butts heads with the range boss when he persists in gentling his colt, Lucky, instead of breaking him the western way.

 "Easy Does It" also appears in the anthology Favorite Horse Stories (1965)

"Trapped!" by Arlene Hale (1960) (originally in Calling All Girls Magazine)
When bandits kidnap her and her friends, a quick-thinking girl leaves a clue during the confusion.

Arlene Hale appears to have specialized in romance novels and their sub-genre of nurse romances.

"Lessons From Holley" by C.W. Anderson from High Courage (1941)
The black groom Holley tells Patsy endless stories of horses, and the two prepare the horse Bobcat for timber racing.

Clarence William Anderson (1891-1971) wrote and illustrated many classic American horse books, including Billy And Blaze, Afraid To Ride, and The Blind Connemara.

"Riding Song" by Anonymous from Songs Of The Cattle Trail (1919) Poem
Take the life of cities -
Here's the life for me.
'Twere a thousand pities
Not to gallop free.

"Black Gold" by Marguerite Henry from Black Gold (1957)
Al Hoots gets himself barred from racing when he refuses to turn over his mare after a claiming race.

Marguerite Henry (1902-1997) wrote several classic 20th century horse books, but her most famous was Misty of Chincoteague, a Newberry winner for 1947 and one of the few older horse books still in print..

"The Good Luck Colt" by Genevieve Torrey Eames from The Good Luck Colt (1953)
Martin's beloved harness colt, Good Luck, is stolen by thieves.

Eames wrote several horse books, including A Horse To Remember, Pat Rides The Trail, Ghost Town Cowboy, and Flying Roundup.

"Ancestors and Modern Relatives in the Family of Horses" by Irene Smith
A very brief look a tthe history of the horse.

"Justin Morgan, Vermont Horse Hero" by Harland Manchester (1954) originally appeared in the January 1955 issue of American Mercury.
There are in America some twenty breeds of horses, but in the Green Mountain country only two breeds are recognized: Morgan and "other horses."

"The Runaway" by Robert Frost (1951) Poem
Once when the snow of the year was beginning to fall/We stopped by a mountain pasture to say "Whose colt?"/A little Morgan had one forefoot on the wall,/The other curled at his breast.  He dipped his head/And snorted at us.  And then he had to bolt.

Robert Frost (1874-1963) is simply too well known to bother summarizing.  I did come across an interesting essay about the horse in American poetry from literary magazine The New Criterion.

"The Arabian" by Robert Sidney Downs from Canyon Fury (1952
A very brief scene in which Jeff rides his mare, Mecca, around his uncle's ranch and muses on the heritage of the Arabian horses they raise.  The author's true name was Robert Sidney Bowen,

Robert Sidney Downs was one of several pseudonyms of author Robert Sidney Bowen. He was most famous for his WWII-set teen adventure series starring Dave Dawson and Red Randall, and a host of sports-themed books for boys. Under the name James Robert Richard, he published several horsey titles in the 1950's: Phantom Mustang, The Purple Palomino, The Appaloosa Curse, Snow King, Lippizan Horse, Double M For Morgans, and Joker, The Polo Pony.

"A Horse Afraid Of His Shadow" by Frances Carpenter from Wonder Tales Of Horses And Heroes (1952)
The story of Alexander, and his taming of the stallion Bucephalus.

"Alexander The Great" by Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon from Heroes And Heroines (1933) Poem
Cheerful sillines about Alexander's lack of worlds to conquer.

"An Immortal Horse" by Florence K. Peterson
A brief tribute t oTraveller, the gray horse who was the favorite of Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

"Cream White Marengo" by Florence K. Peterson
Another brief tribute to a soldier's horse, this time the favorite battle mount of Napoleon.

"Buffalo Bill" by Eleanor and Herbert Farjeon from Heroes And Heroines (1933) Poem
I say! What a thrill!/Here's Buffalo Bill,/The King of the Cowboys in valour and skill,/With his fringes of leather, his cowpuncher's hat,/His lasso and pistols and boot and all that!

"Jeb Stuart, Boy In The Saddle" by Gertrude Hecker Winders, from Jeb Stuart, Boy In The Saddle (1959)
James Ewell Brown Stuart was a famous scout for the Confederacy, and this excerpt is from a children's biography that chronicles his beloved first horse, Bayberry.

"Pegaus, The Winged Horse" by Irene Smith
A retelling of the myth of a flying horse trapped by a magic bridle.

"Pegasus In Pound" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poem
Once into a quiet village,/Without haste and without heed,/In the golden prime of morning,/Strayed the poet's winged steed.

"The Mud Pony" by Frances Jenkins Olcott from Red Indian Fairy Book (1945)
A poor Indian boy is visited by a dream that promises him Mother Earth will give him a horse.  In the morning, he finds a fast, clever brown pony with a white face.  The only catch is he must cover the pony each night or the dew will turn him back into earth.

"The Nutcracker And The Sugar-Tongs" by Edward Lear from The Complete Nonsense Book Poem
Must we drag on this stupid existence forever,/So idle and weary, so full of remorse,/While every one else takes his pleasure, and never/Seems happy unless he is riding a horse?

A pair of utensils go racing in this nonsense poem.

"The Horse On The Chuch Tower" by Baron Munchhausen
A tall tale by a man famous for them.

"Carrots And Hay For Saint Nicholas' Horse" by Florence K. Peterson
The story of the German and Dutch Christmas tradition of putting out hay and carrots for the horse who in their legends carries Santa Claus on his rounds.

"The Three Horses" by Ivy O. Eastwick from I Rode A Black Horse Far Away (1960)
I patted the white horse,/I stroked the tgray,/and I rode the black horse far away.

"Comanche Of The Seventh" by Margaret Leighton (1957)
The story of Little Big Horn, from the perspective of the sole U.S. Army survivor, the horse Comanche.

"Myles Keogh's Horse" by John Hay from Poetry's Plea For Animals   Poem
On the bluff of the Little Big-Horn,/At the close of a woeful day,/Custer and his Three Hundred/In death and silence lay./And of all that stoof at noonday/In that fiery scorpion ring/Myles Keogh's horse, at evening,/Was the only living thing.

"General Putnam's Ride"  by Florence K. Peterson
Peterson retells what is evidently a favorite Connecticut tale of the Revolution, when 59-year-old  Israel Putnam, already respected as a daring and courageous soldier, escaped a British raid by riding breakneck down a flight of stone steps.

"Paul Revere's Ride" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Poem
Through all our history, to the last,
In the hour of darkness and peril and need,
The people will waken and listen to hear
The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,
And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

"The Old Cavalry Horse" by Frances Margaret Fox, from The Last Run Of Uncle Sam's Fire Horses
A old Army horse becomes a milk wagon plug, but one day hears the bugle call.

"Western Wagons" by Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet from Book Of Americans (1933)
Poem
There's gold in far Wyoming, there's black earth in Ioway.
So pack up the kids and blankets, for we're moving out today!
The cowards never started and the weak died on the road.
And all aceross the continent the endless campfires glowed.

"Pony Express Sage" by Florence K. Peterson
Peterson gives a brief description of the short-lived but long-remembered Pony Express.

"Stage Coach Days" by Florence K. Peterson
A one-page tribute to the stagecoach drivers and horses.

"Not So Long Ago" by Irene Smith from As We Were (1946)
A tribute to the horse in the building of America, which concludes with the sentence: In the building of this country they gave service beyond all measure.

"The Last Run" by Frances Margaret Fox
In 1925, the last 3 fire-horses in Washington, D.C. were saved from auction and sent to an honorable retirement.

"Old Doctor Dobbin" by Irene Smith
In 1930, a horse named Doc Dobbin was honored with a party for his role in protecting 30,000 children against diptheria.  Doc was one of around 150 horses at the drug company E.R. Squibb & Sons; the horses were used to produce serum which could be used to fight and prevent diptheria.

From The Book of Job - The Bible
He goeth out to meet the armed men.
He mocketh at fear, and is not dismayed.

"Little Vic" by Doris Gates, from Little Vic (1951)
Pony Rivers is there when the Thoroughbred foal Little Vic is born, and when he is sold Pony is determined to follow him.

"Black Beauty" by Anna Sewell (intro by Noel Streatfeild), from Black Beauty
Excerpts from the famous horse classic about a black horse and his many masters.

Links
Tapir Specialist Group