Spook The Mustang
Harlan Thompson, il. Millard Sheets
1956, Doubleday and Company
1968, Grosset & Dunlap Famous Horse Stories (edition
pictured), il. Sam Savitt (cover, frontspiece)
After his ranch venture fails in Mexico, saddle-maker Luis
Barry returns to his father’s home in central California with his 17-year-old
son David and wife Victoria. Luis is
frail, recovering from a nervous breakdown, and Victoria’s a traditional
Spanish wife who defers to her men, so the bulk of the driving and worrying are
left to David. And David’s sick of
ranching. The collapse of their hopes in
Mexico has left him disillusioned and hoping only to get a normal job, make
some money, and get his parents stable again.
But when they stop to visit Grandy
and discover the old man’s vanished, circumstances conspire to keep the little
family on Grandy’s neglected ranch.
One of those circumstances is a little black colt David
tries mightily to resist.
“Black as a spook,” he
whispered, “and a natural pacer.”
Then David recalled
the last ranch and the bay colt who’d died of thirst on the banks of the
parched Miraflores Creek just two days before the rains came. No more colts for him, he decided, and turned
his head away as the black, with a last flick of his shiny hoofs, raced to join
his mother.
The family stays, and David goes to work for their neighbor,
a tough rancher named King Jordan.
Grandy’s property, the Condor Ranch, has back taxes owing and David
basically has two years to pay it off or lose the ranch to Jordan. Over those two years, he works Jordan’s
ranch, struggles to raise the few cattle remaining on the Condor, and trains
the black colt he names Spook.
Spook, the real reason for David’s decision to give ranching
another try, had a terrifying experience with the great condors and it leaves
him with a permanent fear of birds.
David, determined to make a great roping horse out of him, is haunted by
the fear he’ll never be able to overcome the promising colt’s phobia.
Suddenly three
squaking crows, playing tag with a stick, flew directly across the corral. They made a din. Their wings shadowed the ground.
With a wild whinny of
terror, the colt pounded over Dave and fled for the barn.
An interesting Western horse book, full of ranching stories
and rodeo action, as well as the long mystery of what happened to Grandy. The setting – near the Sespe Condor Sanctuary
in California – is also interesting, as is the presence of the condors.
Side note
David’s mother is from the same family that stars in Thompson’s
1952 novel Star Roan.
The California Condor
You can hardly blame Spook for his fear. The California Condor has one of the largest
wingspans in the world at 9.5’ In 1982
there were only 22 left in the world. In
1987, the last one was removed from the wild, a story I remember vividly from
my childhood. There are 408 birds, 231
of them in the wild, today.
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1 comment:
You know, your description of the plot reminded me of Stephen Holt! Never knew that he wrote other books under a different name. Phantom Roan and Wild Palomino are two old favorites of mine.
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