The Horse That Had Everything (1965)

The Horse That Had Everything
Newlin B. Wildes, il. Albert Micale
1966, Rand McNally & Company, American Education Publications


"Animals, animals," Kink said morosely. "The halt and the lame. They always seem to be with us."

Widower Kink Jonathan, an artist with a growing reputation, has chosen to live in rural Vermont with his 14-year-old son Rick, and they've gradually accumulated an assortment of animals. But Rick loves horses, and is a regular fixture at their neighbor's racing farm, where he forms an attachment to the crooked foal of the mare Never Fear. When the farm's cold-blooded owner, Slade Corcoran, decides to kill the crippled foal, Rick successfully begs him for another chance.

Rick raises the colt, who he eventually dubs Sans Peur, and with loving care and exercise the crooked leg straightens. And as the colt grows bigger and stronger and faster, the pressure mounts for Rick to turn his backyard pet into a racehorse.

This books holds an entertaining if typical premise, but is spoiled by a lack of pace. Wildes's writing is good enough piece by piece, with convincing action and a nice writing style -

Suzi took the saddle and bridle off Ulysses. He and the colt exchanged sniffs and got along, plucking grass side by side. They knew each other.

April is not the best month in Vermont. It often snows, the trees are still gaunt skeletons, the mud is not always gone. Nevertheless, there is promise of better things. Some days are, as the farmers' wives say, like a good apple pie: "warm in the middle and crisp around the edges." Cows are rough-coated in barnyards. Horses are shaggy, wandering in the fields searching for early blades of grass.


- but it doesn't have a natural flow. Scenes either inch along or jump sharply. Individual scenes are quite strong, but only for very brief moments and then the action lurches again. The major weakness, however, is the underlining of the major plot points instead of letting the reader infer them from the writing, which actually does a very good job if the author had only trusted it.

There are also two tedious minor plots in the growing awareness of the maturing Rick that neighbor Suzi isn't just an inferior girl anymore but a Girl, and the sometimes grating comparison between the big Thoroughbred San and Suzi's short, shaggy Morgan.

Note:
I read the book during this year's epic snowstorm, and seized on this bit -

Whenever there was a thaw and the snow became heavy and apt to cake on the colt's feet, Rick would rub butter all over the inside of San's hoofs to keep the snow from balling up there and twisting an ankle. "Darn expensive way to keep a horse's feet snow-free," Kink grumbled, when Rick disappeared with another quarter pound.

- to try with my dog, who also suffers snow buildup on walks. It works, but there are drawbacks. One, the dog clearly thinks you're mentally unstable for rubbing a stick of butter on her paws. Two, you end up taking a walk with hands coated in butter, which is great for dry winter skin but not so great for the general health of your mittens or your own sense of neatness. Three, it wears off fast, particularly if your dog discovers that her feet now taste great.


Equines and others
Ulysses S. Grant - Morgan gelding
Never Fear - grey Thoroughbred mare
Mon Oncle - Thoroughbred stallion
Sans Peur - grey Thoroughbred colt
Times Three - bay Thoroughbred colt
Abraham - donkey
Thomas Jefferson "TJ" Tibbs - large tiger cat
Albert - Plymouth Rock rooster

Author
The New England-based Wildes worked for Photoplay and then joined Curtis Publishing at their Boston office in 1937. The 1942 Gene Autry western Heart Of The Rio Grande was based on one of his stories.

Other Books
The Best Summer (1965)

Short Stories - horse
"Young Man On The Way Up" in Wildfire, The Red Stallion and Other Great Horse Stories

Short Stories - various
The Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1944 - "Gold In Your Backyard"
Companion, July 1945 - "Little Guy"
Companion, June 1946 - "Crazy Like A Fox"
Liberty, September 1947
Colliers, September 5, 1936 - "Foot In The Door"
Ladies Home Journal, April, 1946 - "A Matter Of Style"
"Powderpuf" - football

Illustrator - Albert Micale
(1913-1993)
An artist who specialized in comics, particularly Westerns, Micale's versions of Roy Rogers adventures are some of the most sought after by collectors. He also illustrated children's nonfiction, and some fiction.

Other horse-related books
The Best Summer by Newlin B. Wildes (1964)
The Capture Of West Wind by Rutherford B. Montgomery (1962)
Trouble At Paintrock: A Penny Of Paintrock Mystery by Jane and Paul Annixter

And because we mentioned Roy...
Trigger, the palomino stallion who was Roy's equine pardner, was (along with the singing cowboy's German Shepherd Dog, Bullet) stuffed after death. The two were auctioned off this summer, along with Dale Evan's horse Buttermilk and Trigger backup Little Trigger. Trigger and Bullet ended up with RFD-TV. The Nebraska-based cable network is named after the old U.S. Postal Service designation for rural addresses - Rural Free Delivery - and specializes in rural programming, from cattle auctions to bluegrass to Hee Haw. The two are now on tour to various appropriately themed events. RFD-TV has also revived a kids' fan club from the old Roy Rogers television show, the Roy Rogers Riders Club, which is unbearably bittersweet.

The Publisher
American Education Publication was a new one to me, so I googled. Apparently, it was the publisher of the school newspapers My Weekly Reader and Current Events, as well as other educational work, and owned by Wesleyan University Press until Xerox bought it in 1965. They changed its name to Xerox Education Publications in 1972.

Links
Kiddie Matinees (for the AEP info)
Weekly Reader
A list of Wilds's short stories
Comic Creator about Albert Micale
Luxist about the auction of Trigger and Bullet
RFD's Happy Trails Tour
RFD-TV

Scarlet Royal (1952)

This is one of those books I had as a kid and remember with great fondness. The review below has almost no quotes largely because my copy is now extremely fragile. Just re-reading it pulled loose some pages; propping it open with a candlestick or flower pot so I can copy some quotes will kill it altogether. So I'll limit myself to the summary on the back cover, which does a good job.

The only thing in Margo's life that really counted was the horses themselves: riding them, hunting, showing, caring for them, loving them. Especially her own horse, Scarlet Royal - hers until the wealthy Cranshaws offered more than the struggling Macintyre's could afford to refuse. Be nice to the Cranshaws, her mother said. How could she like Ginevra Cranshaw who went off with her beloved horse and her best boy friend?
A story of sportsmanship and courage by the author of Senior Year.

Scarlet Royal
Anne Emery, il. Charles Waterhouse (cover)
1952, Macrae Smith Company

Margo Macintyre is 15 when her mare, Red Queen, produces a chestnut filly dubbed Scarlet Royal. The foal is to be the final triumph for Margo's father, William, an Irish immigrant whose rags-to-riches story has culminated in a gentleman's farm, Green Meadow, filled with horses, an adoring wife, three daughters, a cook, a housekeeper and a groom.

Jump ahead two years. William Macintyre is newly dead, killed by the stress of seeing his real-estate venture fail, and his widow presents their daughters with reality: they have a farm and horses, but virtually no income. They can either sell out and go live more frugally in an apartment, or they can try to launch a riding school. Relieved to save their beloved home, they agree to tackle domestic and stable chores none of them have ever handled. It's not easy, but they are making it work by the end of that first summer. Margo and her sisters help teach the beginners and their mother, Madeleine, has a private student who's more advanced. It's this student, Ginevra Cranshaw, who brings Margo's world crashing back down. A competitive, calculating daughter of rich and indifferent parents, Ginevra has only one interest in a horse - can it win for her. In Scarlet, she sees a horse who can take her to the Maclay Finals, and win her parents' attention at last. When Mr. Cranshaw offers Margo a price the family can't afford to refuse, a beaten Margo sells the mare.

When, adding insult to injury, Ginevra also walks off with Margo's boyfriend, the now 17-year-old Margo declares she's never going to trust another man. Shortly thereafter, the Macintyres hire a college student to work on the farm, and Neil begins to patiently prod Margo away from her bitterness and obsession with somehow winning back her lost horse.

This is a well-written book with a thin but consistent horse plot, and a strongly sympathetic heroine. It has a powerful hook in that the heroine actually loses the horse, and is also one of those great horsey books where the villain is the villain because she doesn't care about horses; she's a good rider, but she doesn't have the right attitude. Margo's love for Scarlet is criticized, but she remains focused on rescuing the mare, although she admits she's being selfish in some ways. It's a balanced book, which is typical of Emery. Her books were all teen romances, but they were intelligent and her characters were surprisingly complex. They were also far more feminist than you'd expect from the genre. Here, she kills off the blarneying father in under 10 pages, and he's virtually never mentioned again. The all-female family manages to resurrect its fortunes almost alone, with no male advice until the romance angle begins with the hiring of Neil Campbell, college kid from Wyoming, who quickly becomes annoyingly perfect - he charms the Macintyres, cleans stalls, knows horse shows, sorrowfully points out Margo's faults re: obsessing over Scarlet, etc., etc. He does a pretty good job of redeeming himself, though.

Note: The cover shown is from the 1961 paperback by Scholastic Book Services's TAB Books. The original 1951 Macrae Smith hardcover apparently contains interior illustrations by Manning deV. Lee; there is one illustration of his in the paperback, serving as a frontspiece.

The book, along with Emery's others, is back in print with Image Cascade, which publishes fondly recalled teen novels of the mid-20th century.

Odds and Ends

Equine Characters
Scarlet Royal - chestnut filly
Red Queen - chestnut mare
Counterpoint - grey hunter gelding
Gingham Girl - Welsh pony
Domino - black hunter gelding
Bittersweet - bay hunter gelding
Kingpin - Ginevra's jumper
Coquette - Ginevra's saddle horse

I don't remember noticing the name Ginevra as a kid (I was too busy booing her evil, crop-swishing ways) but this time around it caught my eye as a strange name. According to some fairly random research, it's either Welsh meaning "white, fair, smooth" and is a form of Guinevere, or Italian meaning "white wave." It was also the name of a Chicago socialite from the early 20th century thought to have inspired Fitzgerald's Daisy Buchanan in The Great Gatsby. Since Emery was a Chicago girl all her life, and since writers are magpies and since people with roots tend to be people who inherit the memories of their parents and grandparents, you have to wonder if she had that story somewhere in mind when she named her spoiled, wealthy villain.


Links
Image Cascade - Scarlet Royal

Author Bio
1907-1987
Anne Eleanor McGuigan was the eldest of five children with a father who was a professor. She graduated from Northwestern University in 1928, spent a year traveling with her family, and then began teaching. She married John Emery in 1933, and had five children. She lived in Evanston, Illinois most of her life, and that Chicago suburb is where most of her books are set.

The illustrators
The paperback's cover and its sole illustration aren't particularly memorable, which is odd considering both artists were respected illustrators with decent careers. I'm not 100% sure of my research on the cover illustrator, Charles Waterhouse; there is an American artist of that name who seems to have specialized in military paintings; the name fits, and the timing is possible, but I'm not sure. There's no direct link - nothing about the Marine Corp. artist mentions this book - and the art itself doesn't seem very similar.

The frontspiece illustrator, Manning deV. Lee (1894-1980) was a graduate of Philadelphia's spectacular old art school, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. He served in WWI, and then resumed his career as an illustrator for magazines and over 200 books.

Manning deV. Lee - other horse illustrations
The Stubborn Mare by Jo Sykes (1957)
Steel Dust, The Story of A Horse by Hoffman Birney (1928)
Horses, Horses, Horses edited by Phyllis R. Fenner (1951)
Cowboys, Cowboys, Cowboys, ed. Phyllis R. Fenner (
Sidi, Boy Of The Desert by Alida Malkus (1956)
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang (1925 edition by Macrae Smith)
Dogs, Dogs, Dogs, ed. Phyllis R. Fenner

Tamarlane, Strange Son Of Desert Storm (1959)

Only 1 entry so far to win Wild Horse Annie And The Last Of The Mustangs! The deadline to enter is July 4, 2010. To enter, just leave a comment on any post from June 2nd's to July 4th's.

And a quick reference on mustangs in general - the BLM, the U.S. agency that oversees the mustangs, offers online adoptions. For anyone who fantasizes about what you'd buy if you had the money, time, or remotely the skills to buy a wild horse, it's kinda addictive.

And a review which has little to do with mustangs except that the main characters are from the West, and their racehorses were originally wild. I'm not sure how that worked out with the Jockey Club when they went to the track, but who would dream of asking difficult questions of a horse book?

Tamarlane, Strange Son Of Desert Storm

Logan Forster, il. Gerald McCann

1959, Dodd, Mead & Company

...the gate crashed open and a black and a gray body half reared in the openings, hung suspended for a fleeting instant, then flashed into the sunlight.

This third in a four-book series opens with Ponce Stuart's two champion racehorses, the black mare Desert Storm and the grey colt Victorio, in a match race at Belmont Park. The mare, four months pregnant, brilliantly beats the grey but breaks down in the stretch. Her people - owner/jockey Ponce, trainer Gabriel Dreen and Ponce's family Delgadito and Joto (aka The Old Apache) - rally around, knowing that the mare has already survived a broken legs years earlier, and rig up a sling to keep her on her feet until the bone can heal.

To interject - the mare being raced while pregnant seems bizarre, the breakdown scene is heartbreaking, and the scenario that she is saved from death by a sling and cast seems dubious. Onward.

Shaken by the mare's tragedy and his own hard fall, Ponce decides to give up the track and racing. His plans are quickly derailed by an ailing racehorse breeder who presses him to buy the cream of his final crop of young racers. Ponce, pressured by his sharp-eyed kinsmen Joto to not run away, agrees, and regains his strength and courage as he campaigns the new horses, particularly the brilliant gray filly Sage Queen. But even as Ponce forms a new partnership with the Queen, something ominous seems to hang around his new Sunset Stables. When Desert Storm foals, Ponce is devastated. The foal, the colt on which he's hung all his dreams, has a clubfoot.

Three of the legs were perfectly formed, long and straight, with the big knees and ankles of all foals. The fourth, the right foreleg, was the same except for one thing. From ankle to hoof it was a solid, shapeless, queerly twisted lump.

After the first shock, Ponce settles into an angry drive to succeed with Sage Queen, avoiding his beloved Desert Storm and her failure of a foal. His rage pushes him to ride recklessly, heedlessly, with predictable results. When he finally reconciles himself to the deformed foal, he discovers an unusually mellow personality - and an uncanny ability to run sound despite his handicap. It begins to look as if Ponce's bold prediction, before the foal's birth, that this colt would run in the Kentucky Derby, might come true after all.

Despite the attractive illustrations and pleasingly over-the-top plots, Forster's books are plodding. The writing style is overripe, with a few too many trips to the Apache heritage well, and neither human nor equine characters seem particularly real. With one exception - Tamarlane's lazy, oddball personality does stand out in comparison to his more standard-issue parents, the brave mare and the wild stallion.

Logan Forster

I could find out little for certain about the author. There are hints that he was born in Salem, Oregon and he apparently lived in Colorado as an adult. According to the author notes in Mountain Stallion he served 6 years in the Navy, worked a variety of jobs, and attended the University of Colorado. According to a postscript by the author, the real clubfoot racehorse Assault was the inspiration for Tamarlane's story, but his own grey Arabian stallion Mighwar was the basis for his personality.

When it comes to stubbornness, feigned idiocy, laziness and complete lovableness, Mighwar has no equal on this earth.

Also, Forster mentions in the author's note in Tamarlane that he based the mare Desert Storm on the racehorse Busher, a filly whose career was cut short by injury and who became a famous broodmare.

Books

Ponce series

Desert Storm (1955)

Mountain Stallion (1958)

Tamarlane, Strange Son Of Desert Storm (1959)

Revenge (1960)

Stand-alone horse book

Run Fast! Run Far! (1962)

Non-horse

Proud Land (1954) - appears to be about an Apache chief

Anger In The Wind (1974) - appears to be a romantic saga about the early West

Odds and Ends

The full text of Mountain Stallion is available at Internet Archives

The pedigree of Mighwar, the model for Tamarlane

Illustrator

Gerald McCann

1916-

He also did editions of the comic series Classics Illustrated

Other books illustrated by Gerald McCann

Revenge by Logan Forster

Brumby, The Wild White Stallion by Mary Elwyn Patchett

Tam The Untamed by Mary Elwyn Patchett

Rosina Copper, Mystery Mare by Kitty Barne

Classics Illustrated

The Conspiracy Of Pontiac by Francis Parkman

Typee by Herman Melville

The Lion Of The North by G.A. Hentry

The Pilot

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame

The Conspiractor by Alexandre Dumas, pere

The Food Of The Gods by H.G. Wells

Tom Brown's School Days

Puddn'head Wilson by Mark Twain

Links

Gerald McCann at AskArt

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The Derby, Rachel, Badminton and oh, right, a horse book - Pretty Penny Farm (1987)

Calvin Borel takes a third Derby aboard Super Saver in yet another Kentucky Derby I forgot to watch (most years I completely forget until, oh, 8pm) The horse will run in the next race of the long-idle Triple Crown, Baltimore's Preakness Stakes, on May 15th, and I will remember that if only because NBC will broadcast a 90-minute look at the 2010 Rolex **** immediately before their Preakness coverage. So the Rolex program starts at 3pm, then they switch over to the Preakness at 4:30. Assuming the inevitable hockey playoff game doesn't go over. Which it will. NBC has a nice incentive to renew the Derby broadcast contract, which expires this year - the 2010 had the most viewers in 21 years. Just not me.

In other interesting racing news, the 2009 Horse Of The Year took a second loss last Friday. Rachel Alexandra lost the La Troienne (formerly the Louisville Distaff Stakes; the original La Troienne was renamed the Eight Belles Stakes in 2009) to Unrivaled Belle. She was second to Zardana in the March 13 New Orleans Ladies. Meanwhile, the Eight Belles Stakes was won by a filly whose name rivals the Derby winner's - Buckleupbuttercup. The Kentucky Oaks - the Derby for fillies, essentially - went to Blind Luck.

In other eventing news, Paul Tapner and Inonothing won the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trialslast weekend; Oliver Townend, who had the ugly fall at Rolex, is reportedly recovering from a cracked collarbone, sternum and ribs; and here in New Jersey, the Jersey Fresh 3-star and 2-star events begin on Thursday, May 6.

Links
Horse Channel on NBC's Preakness and Rolex coverage
Baltimore Sun - Super Saver Headed On To Preakness
New York Times - Blind Luck Wins Kentucky Oaks By A Nose
Pedigree Query on Super Saver
WinStar Farm LLC
Todd Pletcher Racing Stables
Badminton Horse Trials
Jersey Fresh CCI
Horse Park of New Jersey

And because I realize that the whole news aspect of this blog is rather beside the point, if not actually suspect, a review of an actual horse book. Nice painting (can't find artist) but oh, the nostalgia of those superlong eighties polos.

Pretty Penny Farm

Joanne Hoppe

1987, Troll Books

"She's a creep! Sophie Chmielewski is a fat slob, that's what! Bouncing boobs! That's her nickname. Bouncing boobs!" Beth's voice rose higher and higher. "What are you trying to do to me? Everybody makes fun of her. I'll be the laughingstock of the school!"

15-year-old Beth Bridgewater does not react well to the news that her mother has not only arranged for them to spend the summer in New Hampshire on a farm, far from Beth's sleek crew of mean girls, she's also arranged for the queen bees' main target to join them there. Beth's a coward, a sidekick who frequently congratulates herself for being silently 'uncomfortable' with the way pals Amy and Tory treat Sophie, but she has no intention of joining the fat girl on the hot seat. And she knows very well what her "friends" will make of her spending time with the outcast. Parental plans prevail, however, sweetened with the promise that Beth, who loves to ride, can rent a horse for the whole summer.

Let's recap. Beth pulls a Grade A meltdown and says ugly, vicious things about a classmate while screaming like a banshee at her parents, and is rewarded with a horse.

Ah, for parents like that. Back to the plot.

At the farm, Beth falls immediately for a spirited chestnut Thoroughbred whose owner Dave, the secretive college-aged son of the farm owner, reluctantly agrees to let her have him for the summer. Sophie, who Beth is pointedly ignoring, hesitantly agrees to use the quiet mare Dolly.

Charmin' tossed his head, putting pressure on the bit. He did a little sideways dance as she kept him in check. "Wanta run, don't you, boy?" His energy seemed to flow into her knees as she tightened them against him. "Go on, then." She tried to ease him into a canter, but he quickly broke from it and they pounded up the gentle incline. The horse took great bounding leaps into the air. Exhilerated, she crouched lower in the saddle, her heart thudding against his neck as he gathered speed. With so much power under her, she was on the edge of control.

This little 'canter' turns into a chance for Beth to ride Charmin' at the local racetrack, where a high school friend of Dave's is preparing a filly for a race. She has a ball, but when Dave finds out he's angry. In fact, he's unusually angry every time someone mentions how fast Charmin' is, and he becomes downright prickly whenever anyone mentions how odd it is that Dave won the horse in a bet during his first semester at the University of Virginia - and that the horse's former owner, a wealthy family of racehorse breeders, gave him up. It becomes pretty clear where that plot is headed.

Meanwhile, Beth is slowly, reluctantly and with maximum nastiness coming to appreciate that Sophie is - wait for it - human too. Beth suspiciously listens as her mother draws the uneasy fat girl into revealing that her mother is dead, that they used to live in a friendly Polish-American neighborhood, that her and her father are very close, etc. Could it be that this freakish girl could be more than the sum of her 30 extra pounds? Really, Beth actually calculates how much excess fat Sophie's carrying around, and likens it to a toddler or 6 bags of sugar. Luckily for Beth's growth as a human, she does finally break down and befriend the fat girl, who accepts her overtures with a grace that seems either mentally lacking or superhuman, considering their prior relationship. Together, they break the case of Why Is Dave So Cranky All The Time? and Why Is Charmin' So Freaky Fast If His Racehorse Breeder Owners Gambled Him Away?

A pretty cover, but a disappointing book. The action scenes are not bad, the atmosphere is workable, the main character is certainly strong (if repulsive) but it just doesn't work out. Too many odd bits of dialogue interupt the action, and far too many minor characters clutter the stage. Charmin' is limited to being a plot device, and Sophie isn't even given that much respect; she's treated as a vehicle for Beth's personal growth, meekly acquiescing to her hosts' decision to put her on a diet and even change her name.

Horse oddities - it seems odd that nobody questions handing a 15-year-old kid a young Thoroughbred stallion as a pet.

Note

I googled "Chmielewski" and discovered it means, basically, 'one from the place of the hops.' Interesting, given that the author's name is Hoppe.

Horses

Dolly - bay mare

Charmin' - chestnut stallion with blaze

Josie's Babe - racehorse

Books

Hoppe wrote only four books, all teen thrillers. Only Pretty Penny Farm has a horse aspect.

Dream Spinner

The Lesson Is Murder

April Spell

Author

Joanne Hoppe died in 2001. She was an English teacher in Greenwich, CT for 21 years.

Publisher

Troll was established in 1958, based in NJ. The once healthy company entered a fatal run through a series of buyers starting in 1995, when Penguin parent company Pearson bought 49%. At some point it became Troll Communications. Canadian megacompany Torstar Corporation bought it in 1997, and it went to private equity firm Willis Stein in 1999. They sold the company's book fair operation, once a rival to Scholastic's, to Scholastic in 2001. The remainder was sold to a private equity fund, Quad Venture Partners LLC in 2002. Troll filed for bankruptcy in 2003, owning over $3 million to its printer.

Vicki And The Black Horse (1964)

Vicki And The Black Horse

Sam Savitt, author and illustrator

1964, Doubleday and Company

"I've never heard of anything like it. That black horse couldn't have impressed me more if he'd won a blue ribbon at Madison Square Garden. Standing out there like that - waiting for you to cut him free." He shook his head, scratching the back of his neck. "Beats me! The most remarkable thing was the confidence he had in you. Somehow he knew you would help him if he waited. And you didn't let him down!"

Vicki Jordan has just freed her father's black Thoroughbred, Pat, who she adores, from a tangle of barbed wire. The horse emerges unscathed because he doesn't panic, and Vicki's father is bemused by the bond between his daughter and his horse. Smilingly, he promises her that pony she's always dreamed of. And Vicki is silent. What she wants is Pat. The former racehorse had come to Random Farm sick and used up, and the girl had devoted herself to his care. But Dan Jordan can't see past his daughter's youth, and she seems destined to yearn for the big horse. Sucking it up, she decides to focus on the promised pony. When her very first buying expedition turns up a starving, neglected creature far too small for her, Vicki impulsively buys him to save him.

The mane was ragged and dragged along the ground. Vicki bent over and lifted it to reveal the shrunken neck and bony shoulder. She let her hand wander aimlessly over the scrawny hide stretched tight as a drum around the emaciated body. It was sticky, gray with grime, swarming with flies. She crouched down to examine the hairy legs and long, cracked hooves that badly needed trimming. There was an ache in her throat as her eyes took in the flanks that sucked inward and the hipbones that pushed outward, threatening to break through the skin. She stepped back and walked behind the pony, noticed the tent-shaped rump and the concave sides and the tail - long, greasy, knotted with burs.

Even half-dead, Jesse (as he comes to be called) is a firecracker. Vicki's macho older brother assumes, wrongly, that one football hero can easily handle one skin-and-bones Shetland; it won't be the first time someone underestimates the little animal. Exasperated by Jesse's trouble-making, escape artist ways, Vicki considers selling him. What stops her is Pat. The black horse, long the only equine on the farm, has fallen in love with Jesse. Surely, though, Pat will get over it if Vicki sells Jesse to a good home and buys herself a pony she can actually ride?

Although Savitt was primarily an artist, his writing is evocative and concise. The action sequences are clear and intelligent:

That first buck put Vicki astride his neck, the second pointed her wildly thrashing legs to the heavens. She came to earth on her backside as Jesse and the other ponies shot past in a shower of dust and flying hunks of dirt.

The plot moves unhurriedly but without excess, and the language is rich.

He would love a hot mash tonight - bran and oats and molasses and hot water made the most delicious-smelling concoction. She tasted it occasionally as a mother samples a dish before giving it to her baby.

Best of all, the ending is perfectly handled, with dual happy endings for humans and equines.

Drawbacks include a fair amount of sexism- Vicki idolizes her daddy and her older brother, a female neighbor has hysterics after a riding accident, forcing Mr. Jordan to sternly calm her - and a slight lack of character development in humans other than Vicki. There is a certain smugness to the adult male characters - they're pleasant men, but blithely obnoxious, as with Dan Jordan's belief that no one but him can ride Pat.

Animals

Giant Pat, aka Pat - black Thoroughbred gelding with a star

Jesse James the Outlaw, aka Jesse - black and white Shetland pony gelding

Rocky - Irish Setter

Teddy - goat

About the Author/Illustrator

1917-2000

Savitt wrote and illustrated dozens of books, and his portraits of horses and dogs are well-known. He lived on a farm in North Salem, New York, was married and had two children. He spent several years as the official artist for the U.S. Equestrian team. Several of his drawings are held at the National Sporting Library.

Links

Sam Savitt website

New York Times obituary

Horse Art Collection.com - Sam Savitt

National Sporting Library

Fiction written by Savitt

The Dingle Ridge Fox And Other Stories

Wild Horse Running

Midnight, Champion Bucking Horse

Step-A-Bit, The Story Of A Foal

A Horse To Remember

Vicki And The Black Horse

Vicki And The Brown Mare

Nonfiction written by Savitt

Draw Horses With Sam Savitt

The Art Of Painting Horses

Great Horses Of The U.S. Equestrian Team (with Bill Steinkraus)

One Horse One Hundred Miles One Day (about the Tevis Cup)
Rodeo Cowboys, Bulls And Broncos
Sam Savitt's True Horse Stories

Other editions:

Scholastic Apple paperback, 1989

Salute - C.W. Anderson (1940)

Salute
C.W. Anderson, author and illustrator
1940, The Macmillan Company

Peter is a small boy living on a farm in New York state when the famous racehorse War Admiral comes to nearby Saratoga for a race. Peter adores Thoroughbreds, having read all the stories of Man O'War and Exterminator, and he longs to see the race. When his father takes him, he gets more than he bargained for when he becomes the owner of a broken-down racehorse.

Gorgeously fantastic story where a little boy with almost no riding experience rides and rehabs a former racehorse. Lovely illustrations, dreamy story of a child's dream come true, with enough details to make it convincing. Perfectly suited to a child, with enough truth to make it attractive to an adult. For instance, the trainer who gave Peter his horse tells him

Don't ever sell an old horse that is no longer useful to you. If you do, you may someday see a horse who has run his heart out for you pulling a junk wagon. A thoroughbred is as proud as a man - prouder, maybe, and don't think his heart can't break.... if you can't afford to put an old campaigner out to pasture the rest of his life, then you must put him away as mercifully as possible - or else do what I did with Mohawk (ie, he gave him to the boy).

Other Books (picture)
A Pony For Linda
The Crooked Colt
Pony For Three
Lonesome Little Colt

Other Books
Bobcat
High Courage
The Horse of Hurricane Hill
Afraid To Ride
Phantom, Son Of The Gray Ghost
A Filly For Joan
Great Heart
Another Man O'War
The Outlaw

Billy And Blaze
Blaze And The Gypsies
Blaze And The Forest Fire
Blaze Finds The Trail
Blaze And Thunderbolt
Blaze And The Mountain Lion
Blaze And The Indian Cave
Blaze And The Lost Quarry
Blaze And The Gray Spotted Pony
Blaze Shows The Way
Blaze Finds Forgotten Roads

Other Books (nonfiction)
Tomorrow’s Champions
Horses Are Folks
The Smashers
Thoroughbreds
Heads Up, Heels Down
Deep Through The Heart
Sketchbook
Twenty Gallant Horses
Complete Book Of Horses And Horsemanship

PS: NBC will broadcast their one-hour coverage of the Rolex **** on Saturday, May 16 at 3:30. It was originally supposed to air today, but their hockey coverage ran over. The Preakness Stakes coverage will begin that same day on NBC at 5pm, post time 6:15pm.

Copper Khan (1950)

Copper Khan
Dorothy Lyons, il. Wesley Dennis
1950, Harcourt, Brace

Connemara "Connie" McGuire is home from college for the summer and back at her habit of collecting unwanted horses and bringing them from wrecks to glory. This time she's purchased, for $1, a glorious chestnut colt with a broken leg. She recalls a daring new method for treating a broken leg, and the long shot comes in, leaving her with a new headache. The Thoroughbred colt is a constant problem for her stallion, Golden Sovereign. But new hired man Tom Monro has a suggestion; he says the colt is good enough for another try at racing.

If you're going to throw reality out the window, why not go all the way? Connie has a dream life and a dream stable, so why not a dream storyline with a champion racehorse? Note, I'm not criticizing. All horse stories are mad dreams to some extent, this one just goes whole hog.

Wesley Dennis is limited to mostly small pictures, and suffers. A glorious cover, though it reveals his tendency to draw human faces as either very young or very old.

Horses
Copper Khan - chestnut colt, Thoroughbred
Golden Sovereign - palomino stallion
Waltz Dream - chestnut mare
Silver Birch - grey mare
Midnight Moon - black mare
Lady - chestnut mare

Other books
Golden Sovereign (also in Connemara McGuire series)
Java Jive (also in Connemara McGuire series)
Midnight Moon (also inConnemara McGuire series)
Blue Smoke
Bright Wampum
Dark Sunshine
Red Embers
Smoke Rings

The Black Stallion's Courage

The racehorse Alysheba, winner of the 1987 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, has been euthanized at the age of 25 following a fall in his stall. The retired champion had been returned to American only recently, having spent much of his stud career in Saudi Arabia. The stallion was living at the Kentucky Horse Park (a facility which hosts large equestrian events year-round and is set to be the site of the 2010 World Equestrian Games) where fans could visit him at the public Hall of Champions.

In honor of all the Thoroughbreds - including fellow Derby winner Lil E. Tee, who was euthanized this month after suffering complications from stomach surgery - here's a racing story from Walter Farley, the single best writer to tackle the difficult task of making the tough, often harsh world of horse racing accessible to children.

The Black Stallion's Courage
Walter Farley
1956, Random House

Suddenly the ceiling directly above them exploded and slender bits of flame fell at Alec's feet, igniting the straw. He and the mare leaped as one through the stall door and into the corridor.

A fire claims Hopeful Farm's newest barn and Alec Ramsay, sensing something wrong with Henry's Kentucky Derby winner Black Minx, brings the Black back to racing. Henry is unhappy with the stallion's return from retirement, feeling that his own Black Minx will more than pay for the new barn. But the mercurial filly seems to have become bored with racing after her Derby triumph. As Henry works with Baby, as the filly's known around the track, Alec watches the meteoric rise of the burly brown colt Eclipse and the 3-year-old colt Casey. In a year of unusual quality, three great racehorses meet in a final showdown at the Brooklyn Handicap.

Now there was no past, no other race. Nothing but the one to come, with the three of them in a row, waiting for the door flaps to spring open and set them free.

Farley's style was easy and accessible, despite the fact that so much of his plots depended on specialist language. He had a great knack for making racetrack lingo and horse-speak easily understood and never letting it get in the way of the story. His characters, apart from Alec, were fairly stock, but solid and believable. Alec was a bit unusual as a male hero - he was so quiet, almost withdrawn, non-confrontational, deferential to Henry and pretty much everyone else. He clearly prefers the company of horses, particularly the Black, to that of people, but he never seems awkward with other people. He comes across as a nearly invisible stand-in for the reader, only emerging as an individual on the rare occasion that he disagrees verbally with Henry.

Horses
Napoleon - elderly grey gelding
The Black - 17h black stallion
Miz Liz - chestnut mare with blaze
Black Minx - 2-year-old black filly 'Baby'
Wintertime - 2-year-old blood bay colt 'Red'
Eclipse - 2-year-old brown colt with blaze 'Pops'
Golden Vanity - 2-year-old chestnut colt 'Sunny'
Silver Jet - 2-year-old grey colt 'Bud'
Olympus
Lone Hope
Rampart
Casey - 5-year-old chestnut stallion
Bold Irishman - sire of Casey
Swat - dam of Casey
Peek-a-Boo - Shetland pony

Other books by Farley
The Black Stallion (1941)
The Black Stallion Returns (1945)
Son Of The Black Stallion (1947)
The Island Stallion (1948)
The Black Stallion And Satan (1949)
The Black Stallion's Blood Bay Colt (1951)
The Island Stallion's Fury (1951)
The Black Stallion's Filly (1952)
The Black Stallion Revolts (1953)
The Black Stallion's Sulky Colt (1954)
The Island Stallion Races (1955)
The Black Stallion Mystery (1957)
The Horse Tamer (1958)
The Black Stallion And Flame (1960)
The Black Stallion Challenged! (1964)
The Black Stallion's Ghost (1969)
The Black Stallion And The Girl (1971)
The Black Stallion Legend (1983)
The Young Black Stallion (1989) (with Steven Farley)
Man O'War (1962)
Little Black, A Pony
Little Black Goes To The Circus
The Little Black Pony Races
Big Black Horse
The Horse That Swam Away
The Great Dane Thor

Websites
The Black Stallion Site

In Print?
Yes - Random House

Movies
The Black Stallion (1979)
The Black Stallion Returns (1983)

Television
The Adventures Of The Black Stallion (1990-1993)

About the Author
1915-1989
Farley began The Black Stallion while still in high school. A New Yorker, he had a horse trainer for an uncle and spent much of his childhood around horses, including hanging around the Big Apple's three racetracks, a familiarity which resounds in The Black Stallion's Courage. He and his family split their time between a farm in Earlville, PA (about one hour northwest of Philadelphia) and a home in Venice, Florida.

Other Information

Walter Farley Literary Landmark in Venice, Florida

New York Times obituary

Kentucky Horse Park

ESPN Horse Racing - Lil. E. Tee's death

Thoroughbred Times - Alysheba's Death

Smoke Rings
Dorothy Lyons, il. Wesley Dennis (cover and frontispiece)
1960, Harcourt, Brace And Company

Never had Ginny had to ask him for more speed; rather it had been a matter of steadying him. Now, racing against the clock, she let him go, only taking him in at the last jump. As the fourth flashed beneath them, she reined him in to make a sharp left around the arena's end, another left - and his hindfoot slipped where churning hoofs had dug through the protective tanbark to the subsurface, slippery from frequent waterings.

Virginia 'Ginny' Atkins, owner of Java Jive, impulsively buys a huge grey Thoroughbred from an overfaced owner and finds herself training for the Olympics.

When Ginny buys Smoke Rings from his furious owner, she immediately suspects that this hugely talented horse could be her ticket to the U.S. Equestrian Team. For the next few years, that's all she works toward. And even a heartbreaking defeat - denied a place due to the Three-Day team's bias against female riders - only spurs her to greater efforts.

The entire series of Ginny books must be read with a firm suspension of disbelief. Even by horse book standards, she's preternaturally lucky. Her neighbor just happens to be a former Olympic rider who coaches her for free, she falls into owning an Olympic-calibre jumper, all her friends support her ambitions with words and deeds and her parents go along with her plans with only a token resistance. Yes, this is catnip. Ginny owns multiple horses, taps her dad for cash he's always able (if not always immediately willing) to give, and goes to the OLYMPICS. How not to love? And Smoke Rings is the perfect horse - initially described as a great hunter, he's trained successfully for cross-country, then switches to be a grand prix jumper. A few more chapters and she'd have had him steeplechasing.

On a positive note? That is a positive note. All horse fiction is crazy wish-fulfillment fiction. Lyons' writing may be more pedestrian than classics like The Black Stallion and National Velvet, but it still works that nerve with style. A satisfying book about a girl rising to the pinnacle of equestrian accomplishment.

Social Issues
Old horse books are so often sexist and classist, but I've avoided commenting on it most of the time because I don't feel that it's always part of the review. But here, there are a couple of things that jump out at me. The misogyny of the eventing team's no-women policy is particularly ugly as it's mentioned that the dressage team is, even then, all female, and women are allowed on the Grand Prix (show jumping) team. And by today's standards, with Olympic equestrian teams frequently being all female, it's even more ridiculous. Ginny doesn't really fight, just changes her goal, which is realistic, true to her character and keeps the focus on horses, but is in some ways disappointing.

On a more horsey note, there is a point late in the book where Smoke Rings nearly goes down at the end of a course, and Ginny leaps off in automatic fear for her horse.

With no thought of anything but Smoke Rings, she vaulted from the saddle. In mid-air, she twisted in a convulsive effort to regain her seat, remembering too late that elimination was the penalty for dismounting without permission. Her beautiful round would not be counted toward the team's score, but, worse than that it left the United States with but three riders and no insurance against the unpredictable. Ginny was so crushed that she wished she could just evaporate into thin air and not have to face the coach, but squaring her shoulders she led her horse around the screen.

This regret comes before she really knows that Smoke Rings is okay. It's an interesting scene, given the controversy that's erupted in recent years over equine breakdowns and when or whether a rider has pulled up in competition. One of the most discussed breakdowns was the death of Le Samurai at the 2007 Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event. The horse, ridden by Amy Tryon, was approaching the final fence on the course when the horse's stride changed. Tryon later said she felt it, but thought it was just minor. She continued riding to the fence, over, finished the course, and only then pulled up and dismounted. She faced almost instant criticism, as the horse's 'bobble' had been so visible at this very high-profile competition, and various video of it filled the internet's horsey circles. In that devastating way horses have, Le Samurai had become badly injured from one step to the next, and he was euthanized when it was determined his chances of survival were slim. There was an outcry against Tryon for not pulling up before the final fence. The FEI (Federation Equestre Internationale) ruled that her not pulling up before the final fence constituted abuse, and suspended and fined her. A different situation from the fictional Smoke Rings nearly falling after the last fence (I think there would have been less anger in the Tryon case if the bobble had come after the fence, and Tryon had only pushed him a bit further on the flat, as landing after a jump is very stressful on a horse's legs), but the same basic issue, which in Lyons book seems to place the team's success ahead of the individual health of a horse.

Horses
Smoke Rings - 17h dappled iron grey Thoroughbred gelding
Java Jive
Sugarfoot - Java's dam
Gray Friar

Setting
California

Other books by Author
Silver Birch (1939)
Midnight Moon (1941)
Golden Sovereign (1946)
Red Embers (1948)
Harlequin Hullabaloo/Bluegrass Champion (1949)
Copper Khan (1950)
Dark Sunshine (1951)
Blue Smoke (1953)
Java Jive (1955)
Bright Wampum (1958)
Pedigree Unknown (1973)

Other Information about the Author
1907-1998
Lyons was originally from Michigan, but lived most of her life in California. Her first two books revolved around friends in a mounted Girl Scout troop in Michigan, then the action moved West. She bred Connemaras. Lyons also wrote an autobiographical work, The Devil Made The Small Town (1983). Wesley Dennis illustrated nearly all her horse books.

There Was A Horse
Sam Savitt, author and illustrator
1961, The Dial Press

The last rays of the late March sun slanted across the barnyard, spotlighting the horses bunched together in the paddock. Suddenly the gray's head came up, turning toward my departing truck. There was a bold, defiant look about him, and for one brief instant the sight of the gray horse against the red barn in the brilliant sunlight dazzled my eyes and grabbed my foot, pushing it down hard on the brake.

Bill buys the skinny gray horse intending to remake him as a hunter and sell for a profit to help his older brother, a dairy farmer. His own future is uncertain; about to graduate high school, a self-taught horse nut who doesn't know what he's going to do with his life. The big gray, though, resists the re-training plan, going completely out of control in the field. He's too wild for hunting and too fast for the show ring, and Bill's about to pack it in when Drake, a new hired man, recognizes the big Thoroughbred. Steelman was a steeplechaser who overturned and nearly wrecked himself in the Maryland Hunt Cup a few years ago. Drake agrees to undertake training Bill and Steelman to compete in this year's Cup. While Steelman's almost ready, Bill's seat-of-his-pants riding style and youthful resilience are clearly not going to be enough to get them through one of the world's most grueling races.

Sam Savitt wrote few books compared to the ones he illustrated, but those few were lovely horsey books. He never seemed at home with female characters, so the near total lack of them in this book is a strength, in a sense, though of course in another sense it's pathetic. The male characters are solid. Bill is one-note as an obsessed teenaged boy can be, and as the narration comes from him, it's almost all about the horse. Elder brother Chris and mentor Drake appear as important figures which the narrator barely understands till the end of the book. The action is realistic and yet heroic; most believable and painful is the loss of nerve Bill experiences after a bad fall:

Over the past three years the gray horse had given me a pretty rough time - no doubt about that. I had hit the ground, bounced back and hit the ground again, and aside from bruised bones and charlie-horsed muscles, never gave it a second thought. But with each successive jolt a little more heart was knocked out and always a little less returned.

And who but Sam Savitt would lovingly include a drawing of the race course? I've never watched the Cup, but I aspire to drive down there some day.

Note:
There Was A Horse - Steelman was owned by a Mr. Whitcomb in the past; Phantom, Son Of the Gray Ghost - a Mr. Whitcomb is refered to as the former employer of a Joe Tanner, former head of Whitcomb's stables.

Themes
Abuse
Rescue
Foxhunting

Other Books by Author
Vicki And The Black Horse
Vicki And The Brown Mare
Midnight, Champion Bucking Horse
Wild Horse Running

Born To Race (Blanche Chenery Perrin, 1959)

Born To Race
Blanche Chenery Perrin, il. Sam Savitt
1959

Suzy Taylor is the luckiest girl in the world, growing up on a Thoroughbred racing farm in Virginia. After Falada, her favorite mare, is injured in a race, the family's fortunes dip, and by the time Falada foals, everyone is hoping for a colt who will grow into a winner. The foal is a filly, which typically means less chance of big purses, but Suzy takes a special interest Whickery, as the foal is named.

The book follows the course of Whickery's life through Suzy's experiences, from the accident that ends Falada's racing career to Whickery's big race. Along the way, the little girl grows up, learning how to sacrifice to help her struggling family (well, relatively, as anyone with a TB breeding farm isn't all that struggling) and solve a crime at the farm.

Information
There's a crusty barn manager, Ben, to impart the usual lessons - how to handle horses in this situation or that, how to deal with this problem. The one I always remember is the 'creep' where a foal can slip into a section of pasture which their mothers can't get in because of a low rail blocking their way, allowing the foals to eat without the mares nabbing the food.




Illustrator
Sam Savitt. Here drawing Thoroughbreds and racehorses, Savitt's pen is darker and more distinct than in Summer Pony. Each drawing resonates with the knowledge of someone who's watched many horses and knows how they move.

Other Books by author
Hundred Horse Farm (sequel) (also illustrated by Savitt)
Thudding Hoofs (also illustrated by Savitt)