Martin wasn't listening.He lifted the colt's head against his chest and rubbed its neck and sides."Come on, little fellow," he whispered."You're going to grow up and be a big horse someday - a trotter."
Martin Dennis loves trotting horses.His father breeds and trains Standardbreds, dreaming of one day reaching the harness world's biggest race, the Hambletonian, and Martin dreams right along with him.But while his father's hopes are pinned on the promising black colt Master Peter, Martin believes in his little orphan foal Good Luck.Since no one knows if his dam was registered, Good Luck's prospects for a trotting career are dim, but Martin is determined to make his colt a harness horse.He has some trouble -
It was not until he unsnapped the rope and picked up the lines that he ran into trouble.No matter how he tried he could not get Good Luck to walk away from him.Every time he stepped behind him and picked up the lines the colt turned and came toward him, nuzzling his hands and pockets for carrots or oats.
- but for the most part, Good Luck learns easily and Martin has high hopes of tracking down his dam's papers through a slippery horseman named Gus Brown.When tragedy strikes, Martin feels pressured to re-ignite his father's enthusiasm for horses, and suggests a trip to nearby Goshen to watch the harness world's biggest race, the Hambletonian.There, father and son meet the famous names of harness racing: Ben White, Bion Shively, Sep Palin, Harry Pownall, Fred Eagen, and watch the race itself.Upon their return home, matters with the elusive Gus reach a crisis, and Good Luck ends up racing for the first time.
A well-written, enjoyable old horse book with a vivid portrait of harness racing and beautiful Paul Brown illustrations.Martin's little brother Cal is a wonder of tough-hearted childhood; his favorite strategy when he's annoyed at his older brother is to hopefully suggest that someone or something is dead.Even the villain Gus Brown is drawn intriguingly; a skillful driver and careful horseman, he is described as having a weakness for crooked schemes, but an honesty about caring for his horses.
Horses
Voline - Standardbred mare
Lady Luck - Standardbred mare
Good Luck - bay Standardbred colt with white stripe (Lady Luck x Good Cheer)
Master Peter - black Standardbred colt (Voline x Master Mind)
Peter Volo - Standardbred stallion
Master Mind - Standardbred stallion
Florita - chestnut Standardbred filly
Real Horses
Iron Prince - brown Standardbred colt
Crystal Hanover - Standardbred filly in Hambletonian
Sharp Note - Standardbred colt in Hambletonian
Duke of Lullwater - Standardbred colt in Hambletonian
There was a short documentary film on Bion Shively's victory,Old Man In A Hurry.
Alma Sheppard
Martin, arguing for the right to race his colt, uses Alma Sheppard as an example of a child who raced harness horses.In 1937, she drove Dean Hanover to a record 1:58.
Billy and Tommy go riding on their ponies Blaze and Dusty, and explore the woods by making every right turn.They quickly become lost, find a ruined cabin, jump a wide stream and picnic by a waterfall.
Unusual for the Blaze series in that much of it takes place in thick woods, with the boys ducking to avoid branches, etc.Unusual for Anderson, too, whose drawings usually portray riders using grassy lanes with the occasional low stone wall.I could swear Blaze and Dusty grow taller in this one.There's one drawing where Blaze looks very much like a horse, and Dusty looks leggier than previously.Quibbles, all.These are some of the most engaging drawings in the series, with both children and horses looking interestedly around as they scout new territory.
Horses
Blaze - bay pony with four socks and a blaze
Dusty - grey spotted pony
Billy And Blaze books
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 (picture) A Pony For Linda
The Crooked Colt
Pony For Three
Lonesome Little Colt
Other Books Bobcat
High Courage
The Horse of Hurricane Hill
Salute
Afraid To Ride
Phantom, Son Of The Gray Ghost
A Filly For Joan
Great Heart
Another Man O'War
The Outlaw
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
Equine short story collections for children tend to use the same stories, a mix of re-told myths with a horsey angle, quasi-literary excerpts and some pony book chapters from the UK or horse fiction from US writers like Will James. This collection is a little unique. True, there are two versions of the Bucephalus legend and one of Pegasus, a story by Will James, and the obligatory Bierce and Saroyan contributions. But there are also three tributes to real racehorses - one of them an Australian filly - as well as a chapter from Florian, and the very funny 19th century comment on transportation, The Suburban Horse. Although Kipling's Maltese Cat is a familiar face, his polo ponies playing their underestimated hearts out in colonial India is too good to begrudge.
High-Stepping Horses
ed. Frances E. Clarke
1963, Acorn Books (The Macmillan Company)
Dedicated to the memory of Man O'War
The stories
I've divided them up based on style - most seem to be fiction, there are some which are clearly non-fiction (obituaries of Man O'War and Anna, for instance) and some which are written in a non-fiction style.
Fiction
The Horseman In The Sky (Ambrose Bierce)
The figure of the man sat the figure of the horse, straight and soldierly, but with the repose of a Grecian god carved in the marble which limits the suggestion of activity.
Bierce's famous Civil War short story where honor and duty vie with love and family, centered on a Confederate calvalry officer paused atop a hill.
The Bride Of The Man-Horse (Lord Dunsany)
from The Book Of Wonder (1912)
Her father has been half centaur and half god, her mother was the child of a desert-lion and that sphinx that watches the pyramids, she was more mystical than Woman
The centaur Shepperalk steals the beautiful, lonely and fabulous Sombelene to be his wife.
Florian Performs For Franz Joseph (Felix Salten)
from the book Florian: The Emperor's Stallion (1934)
Florian strode as those horses who, centuries ago, triumphantly and conscious of the triumphant occasion, bore Caesars and conquerors into vaquished cities or in homecoming processions.
The Lipizzan stallion Florian and his rider Ennsbauer perform for the Emperor of Austria.
Metzengerstein(Edgar Allan Poe)
first published in the Saturday Courier magazine (1832)
We caught him flying, all smoking and foaming with rage, from the burning stables of the Castle Berlifitzing.
A vicious young baron inherits a murdered neighbor's magnificent but seemingly cursed stallion.
Pegasus, The Winged Horse Of The Ancients (Marshall Reid)
It was not that Pegasus was frightened, but that he had never known the love of man - or of horse either, for there was no horse like him.He had always lived along and he liked it best that way.
Another retelling of Bellerophon and the golden bridle, the battle with the Chimaera, and his decision to free the wild winged stallion Pegasus.
Silver BlazeSir (Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Memoirs Of Sherlock Holmes (1892)
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson travel to Dartmoor to investigate the disappearance ofaracehorse.This tale was the origin of the phrase "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time," which has become a shorthand for the abscence of an event being significant.
A Genuine Mexican Plug (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
A chapter from the novel "Roughing It" by Mark Twain.
a black beast that had as many humps and corners on him as a dromedary
Twain impulsively buys this bargain - $27 for horse, saddle and bridle - and then discovers the horse's two talents - bucking and taking chances that nearly kill his riders and would kill any other horse.
The Summer Of The Beautiful White Horse(William Saroyan)
from the collection My Name Is Aram (1940)
Early every morning for two weeks my cousin Mourad and I took the horse out of the barn of the deserted vineyard where we were hiding it and rode it, and every morning the horse, when it was my turn to ride alone, leaped over grape vines and small trees and threw me and ran away
Mourad and Aram are from a tribe legendary for their honesty, so when horse-crazy Mourad shows up with a white horse one morning, Aram can't understand how he got it.But he's willing to overlook this detail if he can only learn to ride it.
Blue Murder(William Daniel Steele)
from a magazine story ( 1925)
No outlash here of heels in fright. Here was a forefoot.An attack aimed and frontal; an onslaught reared, erect; beast turned biped; red eyes made to white eyes aghast...
When his brother Jim is killed by a rogue stallion, silent blacksmith Camden Bluedge goes after the animal, which has run off into the wilderness.
The Brown Mare(Alfred Ollivant)
from the book The Brown Mare And Other Stories Of England Under The Cloud (1916)
She was honest and she was kind, with the heart of a woman and the manners of a lady.
A groom and a major in WWI cavalry tend their favorite mare, Kitty.
"Joker" (A Horse That Lived Up To His Name)(Will James)
from Horses I've Known (1940)
A cowboy is flummoxed by a young horse who has a talent for getting them both into strange situations.
Champions Of The Peaks(Paul Annixter)
from the book The Hunting Horn And Other Stories (1957)
The 2-year-old colt Slippy runs away in the company of the big old dog Sounder, but the duo ends up lost in the mountains and searching for a way home.
Bucephalus: A King's Horse (Alice Gall and Fleming Crew)
Another retelling of the legend of Bucephalus and the young Alexander, whose canny recognition of the source of the horse's spooking foretold his later exploits.This version introduces a new character, the slave Orestes, who loves the horse before it was sold to Alexander.
The Maltese Cat (Rudyard Kipling)
A cheap lot of polo ponies face a team made up of high-priced horses from the pick of the Indian crop.A classic, told from the point of view of the ponies themselves, particularly the driven, charismatic Maltese Cat.
Nonfiction
Arabians(Howard J. Lewis)
A quick summation of the Arabian breed of horse.
Babieca: Steed of El Cid(FairfaxDowney)
The legend of the Spanish national hero and his white warhorse.
Cristiano: A Horse(W.H. Hudson)
from The Book Of A Naturalist (1919)
The naturalist recounts how, on a trip to the pampas of his native Argentina, he misinterprets the behavior of a gaucho's grey horse, whose preternatural alertness and restlessness he attributes to playfulness until the gaucho tells him the horse was born wild and has retained the wild animal's watchfulness.
The King Is Dead(Arthur Daley)
from the November 2, 1947 New York Times
The King is dead and he leaves no successor
An obituary for the racehorse and sire Man O'War, who died a few weeks after his long-time groom Will Harbut.
Gato Taught Me A Lesson(A.F. Tschiffely)
from the book "Tschiffely's Ride"(1933) (aka "The Ride," and or "Southern Cross to Pole Star"
The writer and adventurer discovers the intelligence and value of his new horse, Gato, when he tries to force the horse to cross a seemingly placid river.
Equestrian Interlude (Tursa)
The writer recalls some of his horses from his time in India, from a polo-loving Waler mare to a horse who resents late nights.
Annafrom the NYT
Anna Dies At 39from the NY Herald Tribune
Two newspaper stories about the death of a white mare, Anna, who for 25 years appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in the opera Aida.
Flight: An Appreciation (James C. Bendrodt)
From the book "A Story Of Courage: Flight, Australia's Greatest Stakes-Winning Mare" by A.P. Morris (1947)
You owned a queer sort of stark, remorseless courage that transcended mere speed
A racehorse fan salutes the Australian champion Flight, a bay filly.
The Suburban Horse (H.C. Bunner)
by Henry Cuyler Bunner(1896)
I know only that they walk as if they had corns, and that they are always sick; and these, I am assured, are signs of high blood and great commercial value in a horse.
A wry look at the horse, from the dying years of the pre-auto era, when anyone living in the suburbs would have used a horse as transportation.
Poems
The Stallion (Walt Whitman)
The Broncho That Would Not Be Broken (Vachel Lindsay)
Mavericks Jack Schafer, il. Lorence Bjorklund 1967, Dell Publishing
Smallish and stunted, grass-bellied, cat-hipped. Almost everything splendid gone - everything except the spirit and the hardihood. And the stubborn clutch on freedom.
Jake Hanlon is an old man aware he's outlived his era, freshly aware that even this mourned time of cowboys and horses was part of the same process of progress that's killed off his kind and brought an end to the mustangs. Living in an old, abandoned ranch house in New Mexico, he reflects back on the horses he's known, all of them mustangs. The wild white mustang who refused to be captured. The outlaw's horse, Jimmie Dun, who outlasted the Thoroughbreds and the cheaters in an endurance race. Last Dollar, the mustang he liberates from a Chicago street peddler, whose body is forever stunted by his poor early years but who manages to save Jake's life. And the broomtail herds he's spent his old age freeing from the men who want to eradicate them from the range, going to jail over and over as the sympathetic but exasperated local law tries to find a solution.
A mourning for the Old West, the mustangs and the cowboys, from one of the most famous western writers. Beautifully illustrated by Bjorklund.
Horses White Mustang - grey stallion Jimmie Dun - 14h dun gelding Last Dollar - sorrel mustang with 4 socks and a star Sorrel Clipper - Thoroughbred/Standardbred cross Thunderbolt Limpy Galumpus - roan gelding Little Brown Jug - sorrel gelding Smilin' Joe - dun gelding Little Minx Minnie - sorrel mare
Other Books Shane First Blood The Big Range The Canyon The Pioneers Company of Cowards The Kean Land and Other Stories Old Ramon Tales from the West Incident on the Trail The Plainsmen (illustrated by Lorence Bjorklund) Monte Walsh The Great Endurance Horse Race Stubby Pringle's Christmas (illustrated by Lorence Bjorklund) Heroes Without Glory Collected Stories Adolphe Francis Alphonse Bandelier New Mexico An American Bestiary, 1975 Conversations with a Pocket Gopher and Other Outspoken Neighbors
About the Author 1907-1991 Born in Cleveland, the son of a lawyer, graduated from Oberlin in 1929. Started a master's at Columbia, then became a reporter. He was living in Waterbury, Connecticut when he wrote his most famous western novels, moving west to New Mexico only in 1955.
Pony Jungle Lavinia R. Davis, il. Gordon Ross 1941, Doubleday & Company
She held her breath and turned Gray Mouse's head toward the outside of the circle. She got a good grip with her knees and then touched her inside heel to his side. "Come on, boy," she called. "Canter. Canter, now!"
At the start of the summer, 12-year-old Dibs Terrill is looking forward to meeting her new neighbors, two English children shipped to a wealthy relative to escape the war. Her 13-year-old brother, Josh, is less interested, being more or less completely absorbed in his study of nature around their rural Connecticut home. And 6-year-old Tommy is simply too young to understand. But Dibs's first meeting with the Edgemonts twins is a disaster. Rosemary is fat and dreamy, hardly the wan princess Dibs has imagined. And Patrick is cranky and aloof, far from the gallant Englishman of her dreams. And there are inevitable Anglo-American wrangles.
"I shouldn't bellow so were I you," Patrick said before the echo of Dibs's shrill voice had entirely vanished. Grand'mere doesn't like shrieking."Dibs gave one convulsive sniff at the idea of really calling anyone Grand'mere...
The other children have their own worries; Tommy is endlessly trying to keep up with the older kids, Josh senses his indifference to sports and riding disappoints his father, and the twins are both haunted by memories of bombings and harassed by a present where their only choice of companions is a grumpy old groom, their grandmother or a trio of somewhat annoying Americans.
Which is where the horses come in. When the pony Gray Mouse leads Dibs into a hobo camp, her idea of making their own version creates a connection with the Brits for the first time, and the kids become friends as they construct their very own hobo jungle, dubbed the pony jungle after Gray Mouse. Dibs and Patrick, in some ways natural enemies, bond over their shared love of horses and riding, while Rosemary and Josh happily continue their solitary pursuits of reading and nature study. There are various adventures, often involving the horses, and a standard mystery.
While the horse Barney and the pony Gray Mouse play a significant role in the story, it's more of a straightforward adventure tale than a horse story. There are chapters given over to a horse show, a foxhunt, and other horsey activities, but the bulk of the plot is about the friendships and activities of the humans. It's a very strong book, especially in the fleeting but powerful images of Patrick's confusion, upon waking, that the crash of trash cans outside are the bombs falling around his boarding school back in England.
Dogs Poodles - Poodle Tickles - Scottish Terrier Royal - Great Dane
About the Author 1909-1961 Lavinia Riker Davis was born in New York City According to the website TomFolio.com, Davis wrote over 43 books, some under the name Wendell Farmer. A collection of her diaries, The Journals of Lavinia Riker Davis, was published in 1964. This is available online at the Alexander Street Press's Social And Cultural History: Letters And Diaries Online.
Other books Buttonwood Island (1940) (il. Paul Brown) Pony Jungle (1941) (il. Gordon Ross) Plow Penny Mystery (1942( (il. Paul Brown) Melody, Muttonbone And Sam (1947) (il. Paul Brown) The Secret Of Donkey Island (1952) Sandy's Spurs (1951) Donkey Detective (1955) Hobby Horse Hill
Juvenile, non-horsey Island City Clown Dog Round Robin Americans Every One Spinney And Spike And The B-29 It Happened On A Holiday Adventures In Steel Grab Bag Skyscraper Mystery
Picture Books Roger And The Fox The Wild Birthday Cake Danny's Luck Summer Is Fun
Teen Hearts In Trim Janey's Fortune A Sea Between Come Be My Love Stand Fast And Reply
Thrillers Evidence Of Dragons Threat Of Dragons Barren Heritage Taste Of Vengeance Reference To Death
Anthologies featuring a story Great Stories About Dogs Flying Hoofs: Stories Of Horses
About the Illustrator Gordon Ross (1873-1946) Born in Scotland, he moved to San Francisco as a teen and studied at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute and worked on the San Francisco Chronicle. He moved to New York City, where he began illustrating books.
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