A Day At The LBJ Ranch Sam Savitt, author and illustrator 1965, Random House
"If we do meet the President, what should I say?"
Jackie and Dennis have been chosen to represent the Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts on a visit to President Lyndon Baines Johnson's ranch in Texas. The two are understandably nervous about meeting their famous host, but before that moment arrives, they are taken on a tour of the ranch, riding Quarter Horses and learning about the history of the area and the Johnson family, as well as getting an inside look at the backstage of life at the Texas White House.
When the little calf tried to get back to its mother, the gray spun around almost faster than their eyes could follow. The horse kept facing the calf, quickly flanking it away from the others.
The kids, both enthusiastic riders, are impressed with the Western horses, and Jackie tries her hand at cutting - with mixed results.
Ultimately, a pleasant book and nicely illustrated, but a bit odd. It functions largely as a 'this is our President' tutorial, in a reader-friendly fictional format, with plenty of Texas history and landscape thrown in. The characters are flat and the brief story is not very involving, but the situation is so unique and the art is so Savitt that I think I'll hang onto my copy. Savitt, normally a decent writer, seems unable to maintain that quality in this very short, simpler format, and the style is wooden as a result.
"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 MadisonSquareGarden.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.
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
Sunday, January 18, 2009
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
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