Big Black Horse Walter Farley, il. James Schucker 1953, Random House
Walter Farley's classic horse novel The Black Stallion made over into a simple intro-to-reading board book for younger children, with bright color illustrations and darker, more realistic black-and-whites. It was re-released by Random House in 2007.
I've always liked these illustrations, but the scale is sometimes a little odd. Funny how the Farley books had a variety of illustrators who all seem to have grasped the essential high style and fantasy element of the books, and reflected it in their work. Even the out-sized stallion here fits right in - the books frequently insist on The Black's enormity, his vast physical presence, and how he's far larger than a normal Arabian.
About the illustrator James Schucker (1903-1988) was, like Farley, a long-time resident of Pennsylvania. He did magazine illustrations and advertising as well as book illustrating. In the event anyone goes looking for his circus books, fair warning, his clown illustrations are hugely disturbing.
Other books Little Black, A Pony Little Black Goes To The Circus Little Black Pony Races The Horse Tamer (dj for original 1958 hardcover) The Big Book Of The Real Circus The Book Of Clowns The Big Treasure Book Of Clowns The Wonder Book Of Trucks
The Black Stallion's Filly Walter Farley, il. Milton Menasco 1952, Random House
Black Minx came into the ring held firmly by the white-coated attendants who handled all the horses up for sale. She was coal black and small. She had a quick, competent walk as she was led about the ring, and it was apparent to those who watched her that her limited size was misleading, for she had more muscle than was noticeable at first glance. Her head was light and beautiful with great breadth between sharp eyes, a slightly dished nose, a narrow muzzle and sensitive nostrils. Her only disfigurement was a short tail, so short that it was barely more than a stump.
Henry Daily, bored with life on Hopeful Farm after he retires Satan from the track, decides to buy himself a racehorse. He buys a two-year-old filly by the Black despite her dubious history (she took her last jockey through the rail, breaking his collarbone), sure he can fix her. Alec, content to stay home at the farm, isn't so sure, but in his quiet, reliable way decides not to argue but do everything he can to help his old friend achieve his goal - to have this wild, wilfull, contrary filly whose last race ended in the infield, ready to run in America's premiere classic, the Kentucky Derby. And win.
...[Alec] went back in memory to the days when Henry had taken him and the Black under his wing, when Henry had encouraged him to race the Black because he had confidence in Alec's ability to handle the stallion on the racetrack. At the time, Henry's enthusiasm had sounded just as fantastic... But it had turned out the way Henry had said it would. He had ridden the Black to victory over the best horses in the country.
First, Henry and Alec have to fix the filly's horrible ground manners, which include biting and kicking. In a sequence which is ground indelibley into the minds of anyone who reads the book, Henry finally resorts to a baked potato to cure Black Minx's willingness to bite. I won't spoil it by quoting, but that chapter alone makes the book worth reading.
While Henry is the trainer, Alec is the jockey and he quickly realizes that the filly's other issues are nothing compared to her indifference to racing. She has speed, but when Alec tries to work her faster, the filly placidly continues at the same pace as before, ignoring his urging to speed up. Henry's face, always grim, matches the winter weather of their New York state farm as he ponders how to best Black Minx and make her a racehorse.
In the meantime, Henry and Alec watch the televised races of warm-weather racing from Florida and California, where other Derby hopefuls are being honed. California darling Golden Vanity shows blistering speed in winning the Santa Anita Derby, Eastern colt Silver Jet lives up to his status as an early Derby favorite by winning the Flamingo Stakes, a filly named Lady Lee in the Louisiana Derby, and Wintertime and Eclipse in the Experimental.
An interesting book in that gruff, rough Henry has something personal on the line this time, and even loyal Alec sometimes wonders if he's seeing clearly. Farley's racing books tended to give the reader an extensive look at the competition, which creates a sense of realism, showing Henry and Alec studying the races of the horses and jockeys they'll be going up against in the Derby.
Horses Black Minx - black filly Golden Vanity - 17h chestnut colt Moonstruck - bay colt Silver Jet - grey colt Lady Lee - filly Wintertime - blood bay colt Eclipse - brown colt
One interesting side effect of being around horses is having a unique inside look into that vast stretch of human history that came before the internal combustion engine.With all apologies to my childhood self, who bitterly resented the family car for not being a family horse, I have to admit that the horse was a major stumbling block to human ambition.Having your financialworld depending on a fragile, flighty animal whose tendency to bolt has inspired more than one doting owner to refer to them as very large bunny rabbits and whose ability to cripple themselves without even trying has caused those same owners to say that horses were born trying to commit suicide... well, hanging your society's health and wealth on this animal was madness.
Even when they weren't running amok spilling humans and cargo off cobblestones and sideswiping pedestrians (for a recent modern equivalent, see the news stories about that 4th of July parade in Iowa where a team spooked and caused mayhem including one death) there was the issue that they could get sick.En masse. And then your economy did too, since you needed the equines to deliver goods and people. The best example came in 1872, when an equine flu swept the United States, sickening thousands of horses and crippling the nation's largest cities.The Great Epizootic brought American trade to a halt, provoked a lot of second-hand scrambling by urban centers to police the health of the cities' horses as a way of policing the health of the cities themselves, and helped create a six-year economic depression.
No wonder people embraced the machine. But until they had the option, we were stuck with the horse. And the horse was stuck with us. For every miserable person cursing his lame transportation, there were dozens of horses suffering from people who had no idea how to train them. Which is where Farley sets his tale.
When the Black bruises his foot racing overseas, Alec and Henry Dailey set off for home to rest him.Delayed at takeoff, the two horsemen pass the time by talking horses, and Henry recounts his youthful experiences with his older brother Bill, a horse tamer.When Alec asks why they were called tamers, Henry answers:
"Training takes time, Alec, as you know, and these men had no time. They did a job in a matter of hours--a few days at most--and then went on to the next case.Some of the horses, too, were worse than wild animals--vicious, mean horses.Most often, of course, they were the result of bad handling by their owners.But come to think of it, what kind of job would you and I do on that plane outside?We're no mechanics and, as I say, so many owners in the old days weren't horsemen.They just needed a horse to get around.They made mistakes, plenty of 'em--and they suffered for it.So did their horses.
And then the actions goes back in time to 1883, when Henry is a kid sent to spend a summer with his 30-year-old brother Bill, a carriage maker.Bill's more interested in horses than in what they pull, and a chance meeting with an Irish peddler named Finn Caspersen turns him into an itinerant horse tamer.The brothers and Finn begin touring the towns and small cities of the East with Bill taking on every community's worst horse and turning out impressive performances.
Suddenly Wild Bess reached for him, her head as pointed as a snake's.Bill jumped away, pulling her head around and staying close to her hindquarters.Her long tail cut the air and without thinking he grabbed the tail with his free hand and hung on.She spun him around and he barely kept his feet as they made several tight circles.
Finn's happy; they're making money.But what Bill wants to do teach the owners, not give a 'show' and the two clash repeatedly over this difference.When Bill catches Finn selling fake 'cures' like a medicine man, he furiously tells him they're through.Finn, calculating, tells him he's learned plenty from him and is going to do his own show, his way.Bill continues his way, and gains respect and prestige, but begins hearing about Finn's enterprise, which has become wildly successful.The brothers head to New York City, where Finn's show has been enthralling audiences.
Here, hometown boy Farley indulges himself in one of those classic fawning looks at The City:
They found the city itself as forbidding as it was strange, for the streets were crammed with block after block of houses and buildings.Yet they admitted to each other that they felt the strong pull of New York.Here was violent power and excitement!It was a city that would be forever on the rise and constantly changing.They wondered if this in some way was not beauty in itself.
I'm not saying he's wrong, but oh, the inevitability of a New Yorker drifting off to gloat over how spiffy they are.
Back on point.Henry and Bill track Finn down, and the usually gentle Bill resorts to ruthless, dangerous tactics to force the fraud out of his racket.
An unusual book for Farley.His only foray into historical fiction, it was otherwise similar in tone to his later books - a little more mystical, a little less character-driven and more heavily plotted than his earlier work.Henry has almost no character as a kid, Finn is a stock big guy with a little conscience, and only Bill has any depth but he's mostly a stock little guy hero.The horse taming methods aren't exactly going to win Bill any accolades today, but in the context of a short-term "tamer" trying to provide a quick fix in an era filled with horses suffering much worse from ignorant owners, it's not a nightmare.Bill repeatedly says he's trying to teach the owners more than the horses, but the owners resist and we see mostly Bill with the horses.The final scene, where Bill springs a nasty surprise on his former partner, is exciting, as are the other tangles between Bill and dangerous horses. The horses--Wild Bess, Tar Heel, and Panic--actually get more depth than most of the people.
1958 hardcover at FantasticFiction - by James Schucker who also illustrated Big Black Horse,Little Black, A Pony, Little Black Goes To The Circus, and The Little Black Pony Races.
Tena wore neither saddle nor bridle, and there was only a light halter on her head.Yet Tim could guide her with no trouble at all.She would run for miles and miles if he let her.There was scarcely a day that they didn't go fifteen miles down the beach and back.
Scant months earlier, Tim's family had moved south to a beachfront house on a remote Florida key for his father's health.To make up for his losing his friends, his parents gave him the Arabian mare Tena, with whom Tim has clearly established an instant, perfect bond.
One day the pair's usual adventures - herding a school of mullet in the shallows, fighting a nurse shark hooked on a fishing line, galloping along the beach - turns dangerous when Tena follows a porpoise out to sea.Desperate, Tim trespasses on the territory of a reclusive Native American named Billy Roundlegs, only to discover that Billy shares his trouble - the porpoise is his own runaway pet.
A very simply written book which doesn't approach the quality of the series for which Farley is famous, but then it is clearly intended for a younger audience.His love for the unique natural world of Florida is clear in every line, and the most compelling feature of the story.
Living in Florida wasn't the same as living anywhere else.You wouldn't have any fun at all if you were scared of things that might hurt you.
The horse-in-peril plot is a common one, but this slant - a horse swimming out to sea, at the mercy of the ocean and the predators therein - is unusual.
This book appears to have been based on a story Farley told his youngest child, a boy named Tim.The family had a home in Florida and owned Arabians, including a mare named Al-Marah Athena.
Horses
Al-Marah Athena "Tena" - chestnut Arabian mare
Related
Al-Marah Arabians and breeder Ruth "Bazy" Tankersley are big players in the Arabian world in the U.S.Her breeding program, based on stock purchased from the famous Crabbet stud in England, helped make this particular line of Arabian horses extremely popular in America.There is a book about Al-Marah, And Ride Away Singing - the Breeding Philosophy of Bazy Tankersley and the History of Al-Marah Arabians by Mary Jane Parkinson.
One of the most exciting days of my childhood was finding the entire Black Stallion series at a thrift shop. They were the 1977 trade paperbacks, which had beautiful covers (I'd love to know who the illustrator was), and I must have read each one dozens of times. When I dug them out of my parents' attic a few years ago, they'd been read to pieces. The covers were delicately attached to their bindings, the spines were cracked, the pages honorably battle-worn. No matter. I lovingly transported them and their layers of dust home, and they now live in a safe bookshelf alongside some boxes of my childhood Breyers, and amidst my other great second-hand Black Stallion find, a collection of first editions I stumbled over in a church rummage sale years later.
So it's safe to say I'm a little biased in favor of the Farley books. Just a warning.
The tribe of the horse-crazy has its own version of what constitutes a classic book.Those who dream of riding in the Maclay Finals cherish The Monday Horses.Wannabe cowgirls love Glen Rounds and Will James.Social climbers love the gracious plenty of C.W. Anderson, whose little characters never just had a horse, they had Man O'War's more promising grandson.The depraved have a lingering kitchsy fondness for the sort of horsey series where girls named Stevie can't decide what's more important, prepping Algonquin Star Of Wonder for the big show, helping their BFF adjust to her diabetes or winning back their boyfriend from the mean girl with the super-expensive horse.
And the non-horse-obsessed world has its own version of classic books with horse themes.The Red Pony is the most obvious case of disconnect - a book about a horse that's actually as much about the horse as it is about the 2004 presidential race, and whose ending has caused serious cases of nausea in generations of innocent children.Other classics - Smoky, My Friend Flicka, Black Beauty- are Classics, capital C.But they're not particularly amenable to younger readers because of the sophistication and density of the writing, as well as the relentless realism built into the stories.They may be marketed as children's books, but they were not written for children and it shows.
One place where both worlds come together is in the 1941 book The Black Stallion. I've never heard of a horse nut who dismissed this book's position as a classic even if it wasn't in their personal top 10, and its success as a 69-year-old book that's still in print (and the connection with a critically acclaimed film) seems to have given it respectability in the wider world.
The series as a whole is an intense fantasy, far more wild than any other horse book. Alec Ramsay is shipwrecked on a desert island with a magnificent killer stallion who he tames, takes back to Queens, and rides in a match race with the world's best racers.Later, he founds a Thoroughbred breeding and training farm, wins the Kentucky Derby with the stallion's first filly, the Triple Crown with his first colt, the Hambletonian with his trotting colt, becomes lost and amnesiac in the American West, encounters an evil magician in the Florida Everglades, travels to the Middle East and becomes enmeshed in various Arabic feuds, etc.This is go-for-broke horse book plotting at its most fearless.Nothing in the Black Stallion series is remotely believable.But the books work.They've endured for over fifty years because they're beautifully written for children.Clear, simple writing, solid characters and a fantasy which is completely grounded in realistic details forces belief.Wonderful, and classic by any definition
The Black Stallion
Walter Farley
1941, Random House
Alec heard a whistle - shrill, loud, clear, unlike anything he'd ever heard before.He saw a mighty black horse rear on its hind legs, its forelegs striking out into the air. A white scarf was tied across its eyes.The crowd broke and ran.
Alexander 'Alec' Ramsay, Jr. watches in disbelief as a huge black stallion is, with a great deal of trouble, loaded onto the tramp steamer taking him home from a summer in India.The boy has learned to ride while visiting his Uncle Ralph in Bombay, and has fallen in love with horses, but knows his chances to ride back home in New York City will be few.As the Drake steams on toward England, Alec cautiously befriends the furious horse, whose constant assault on the walls of his makeshift stall ring through the ship.And then a storm sinks the boat, and horse and boy are stranded on an island together.
When rescue arrives, Alec and the Black are bonded, but the horse is still savage and wild with others.Alec's parents look askance at this scary horse, but let him keep him down at a neighbor's rickety barn, along with a huckster's tired grey gelding, Napoleon.The neighbor is Henry Dailey, a former racehorse jockey and trainer.
There they stopped and waited for Henry.Finally he showed up - a short, chunky man with large shoulders.He came toward them walking in jerky, bowlegged strides.His white shirt tails flapped in the night wind.He wiped a large hand across his mouth."Right with you," he yelled.
The Black promptly jumps out of his pasture and goes running off into the dawn streets of Flushing with Henry and Alec in pursuit.Despite the race which follows at the end of the book, this has always seemed the most exciting chapter.The idea of this huge wild horse roaming city streets, certain to get into trouble if he meets anyone but Alec, is haunting.As are Alec's midnight rides at BelmontPark.
Suddenly the Black bolted.His action shifted marvelously as his powerful legs swept over the ground.Fleet hoofbeats made a clattering roar in Alec's ears.The stallion's speed became greater and greater.Alec's body grew numb, the terrific speed made it hard for him to breathe.Once again the track became a blur, and he was conscious only of the endless white fence slipping by.
But, of course, they do make it to Chicago for the great race between California wonder-horse Sun Raider and Kentucky champion Cyclone.The gray Sun Raider is nearly as large and savage as the Black, and the two horses start a fight at the start that leaves the Black bleeding.And then the starter, not noticing Alec start to climb down to check on his horse's leg, sends them off.
This single book sparked 17 sequels, a film, a TV series, four Breyer models and a stuffed animal, a dinner theater attraction in Orlando, and has recently given rise to a literacy project aimed at encouraging first graders to read.
The filly Rachel Alexandra won the Kentucky Oaks, the 'filly' version of the Derby, by a record 20 1/4 lengths.Her owner, 75-year-old Dolphus Morrison, has drawn attention to himself in recent days by his gender-based reasons for not running his filly in the Derby. He apparently made a few early comments about not wanting to run his filly in the Derby due to her gender and then, when the press pushed a little on that, got defensive and stubborn.
"I don't think a stallion should be messed up by the occasional really, really outstanding filly. They should run on their own."
"Stallions should run against stallions because the Triple Crown races are the showcase for the future stallions of our industry, and they should not be messed up by the occasional really, really outstanding filly."
"I thought it was dumb to come right behind Eight Belles with something that possibly could cause that kind of problem... Eight Belles had the physical (attributes) to compete in the Derby, which she did. One bad step got her.”
“I’m kind of weird. I think the Derby is a colts' race and it’s there to showcase the horses that are the top potential stallions. It’s kind of stupid for some jerk with a filly to screw that up. I also just don’t like the idea of 20 horses clang-banging her and knocking each other’s brains out in that first 200 or 300 yards trying to get to that first turn.”
Should the filly have run today with the boys? I certainly don't know. Maybe the sex issue is just a cover for an owner who thinks his filly would be outclassed purely on speed for the big race. But I vastly prefer trainer Hal Wiggins' comment about Rachel Alexandra to the New York Daily News.
"This is the type of horse you're always looking for. I'm just so glad she finally came along."
Fillies who won the Kentucky Derby Regret in 1915 Genuine Risk in 1980 Winning Colors in 1988
About.com lists all the fillies that have raced in the Derby, and their results here
Eight Belles was, of course, the most recent filly to run in the classic. Her death last year after a catastrophic injury just beyond the finish line shook the Derby, which had been unusually lucky in never seeing a fatal accident, and put new life into discussions of racetrack safety and drug use. The 2008 Derby winner, Big Brown, was on a regular steroid schedule that many think allowed the colt, whose notoriously bad hooves led to his early retirement that fall, stay sound enough to race.
The filly has been remembered this year at Churchill Downs with a race named after her on the card, and eight bells will be rung before the Derby.
Owner Rick Porter and trainer Larry Jones are back in the Derby with the colt Friesan Fire.
Fiction
There is Walter Farley's book about a filly training for Kentucky Derby in The Black Stallion's Filly.
Blanche Chenry Perrin's Born To Run also centers around a filly's pursuit of the classic.
And there is an entry in the Thoroughbred series by Joanna Campbell, Wonder's First Race. Other Kentucky Derby children's fiction includes Kentucky Derby Winner by Isabel McLennan McMeekin (1949) about the first Derby, and Old Bones, The Wonder Horse by Mildred Mastin Pace (1955) about Exterminator, the unlikely winner of the 1918 Derby.
The latter book, illustrated by Wesley Dennis, is a very nice story of a classic underdog, and much more appealing in a way than the similar Seabiscuit story.
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 BloodBay 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
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.
Big Black Horse
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