Zara (1970)

As a possible guilty look over the shoulder regarding my shameless obsession with the glory side of racing in recent weeks, an English book which regards horse racing with a more jaundiced eye.

Zara

Joyce Stranger

1970, Harvill Press (UK), The Viking Press (US)

Richard Proud clucked to her as she trotted towards them, and she came to him, treading delicately on deceptively fragile hooves, and dropped her muzzle to his palm, breathing warmly, and huffed to him. He was lost.

The beautiful filly Zara changes hands for the first time for a reason that becomes one of the focal points of the book - the vast costs and fickle sucess of horse racing. New owner Richard Proud brings her home to a farm dominated by unease, where his wife Stella has changed into an angry, dangerously unstable woman. All she seems to care about is a social life Richard can't provide, scorning their teenage daughter Sue as plain and boring. Richard and Sue frequently take refuge in the warm company of their cook and farm manager, leaving the chilly main house to Stella. Also new to the farm is Sam, a poor teenager with a knack for riding, and Chris, a middle-class teen getting over a bout of polio. Zara's beauty and gentleness enthralls them all, but bad luck seems to plague the Proud farm after her purchase, culminating in a terrifying blizzard.

While most of the action comes through the perspectives of Richard Proud, Sam and a few other male characters, the twin centers of action are female: the filly Zara and the woman Stella. Zara is adored for both her beauty and her gentleness. Stella, on the other hand, is described as beautiful but harsh, so vicious and unfeeling toward her family that only the newcomer Sam sees her beauty anymore. When the book reveals Stella's thoughts, she returns again and again to pain, to a pain that drives her in a fury of action and anger, and it's no surprise when we discover her behavior has a physical cause. It does come as a complete surprise to her husband, who's not winning any prizes as most alert husband.

The horsemen in the book are shown to be very caring of their animals, or as caring as they can be while trying to break even or make a profit.

Horses were not fully grown until four, and too many of them, foaling when young, or raced too often when young, ended up ruined for life..

The decision is made to race Zara in a steeplechase, and her race ends on a bittersweet note, as they all realize the toll taken by the race.

The mare that had followed them home lay stretched on the ground. She would never race again.... "Burst her heart, quite literally."

About the Author

Joyce Muriel Wilson died in 2007. Her website was www.k9phoenix.freeserve.co.uk, and can sometimes be viewed via the Internet Archive's waybackmachine.

Books by Author - Joyce Stranger wrote a lot of books, mostly about animals. Other horse book include:

Breed Of Giants (1966)

Khazan: The Horse That Came Out of The Sea (1977)

Paddy Joe And Thompkin's Folly (1979)

The January Queen (1979)

Wild Ponies (1976)

The Stallion (1981)

No More Horses (1982)

Hound Of Darkness (1983)

Stranger Than Fiction (1984)

The Hounds Of Hades (1985)

Midnight Magic (1991)

Georgie's Secret

Links

FantasticFiction, summary with a far more attractive cover

Google shopping, with another cover

Mon Mome Wins Grand National

A longshot wins the English classic. As I have no relevant reviews ready, here's a list of Grand National stories, fiction and non-fiction. My heart's always belonged, a little bit, to the first American horse to win the race, Man O'War's short (15.2) chestnut colt Battleship. Another American winner was Jay Trump, a flat racing reject who went on to win the Maryland Hunt Cup three times, and the Grand National in 1965. He was buried at the Kentucky Horse Park, at the finish line of the steeplechase course.

Fiction
National Velvet by Enid Bagnold
Free Rein by K.M. Peyton
Pilot, The Chaser by H.M. Peel

Nonfiction
The Sport Of Queens: The Autobiography of Dick Francis by Dick Francis
The Grand National: A History Of The Aintree Spectacular by Stewart Peters
An Aintree Dynasty: The Tophams And Their Grand National by John Pinfold
The Grand National: Aintree's Official Illustrated History by Reg Green
From Aintree To York: Racing Around Britain by Stephen Cartmell
Jenny Pitman: The Autobiography by Jenny Pitman
Twenty Gallant Horses by C.W. Anderson (includes Battleship, winner of the 1938 race)

Films
National Velvet
Champions
Grand National Night

Other
National Velvet television series
National Velvet Boardgame (based on series)




Links
Times Online
The Grand National
Aintree Racecourse
Youtube of the 2009 Race
Youtube of the 1965 Race
National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame - Battleship
Thoroughbred Heritage - Battleship

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