The Horse-Tamer (1958)

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 financial world 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.

The Horse-Tamer

Walter Farley

1958, Random House

(1980 paperback edition shown, il. Ruth Sanderson)

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.

Links

Wikipedia for 1872 horse flu

Long Riders Guilde Academic Foundation - the flu

Wikipedia for Niblo's Garden, the venue where Bill has the showdown with Finn

AskArt on illustrator James Schucker

Random House

Other Covers

2007 paperback from Yearling

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.

Fifty Acres And A Poodle (2000)

I did warn you I liked farm stories. Despite the wet-blanket-in-a-greenhouse effect of 90% humidity, I always go out to the local 4H fair each July. I spotted a girl walking a sheep around on a leash and gnashed my teeth in pure jealousy. I soothe my frustrated inner farmer by touring the animal tents. Below, a particularly cute Holstein calf from last year's fair.


Fifty Acres And A Poodle is not exactly a horse story, but it's somewhat related. And, frankly, few horse stories have a sense of humor (well, you try cracking a joke while rescuing your beloved palomino stallion, Texas Sunset, from a kill buyer so he can race in the Kentucky Derby to win back the family ranch and show that mean old Jessica/Brittany/Alexandra you are TOO the best young rider in the Pony Club) so anything comic is a welcome change.





Fifty Acres And A Poodle: A Story Of Love, Livestock And Finding Myself On A Farm
Jeanne Marie Laskas
2000, Bantam

At 37, Laskas was a happy, self-sufficient writer living contentedly in an arty neighborhood of Pittsburgh with her aging cat. But to her considerable embarassment, she had a dream of farms which was largely rooted in a sitcom. Green Acres was the place for her. Even though:

I was a person who liked to go to the mall. I was a person who had no conflict about liking to go to the mall.

And then she realized that her old friend Alex is really something more like her really great potential love of her life Alex. And that the city, the wonderful urban surroundings she's thrived on for years, is beginning to wear on her.

Lately, in this city I love, this neighborhood I love, all I seem to notice are the intrusions. Hot air. Reeking garbage. Lunatic neighbors. Bus fumes. I am inventing filters. Stinky-garbage filters. Lunatic-neighbor filters. Noxious-bus-fume filters. Sometimes I imagine plugging a big air conditioner into the front of my head so I can block the rest of the world right the hell out.
That's not right.

And after much back-and-forthing, they buy it. A forty-acre farm forty miles from Pittsburgh with an 1887 bank barn and a pond and a house sporting a huge modern studio from a former owner off one end. And move in just in time for hunting season, complete with endless explosions from the woods nearby. And within days, her previously dubious boyfriend, urban guy and psychiatrist Alex, is hobnobbing with hunters -

When Lucy comes back with the fries, Alex stands and says goodbye to his new friend. "And hey," he says earnestly, "congratulations on your... dead deer."

- and she's appalled herself by reverting to girlishness.

I stand here thinking I should speak my mind. Because there is no way. There is no way I'm going to allow hunting anywhere near me. And I am a woman of the 1990s, active and independent-minded, fully in charge of my life. It is so important to me that I stand behind my beliefs and be heard, be known. This is a golden opportunity for me to spread my magnificent wings and soar.
I say: "I'll have to ask my husband..." It comes out like a series of chirps, dying bird chirps.

I won't spoil the rest by writing more. This memoir is funny, flippant and hugely entertaining. The only drawback is that it sometimes goes too deeply flippant, never quite managing to drop the pretense of wry cynicism at serious moments.


Books
Laskas has written two follow-up memoirs, The Exact Same Moon and Growing Girls. As you might suspect from the title, the latter focuses on parenting and her daughters. As you might suspect of a memoir dealing with raising female children on a farm, there are even more horsey passages.

Links
Author's website










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A Horse To Love
Nancy Springer
1987, Harper & Row

Erin Calahan is shy and a loner at school, but somehow when she is spotted, gazing longingly into the pastures, by the crotchety owner of a Morgan horse farm nearby, she musters the courage to speak. And eccentric Lexie Bromer unexpectedly agrees to teach her to ride. When Erin talks her father into letting her buy a horse, Lexie finds her a grey mare who Erin renames Spindrift. Erin's estatic, but reality quickly hits. Spindrift is a sensible sort of horse, and suitable as a mount, but she's also cranky, what horse people call 'mareish' and doesn't appear to have read the same books about loving, affectionate horses.

A warm feeling filled her, and she suddenly reached up and rubbed the mare's neck just behind her ears. Horses were supposed to like having their necks and withers rubbed... Spindrift put all her feet down flat and swung her head away as far as the cross ties would allow.

I confess, I've never been a fan of Springer's books - they remind me of Lynn Hall in their solid plotting, strong characterization and dispiriting insistence on stolid reality - her characters always say 'cripes' and are jerked back to earth from any flights of fancy. More to the point, this drumming in of reality seems to cut off any chance for a fluid writing style. The style is very plain and very choppy. It doesn't invite.

I do love the way that plain, matter-of-fact style gives plenty of room to solid, realistic horsekeeping chores and riding issues. I believe it's the only horse book I've ever read to show the heroine cleaning a horse's dock and udder. And the handling scenes are a balm to anyone still bitter about Alec's effortless partnership with the Black.

Spindrift saw a patch of tall grass at the end of the lane and rushed ahead. Without having to think, Erin tightened her grip on the lead so as not to lose her horse. The chain drew snug under Spindrift's chin, and Erin remembered what to do next. She gave it a jerk. "Whoa!" she ordered, pronouncing it "ho," the way Aunt Lexie did.

And, after the barn-sour mare bolts dangerously toward her stall, the author actually applies the crop;

It took ten minutes. Spindrift moved once the crop was in Erin's hand - she had seen it. But she scooted backward, danced sideways, balked and spun in her efforts to stay by the barn. Once forced near the ring, she refused the gate until Erin sent her through with a hard kick, a lick, and a yell. Erin had never fought with a horse before, and the whole process was against her way of thinking that the horse should be her friend, friend, friend.

Another thing - I love the description of Erin's bedroom:

There was a green-ribcord spread on the bed, a big Sam Savitt poster of all the horse breeds on the wall above it, a complete paperback set of all the Black Stallion stories on the bookshelf, and a herd of Breyer model horses, small ones collected over a dozen birthdays and Christmases, on the dresser...

This, plus about 500 other books, pretty much sums up my girlhood bedroom as well. Did any of the horse-mad of certain generations not have the Savitt poster?

Horses
William - red roan grade gelding (QH mix?)
Bianca/Spindrift - grey mare

Other books
Not On A White Horse (1988)
They're All Named Wildfire (1989)
Colt (1991)
The Great Pony Hassle (1993)
The Boy On A Black Horse (1994)
Sky Rider (1999)

Springer is also included in the anthology Horses, edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois

About the Author
Springer was born in 1948 in NJ. Her considerable output includes mysteries, adult and science fiction, but fantasy is the clear winner.

Links
Sam Savitt poster of horse breeds
The American Morgan Horse Association
Breyer Horses website

Spring Comes Riding
Betty Cavanna, il. Beth Krush
The Westminster Press, 1950

When she first saw him, Meg was standing alone.

It's September when the novel opens, and Meg Sanderson is a senior in high school, living an idyllic life on a small gentleman's farm in suburban Philadelphia, near the fabulously named town of King of Prussia. Her father is a fiction editor for a Philadelphia publisher, her mother and four sisters are avid equestrians who spend every waking moment riding and taking care of their four horses, and Meg - is tired of it. Tired of being just one more red-headed Sanderson girl who rides, who appears at local shows and acquits herself well, of the press of the sizable family in their shabby-classy old farmhouse, of the labor of caring for a small stable of horses.

Her first rebellion is to sit out the local horse show, while her sisters participate as usual, but she begins to regret her decision when she falls in love for the first time, violently and illogically, with a boy she glimpses riding in the show. Alan Randolph is riding a fidgety young palomino named Romance and Meg is aware, sharply, how very appealing she finds that little coincidence. When Alan comes around looking for a place to board Romance, Meg changes her mind quickly about how tired she is of barn work. But her flirty, femininely overwhelming older sister Joanna has already made a conquest, leaving Meg to fume while Joanna idly adds Alan to her string of dates. The tables turn when Meg takes Joanna's place at a major social event, the Naval Academy Hop in Annapolis, where Meg begins to find herself a place in a world where she's not automatically the person she is at home.

In the brief span from September to Christmas, Meg learns to stand outside her family, finds the confidence to act naturally for better or for worse instead of mimicing her suave older sister, and discovers new things about herself and her family.

Then, with a shocking wisdom beyond her years, Meg realized that Joanna could, and would, do this or anything else that would help her to gain her own ends. Joanna, her own sister, had a ruthlessness that would never yield to sensitivity or pity. A ruthlessness that she, Meg, couldn't ever hope to fight.

Most importantly, from the point-of-view of someone reading with an eye to the horsey plot, Meg progresses from a girl who finds horses interesting but takes them largely for granted to someone in love with a horse. Of course, it helps that she's in love with his owner, and this plot point could easily be read as an echo of her affection for Alan.

It was new to Meg to feel a definite affinity for a horse... And the strangest thing of all was that she felt she needed Romance, needed his animal affection as some girls seem to need a dog's.

But beside that, there's a glimpse of the Devon show grounds, a foxhunting scene, and various other horsey moments in the very East Coast style of everyone being casual country folk who ride well and have impressive professional jobs elsewhere in the city. Meg begins the book not very interested in horses or riding, and ends it much more alive to and in tune with horses, and the action reflects this, going from rather distant descriptions of a horse show to much more intense scenes at a foxhunt.

In summary, not so much a horsey book as a coming-of-age novel with a nice horsey background and plot. Although it's nearly 60 years old, it's not too dated because it focuses so much on Meg's personal struggle with herself. She's a very strong character; I was reminded of all the horsey books, particularly the modern ones, where the heroine is baffled and condemnatory of a fellow rider who isn't 110% into horses, while this old book has a heroine whose loss of interest is believable and sympathetic. The revelation about her sister comes late and is never 'satisfied,' Meg doesn't denounce her or run away or never speak to her again - she just realizes something and goes on.

Horses
Tinka - mother's mare
Firefly - shetland pony
Silver - grey gelding
Beau - chestnut gelding
Romance - Alan's palomino

About the illustrator
Beth Krush and her husband, fellow illustrator Joe Krush, lived in Wayne, Pennsylvania and often worked together. Joe, like Cavanna, was born in Camden, while Krush taught at Moore College of Art for many years.

Links
The Malt Shop
The de Grummond Collection
Children's Literature Research Collection at the University of Minnesota (Beth Kush)
Children's Literature Research Collection at the University of Minnesota (Joe Kush)
Moore College of Art & Design

Fifteen Hands
Jane Sorenson
1985, Standard Publishing

Jennifer's excited to be attending the Winter Carnival in her new school, part-leasing a horse at the local stables, and coaxing her unhappy friend Chris toward Christianity.

Mostly a book about junior-high-aged kids, with a small horse plot on the side. Jennifer is exuberant and outspoken, loves horses and is trying to decide between two cute brothers while worrying about Chris, whose alcoholic mother and workaholic dad trouble her. Sweet, and the first-person narration is convincing. The writing isn't outstanding, but the heroine is presented well. The religious aspect is integrated nicely into the story. Some of the riding information is sketchy or of dubious accuracy (I am by no means an expert, but the misspelling of 'reins' as 'reigns' caught my eye.) And contrary to what the kids say in Jennifer's new Philadelphia-area school, the Mid Atlantic region does use salt and spreaders and does not shut down entirely at the first snowflake. Sadly.

Horses and other animals
Son of Callahan "Hoagie"
Andromeda "Snap" - 15h, dark brown gelding with star
Rocky

Setting
Philadelphia - Delaware county

Sequel, etc.
It's Me, Jennifer
It's Your Move, Jennifer
Jennifer's New Life
Jennifer Says Goodbye
Boy Friend
Once Upon A Friendship
In Another Land

Themes
Christian