The Horse That Had Everything (1965)

The Horse That Had Everything
Newlin B. Wildes, il. Albert Micale
1966, Rand McNally & Company, American Education Publications


"Animals, animals," Kink said morosely. "The halt and the lame. They always seem to be with us."

Widower Kink Jonathan, an artist with a growing reputation, has chosen to live in rural Vermont with his 14-year-old son Rick, and they've gradually accumulated an assortment of animals. But Rick loves horses, and is a regular fixture at their neighbor's racing farm, where he forms an attachment to the crooked foal of the mare Never Fear. When the farm's cold-blooded owner, Slade Corcoran, decides to kill the crippled foal, Rick successfully begs him for another chance.

Rick raises the colt, who he eventually dubs Sans Peur, and with loving care and exercise the crooked leg straightens. And as the colt grows bigger and stronger and faster, the pressure mounts for Rick to turn his backyard pet into a racehorse.

This books holds an entertaining if typical premise, but is spoiled by a lack of pace. Wildes's writing is good enough piece by piece, with convincing action and a nice writing style -

Suzi took the saddle and bridle off Ulysses. He and the colt exchanged sniffs and got along, plucking grass side by side. They knew each other.

April is not the best month in Vermont. It often snows, the trees are still gaunt skeletons, the mud is not always gone. Nevertheless, there is promise of better things. Some days are, as the farmers' wives say, like a good apple pie: "warm in the middle and crisp around the edges." Cows are rough-coated in barnyards. Horses are shaggy, wandering in the fields searching for early blades of grass.


- but it doesn't have a natural flow. Scenes either inch along or jump sharply. Individual scenes are quite strong, but only for very brief moments and then the action lurches again. The major weakness, however, is the underlining of the major plot points instead of letting the reader infer them from the writing, which actually does a very good job if the author had only trusted it.

There are also two tedious minor plots in the growing awareness of the maturing Rick that neighbor Suzi isn't just an inferior girl anymore but a Girl, and the sometimes grating comparison between the big Thoroughbred San and Suzi's short, shaggy Morgan.

Note:
I read the book during this year's epic snowstorm, and seized on this bit -

Whenever there was a thaw and the snow became heavy and apt to cake on the colt's feet, Rick would rub butter all over the inside of San's hoofs to keep the snow from balling up there and twisting an ankle. "Darn expensive way to keep a horse's feet snow-free," Kink grumbled, when Rick disappeared with another quarter pound.

- to try with my dog, who also suffers snow buildup on walks. It works, but there are drawbacks. One, the dog clearly thinks you're mentally unstable for rubbing a stick of butter on her paws. Two, you end up taking a walk with hands coated in butter, which is great for dry winter skin but not so great for the general health of your mittens or your own sense of neatness. Three, it wears off fast, particularly if your dog discovers that her feet now taste great.


Equines and others
Ulysses S. Grant - Morgan gelding
Never Fear - grey Thoroughbred mare
Mon Oncle - Thoroughbred stallion
Sans Peur - grey Thoroughbred colt
Times Three - bay Thoroughbred colt
Abraham - donkey
Thomas Jefferson "TJ" Tibbs - large tiger cat
Albert - Plymouth Rock rooster

Author
The New England-based Wildes worked for Photoplay and then joined Curtis Publishing at their Boston office in 1937. The 1942 Gene Autry western Heart Of The Rio Grande was based on one of his stories.

Other Books
The Best Summer (1965)

Short Stories - horse
"Young Man On The Way Up" in Wildfire, The Red Stallion and Other Great Horse Stories

Short Stories - various
The Saturday Evening Post, May 20, 1944 - "Gold In Your Backyard"
Companion, July 1945 - "Little Guy"
Companion, June 1946 - "Crazy Like A Fox"
Liberty, September 1947
Colliers, September 5, 1936 - "Foot In The Door"
Ladies Home Journal, April, 1946 - "A Matter Of Style"
"Powderpuf" - football

Illustrator - Albert Micale
(1913-1993)
An artist who specialized in comics, particularly Westerns, Micale's versions of Roy Rogers adventures are some of the most sought after by collectors. He also illustrated children's nonfiction, and some fiction.

Other horse-related books
The Best Summer by Newlin B. Wildes (1964)
The Capture Of West Wind by Rutherford B. Montgomery (1962)
Trouble At Paintrock: A Penny Of Paintrock Mystery by Jane and Paul Annixter

And because we mentioned Roy...
Trigger, the palomino stallion who was Roy's equine pardner, was (along with the singing cowboy's German Shepherd Dog, Bullet) stuffed after death. The two were auctioned off this summer, along with Dale Evan's horse Buttermilk and Trigger backup Little Trigger. Trigger and Bullet ended up with RFD-TV. The Nebraska-based cable network is named after the old U.S. Postal Service designation for rural addresses - Rural Free Delivery - and specializes in rural programming, from cattle auctions to bluegrass to Hee Haw. The two are now on tour to various appropriately themed events. RFD-TV has also revived a kids' fan club from the old Roy Rogers television show, the Roy Rogers Riders Club, which is unbearably bittersweet.

The Publisher
American Education Publication was a new one to me, so I googled. Apparently, it was the publisher of the school newspapers My Weekly Reader and Current Events, as well as other educational work, and owned by Wesleyan University Press until Xerox bought it in 1965. They changed its name to Xerox Education Publications in 1972.

Links
Kiddie Matinees (for the AEP info)
Weekly Reader
A list of Wilds's short stories
Comic Creator about Albert Micale
Luxist about the auction of Trigger and Bullet
RFD's Happy Trails Tour
RFD-TV

A Kingdom In A Horse

A Kingdom In A Horse

Maia Wojciechowska.

Harper & Row, 1965

The mare's hips were outlined, the bones pressing against the dirty coat. He liked the wide white mark running from her eyes and narrowing slightly at the nostrils. And more than that, he liked the way the mare looked at him, with the soft brown eye and the very light blue one. It seemed to mock him, that look.

12-year-old David Lee is bitterly disappointed that his father Earl, a famous rodeo clown, has abruptly quit the circuit and moved them to Vermont to settle down. Apart from the horror of attending school regularly (where the gaps in his education quickly translate into constant failure and frustration), he feels betrayed that his father has broken a long-standing promise that he could join him in the arena as his partner. Sulking and withdrawn, he refuses to play along when his dad tries to buy him a horse for his 13th birthday. Even though he falls in love with the dirty chestnut mare at the auction, he turns away and continues to punish his dad by faking disinterest. Even though it half kills him.

He leaned for the reins; then barely touching them he neck-reined to the right, and the mare turned as sharply as he knew she would and sprung immediately into a canter. Although there were people in the passageway between the stalls, the horse ran as if she were in an open field, smoothly and fearlessly.

The mare is bought instead by 70-something Sarah Tierney. At loose ends after the death of her husband, she suddenly recalls a childhood dream of owning a horse. At the auction, she asks the help of a tall horseman sitting nearby, who happens to be Earl Lee, and the three are drawn together by chance and the influence of the mare soon to be christened Gypsy. And, surprisingly, even more people reveal hidden, horsey sides to themselves as news gets around of Sarah's purchase.

The writing switches back and forth from David's POV to Sarah's, and while hers is more interesting and believable, both are strong, individual voices.

The fear had not left her, but she knew this was the time to try her horse out, with Lee around. She loosened the reins a little, and the second she did, Gypsy took off at a fast canter. Sarah was petrified by the speed and her distance from the ground, and she held on to the horn with one hand. Off they went, faster now, at a gallop, down the dirt road.

The end notes say that the mare is based on a horse owned by Wojciechowska, and while I find some of the events daunting - galloping on your first ride ever? - they are likely based on reality.

A well-written book which concentrates on the human drama and quality, but is very much about the horse.

Horses

Gypsy - chestnut mare with one blue eye, maybe QH/TB

About the author

1927-2002

Born in Poland, Wojciechowska came to the U.S. sometime during the 1940s, having left Poland at the outbreak of World War II, and then France when that country fell to the Nazis. She attended a variety of schools during this time, and developed a dislike for the educational system. She attended Immaculate Heart College in California, and worked on several publications including a labor newspaper, Newsweek, and in PR. Over the years she lived in Santa Fe, Mahwah and Laguna Beach. She died in Long Branch, NJ of a stroke. She published 3 books for adults under her married name, and 17 for children and teens under her maiden name. Many of her later books had a clear social message, not unusual for the era (1960-1980) she was writing in. She won the Newberry Medal in 1956 for Shadow Of A Bull. The mare Gypsy was based on a horse she and her daughter Oriana owned.

Links

University of Mississippi de Grummond Collection 1 and 2

New York Times obituary

Other Books

Children/Teen

Market Day For `Ti Andre (1952) under name Maia Rodman

Shadow Of A Bull

A Single Light (1968)

2und Out (aka Tuned Out)

The Hollywood Kid (1966)

Don't Play Dead Before You Have To

Hey, What's Wrong With This One?

The Rotten Years

Other

Winter Tales From Polan (stories)

Odyssey Of Courage: The Story Of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (bio)

Till The Break Of Day (autobiography)

The People In His Life (adult novel)

How God Got Christians Into Trouble

She also began writing a series called "Dreams Of..." and cowrote The Bridge To The Other Side with Monika Kotowska.

Working Trot
Jessie Haas
1983, Greenwillow Books

Working Trot. This is a pace between the collected and the medium trot in which a horse not yet trained and ready for collected movements shows himself properly balanced and, remaining on the bit, goes forward with even, elastic steps and good hock action.
USEF Handbook

James McLeish is uncertain that he's making the right decision when he arrives at his uncle's farm. His fellow graduates from Phillips Exeter are spending their summer partying before freshman year at Harvard and Yale, but he's about to skip his banker daddy's path to a Mercedes and a tie. Over the course of a year, as he works with the Lipizzaner/Arab stallion Ghazal and the farm's other horses, he slowly absorbs the rythym of what he thinks his life will be - dedicated to the art of producing a fine, fleeting perfection in a horse.

Well-written, but not wonderful. Oddly, the very thing that makes it almost unique in horse lit is what detracts from it - the conversations between trainer and rider as James struggles to master a new discipline and his uncle struggles to keep his patience. They're fascinating, but dialogue isn't the author's forte. Much of what the characters say seems artificial. It's an unusual book overall. Mostly, horse book heroines are girls still in grade or high school, riding hunter/jumper or western, and dealing with children's issues like beating out the rich girl with the fancy horse at the big show, or worrying about having their pony sold if their algebra grades don't improve (if I'd had a pony, he'd have been a goner). James is a guy, a high school grad who's elected skip college and become a working student at the farm of a relative, who just happens to be a highly respected dressage trainer whose wife is a highly respected h/j rider. Much of the book is about how to decide what to do with your life at a time when you start realizing that every door you open slams another shut, somewhere else - your options are narrowing.

Practical Information
Tons.

Horses
Ghazal - grey Arab/Lipizzaner dressage stallion
Dynasty Two - chestnut mare jumper-turned-broodmare
Kubbadar - black pony gelding
Ginseng - brown gelding with stopping issues
Josy - Morgan mare
Windswept Rob Roy - bay Morgan gelding
Lady Peregrine - jumper mare
Brucie (dog) - collie

Social
James is tremendously worried about his social standing if he eschews banking for horsemanship. He's also very critical of the girls at the farm, deciding that one's 'sturdiness' is better than a thin girl who might get 'sloppy fat' as she ages.

Setting
Vermont.

Illustrations
Just the cover, unknown il.

Other Books by Author
Keeping Barney
A Horse Like Barney
Uncle Daney's Way

Early Chapter Books
Jigsaw Pony
Birthday Pony
Runaway Radish
Beware The Mare
A Blue For Beware
Be Well, Beware
Beware And Stogie

Picture Books
Scamper And The Horse Show
Appaloosa Zebra: A Horse Lover's Alphabet
Unbroken

Nonfiction
Safe Horse, Safe Rider
Hoofprints - Horse Poems

Author Website

Happily After All
Laura C. Stevenson
1990, Houghton Mifflin

Five suitcases? You brought five suitcases?

Rebecca Davidson is 10 years old and her doting father has just died of cancer. The mother she's never met has met her at the airport in frigid Vermont and is, apparently, surprised that her long-lost daughter requires more than one suitcase in which to transport the contents of 10 years of living. Rebecca decides, wisely, to say nothing. She does fight back, however, when her mother refuses to call her by her full name.

My name isn't Becca; it's Rebecca. It's an Old Testament name, like all the names in Dad's family since the Mayflower, and you don't make nicknames out of Old Testament names.

Rachel laughs at the pretensions, lays out the truth for her 10-year-old daughter (apparently Daddy misled her about their origins), rubs it in, and then refuse to call her by her chosen name.

Sent from her comfortable California home to her mother's bare Vermont farm in mid-winter, Rebecca is miserable. Her mother, who she's always been told had abandoned her, is an angry, bitter woman who couldn't be more different from her adoring father. Rebecca's only consolation are the farm animals; Rachel Davidson has horses and a dog, and Rebecca can ride. Slowly, the truth about the Davidson family's past comes out.

Rebecca suddenly remembered driving along the freeway with Dad, asking why they lived in Santa Barbara. "Because the rest of the world is ugly," he'd said.

Rachel's anger is so inappropriately directed at her daughter and she is so self-absorbed years after the end of the marriage that presumably made her this way, that she's utterly unlikeable. The dead ex-husband who cheated on her and apparently made her the bitter, selfish woman she's become comes off as more likeable.

There are subplots about an angry, unhappy foster child, and a new best friend to make, both predictable plots which resolve in strained fashion. The new friend is the most natural character, probably because she's one of the few who isn't given the awesome responsibility of being a taciturn Vermonter or a traumatized wounded bird.

Gorgeous cover illustration of a red-headed child and a horse in a barn.

Horses
Mutt - brown Belgian gelding
Jeff - Belgian gelding
Dimwit - mare
Killiger's Sundance aka Dancer - 4 yo chestnut gelding
Gone With The Wind aka Goner - bay Welsh/TB cross gelding
Fanfare - Santa Barbara horse

Other animals
Xeno - dog
Tumnus - shepherd/lab/Great Pyrenees mix

Website