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Jim's Reviews > The Black Stallion
The Black Stallion (Black Stallion Series, Book 1)
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I know I read this as a kid & yet I couldn't remember a thing about it which is odd, although I hadn't remembered Misty of Chincoteague very well, either. Too many years, I guess. Anyway, I'm really happy that I had a chance to reread this as an audio book narrated by Frank Muller who did an excellent job.
This is definitely a kids book, perfect for young teens & down. It's full of adventure & yet Alec never forgot to do his homework plus his parents were completely clueless while being fully supportive. It's also full of fortuitous coincidence, something I normally abhor, but that wound up being part of the charm. Things just worked out for the best & that made for a great story.
This was written in 1941, so it is also nostalgic in many ways. The horses were described well, although using 'whistling' to describe one of their high cries bothered me throughout. I've always called it a scream, but things like riding without all the safety gear, getting bucked off, & the exertion of staying on a fast moving horse were very well done. The racing was great, too. Very reminiscent of the match races of the day between Man O' War & his get.
They did keep using a saddle after they heard it break, though. The only time I've known a saddle with a broken tree to work was on an extremely fat Welsh pony. It didn't pinch him due where it broke & all his fat. We used it because it kept good saddles from getting ruined since he had a penchant for scratching his back occasionally. When Fritz decided to roll, he was going to roll; to hell with the rider & tack.
Seeing NYC & Long Island today, some might find it hard to believe the area was rural enough to hold a horse field since Flushing, NY is right on the East River in Queens, just east of LaGuardia airport. While it is now one of the busiest in the world, there wasn't much commercial traffic in the 30s & the date is never given. Alec was planning to take a month to travel back from India via ship, so LaGuardia might still have been an amusement park which it was until 1929.
New York has also spread amazingly fast. My great grandfather kept goats & chickens in Glen Cove (not far east) into the 1940s & some of his neighbors had horses. Mom kept her horse in Centerport (further east) in the 1950s & we used to ride double from our farm in Lake Grove (even further east, north of Lake Ronkonkoma, about midway along Long Island) across fields to the post office in the early 1960s. By the late 70s, the fields were gone, completely replaced by houses packed together on quarter acre lots; completely changed in less than 20 years. So much growth in so little time, mostly due to the way the car changed transportation times, I think.
I highly recommend this, especially in this format for adults. There are some great illustrated editions, too. If you like this, I'd also recommend Old Bones the Wonder Horse. That's actually based on a true horse. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This is definitely a kids book, perfect for young teens & down. It's full of adventure & yet Alec never forgot to do his homework plus his parents were completely clueless while being fully supportive. It's also full of fortuitous coincidence, something I normally abhor, but that wound up being part of the charm. Things just worked out for the best & that made for a great story.
This was written in 1941, so it is also nostalgic in many ways. The horses were described well, although using 'whistling' to describe one of their high cries bothered me throughout. I've always called it a scream, but things like riding without all the safety gear, getting bucked off, & the exertion of staying on a fast moving horse were very well done. The racing was great, too. Very reminiscent of the match races of the day between Man O' War & his get.
They did keep using a saddle after they heard it break, though. The only time I've known a saddle with a broken tree to work was on an extremely fat Welsh pony. It didn't pinch him due where it broke & all his fat. We used it because it kept good saddles from getting ruined since he had a penchant for scratching his back occasionally. When Fritz decided to roll, he was going to roll; to hell with the rider & tack.
Seeing NYC & Long Island today, some might find it hard to believe the area was rural enough to hold a horse field since Flushing, NY is right on the East River in Queens, just east of LaGuardia airport. While it is now one of the busiest in the world, there wasn't much commercial traffic in the 30s & the date is never given. Alec was planning to take a month to travel back from India via ship, so LaGuardia might still have been an amusement park which it was until 1929.
New York has also spread amazingly fast. My great grandfather kept goats & chickens in Glen Cove (not far east) into the 1940s & some of his neighbors had horses. Mom kept her horse in Centerport (further east) in the 1950s & we used to ride double from our farm in Lake Grove (even further east, north of Lake Ronkonkoma, about midway along Long Island) across fields to the post office in the early 1960s. By the late 70s, the fields were gone, completely replaced by houses packed together on quarter acre lots; completely changed in less than 20 years. So much growth in so little time, mostly due to the way the car changed transportation times, I think.
I highly recommend this, especially in this format for adults. There are some great illustrated editions, too. If you like this, I'd also recommend Old Bones the Wonder Horse. That's actually based on a true horse. I gave it a 5 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Reading Progress
October 25, 2017
–
Started Reading
October 26, 2017
– Shelved
October 26, 2017
– Shelved as:
1audio
October 26, 2017
– Shelved as:
2fiction
October 26, 2017
– Shelved as:
3classics
October 26, 2017
– Shelved as:
3series
October 26, 2017
– Shelved as:
animals
October 26, 2017
– Shelved as:
ya-and-kids
October 26, 2017
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-7 of 7 (7 new)
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Thanks! It is a fairy tale, you nailed it.
Nice review Jim! I remember reading the first 4 or 5 of these when I was a kid...I count them among my first favorite "grown-up" books, meaning at a reading level above picture books. I am now in the process of collecting the entire series so as to dive back into the nostalgia.
Cool! I think I read some of the other books, but never at once or in order. It's been too long now. I'll be interested in how you like them.
I read all the black stallion books as a kid. I really like Farley's writing.
Nice story from your own nostalgia trove about riding opportunities in the NYC environs. When we were kids in rural OK my brothers sometimes rode the 2 miles to school by horse. The school actually had hitching posts. The romance of child ambitions then in the 50s was to be in the local rodeo. An early girlfriend did barrel racing and wanted to be a rare calf roping performer (when she took up macho fist fighting I moved on quickly).
Sweet and sad how once growing up meant a personal friendship with a horse and that few like you still make that opportunity like you did with your kids.