Lynn Hall (1) (1937–2023)

We follow a wild horse from its birth to leading its own herd to becoming a pillar (in the phallic sense) in the creation of a new horse breed called Pony of the Americas in the 1950s.

This historical fiction is based on an actual horse named Dragon POA 103 (his registration number in the Pony of America Club). It's a fairly harrowing nature docudrama with a surprising amount of violence and death. So maybe don't read it to a My Little Pony fan.

When two of my school-age children were away for a couple of days, I decided not to read our normal books. Instead, I told my six-year-old to choose a small book from my stack. She chose this one, which we picked up at a secondhand shop just because the cover looked appealing. I ended up being quite impressed with the story! It is a beautiful story of redemption; a surly, angry bully is transformed by having an animal to care for and love. This book has earned a spot on the shelf!

It's a fictional account of a real horse, an Appaloosa mustang from the Sierra Madre mountains in Michoacán. Who was caught and brought into captivity to become a founding sire of the POA breed. This little book tells of his early life, years as a stallion defending his band, modes of survival. His capture and slow adjustment to a new way of life (the mares tamed pretty quickly in this story, which I found amusingly implausible but oh well). For such a short book, it's a surprisingly show more satisfying read. Very well-written. I like how it shows things from the stallion's viewpoint- what he would have understood, his reactions and decisions according to various circumstances. There's vampire bats in this book too, which feed on the horses at night and sometimes endanger the newborn foals. In that area of Mexico the bats are still a common threat to livestock.

from the Dogear Diary show less

What I liked about this story was that it went beyond being another book about a wild stallion. It combines the history of one new breed of horse with the retelling of one horse's life. That retelling is done not strictly from the horse's point of view and not strictly from the human's point of view, but through a combination of both. As a reader, you are an outsider seeing life through a horse's eyes and mind. Dragon's actions are explained away from his way of thinking, the way he would show more see it if words could be put to the instinct, without putting words into the horse's mouth or giving false sense of reality. It is because of this blending that I enjoyed this book which was a quick read not only because it is short, but because I couldn't put it down. show less