Tag: book

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The race to 2026 is over and who won?

The United States of America public domain, that’s who! Happy Public Domain day!

Any titles and images posted below may be under copyright in other countries. Please check the laws for your own country before making use of any of these works!

Two chestnut horses race neck and neck for the finish on grass turf, with one rider using a crop. A third horse follows several lengths behind. Behind a white fence on the right, a crowd looks on.
Wissahickon
—1930 The Derrydale Press, Gentlemen Up by William B. Street, illustrated by Paul Desmond Brown

There’s some nice horse titles entering the public domain this year, non-fiction and fiction. For art lovers, there are two non-fiction titles with Paul Brown illustrations: Gentlemen Up, and Foxhunting Formalities by J. Stanley Reeve.

From the UK, there’s Moorland Mousie by Golden Gorse and Jerry: The Story of an Exmoor Pony by Eleanor E. Helme and Nance Paul. Hildebrand by John Thorburn, features an opinionated piebald who has “ceased to be a willing co-operator.” All illustrated!

If you prefer western horse adventures, there are Tornado Boy by Thomas C. Hinkle, and The Pinto Pony by Hoffman Birney. Lone Cowboy by Will James, though not specifically a horse book, has plenty of horse action and horse illustration.

For fans of a good driving or harness horse, there’s Red Horse Hill by Stephen W. Meader.

There may be others, but those are the titles from my own collection that qualify.

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Wyoming Summer – Mary O’Hara

Dust jacket: Wyoming Summer by Mary O'Hara. A small group of horses in a dry grass field against a backdrop of cloudy sky.

If you love horses, you have probably read Mary O’Hara’s classic novel, My Friend Flicka. Or perhaps you’ve seen the movie.

Flicka is drawn from the author’s real life with her husband Helge Sture-Vasa on the Remount Ranch, Wyoming in the 1930s.

I have always loved Flicka, Thunderhead, and Green Grass of Wyoming, and have re-read the trilogy many times. As a child, I knew nothing of the author. As an adult, I was curious to read the memoir of her Wyoming experiences.

Published in 1963, Wyoming Summer details a summer Mary spent on the ranch, though she incorporated incidents from other summers. Names got changed. The Remount Ranch becomes the Goose Bar Ranch of fiction, yet I feel the name change is unnecessary. No reader would have trouble recognizing the Remount as the Goose Bar! Mary’s husband Helge is referred to as Michael. The Sture-Vasas become the Bergwins. My guess is the publisher preferred American-sounding names.

It’s a nice companion to the series, though not the same read. This book consists of vignettes and tidbits of life on the ranch, and some of Mary’s life off the ranch. There’s action and drama, and plenty of humor, life on the ranch was never boring!

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Come Down the Mountain – Vian Smith

Most fiction from the pony book genre starts with a boy or girl who desperately wants a horse. He or she usually acquires a horse. And proceeds to successfully tame, ride, show or race the horse.

Come Down the Mountain is a bit different than the norm in several ways. The most obvious is the dust jacket artwork. There’s nary a horse to be found, a quite unusual approach by the publishers!

Doubleday 1967 American hardcover edition of "Come Down the Mountain" by Vian Smith
Doubleday 1967 American edition
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