Rereading: THE ISLAND STALLION by Walter Farley

While my favorite of the Farley horse books is the first, The Black Stallion, this one was probably my second favorite.

Steve Duncan is following a childhood dream about having a horse of his own, a wild stallion hidden on a remote island, based on a story his uncle Pitch told him when he was ill. Steve visits his uncle on the Caribbean island of Antago, and Steve and Pitch travel by small boat to another smaller island, Azul, where wild horses live on a sandy beach. Most of the island is tall cliffs, impossible to climb, and the horses are small and unimpressive, but while camping in a short canyon, Steve and Pitch see a magnificent stallion atop the cliff. Back in their boat, they find a difficult way into the cliffs and a maze of tunnels, with evidence they were made hundreds of years earlier by Spanish Conquistadors, just as legends have said. Eventually reaching the interior, they find a fertile, grassy valley and a herd of horses showing Arabian bloodlines, left there by the Conquistadors. One, a red-coated stallion, matches the vision Steve had for his horse, but they watch in horror as another stallion fights him and drives him away into the swamp at one end of the valley.

Steve is determined to find the horse, which he calls Flame, and when he does, he’s able to rescue him from quicksand. Thus, gradually, Steve and Flame become friends, and Steve is even able to ride the wild stallion. Meanwhile, Pitch is excited about the Spanish artifacts he’s discovered, but even if they could return with their finds, not an easy task, do they really want to destroy this hidden paradise?

Heavier on fantasy and wish-fulfillment than the previous books, it seems less believable to me now, but I sure ate it up as a teenager, and it will appeal to horse lovers of any age. Recommended.

The Island Stallion by Walter Farley

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