Rereading: THE BLACK STALLION REVOLTS by Walter Farley

Cover and illustrations by Harold Eldridge

By the ninth book of this series, author Farley was casting around for a new approach, and he found it here by sending Alec Ramsey AND his famous wild stallion The Black out west. Many writers might have begun simply with that premise, but Farley ups the odds by having their private plane crash in the Utah wilderness. Both Alec and The Black are thrown from the plane. Alec has a bad concussion and has lost his memory. Wandering in the woods, he finds a truck stopped on a road changing a tire, and he is just able to climb inside, where he collapses. He wakes up in a different state, and is soon trying to walk through an Arizona desert, where he’s found by a local man and brought to his home in the mountains.

Meanwhile, The Black has also wandered off from the crash, but his wild nature soon has him adapting to the land around him. He makes his way south to Arizona, and gathers a small harem of mares by fighting their stallions, or stealing them from ranches. He’s worse for the wear, but able to survive and even thrive.

Alec’s amnesia continues, but some newspaper reports suggest he might have been part of a robbery in Salt Lake City that went wrong, or at least he fits the description of the young man being sought. Since he can’t remember, Alec doesn’t know if that’s true or not. He comes to work for Allen, a local rancher who raises cattle and quarter-horses, and one day he’s put on the trail of a wild stallion in the hills. As you can guess, it’s The Black, but can Alec save the horse he somehow recognizes, and who knows him, from being shot by the ranchers as a horse poacher?

Great read, even if the ending isn’t in much doubt, and yes, there’s a big race too. Recommended.

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