DRUMROLL PLEASE
The winner of our theme for March Madness 2017 is...best fictional horse!
Whew!
It was neck and neck between best YA horse book and best adult horse book throughout, but best fictional horse came through with 10 votes. A plurality, not a majority, but that's how we run the rules of this contest!
Bring on Pegasus, Misty, Black, Blaze, the Pie, and on and on and on!
Comment on this post. Nominations will be open until midnight on Tuesday, February 21. On Wednesday, February 22, we'll start seeding the tournament by voting among these suggestions. The top 16 vote-getters will advance to the tournament.
[if you're choosing something a bit more obscure, it might help to add a little bit of context for this round. when we get to actual voting, I'll do a paragraph or so about each horse so people can either remember or learn for themselves, but for the shorthand voting to get to the tournament a few words of additional info might go over well!]
I will start the nominating with....Ashleigh's Wonder, from the Thoroughbred series.
Misty isn't fictional though!
ReplyDeleteI'll have to nominate Smoky the Cowhorse, because he was my favorite fictional horse from some of my favorite YA books--> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoky_the_Cowhorse
OMG I love the Thoroughbred series! I'm going to throw out Flicka and Lightning from Pony pals (throw WAY back)
ReplyDeleteYeah, if Wonder doesn't win this, we will KNOW this pool was rigged.
DeleteThough I would like to comment on the sincere lack of realism in Wonder's path as a racehorse. Like, that set me up for some major disappointment when I learned about Real Life.
Per Emma's suggestion below, I'm going to suggest "The Colt from Old Regret".
http://www.middlemiss.org/lit/authors/patersonab/poetry/snowy.html
Wonder was legit my first choice. Ahh. Are we allowed to nominate more than one horse?
ReplyDeleteLoved the thoroughbred series... how about ginger from black beauty?
ReplyDeleteGypsy was always my favorite. From Gypsy from Nowhere, Gypsy and Nimblefoot and Gypsy and the Moonstone Stallion, by Sharon Wagner. http://sharonwagner.ponymadbooklovers.co.uk/
ReplyDeletemore info later!
oh, good summary here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1444338.Gypsy_from_Nowhere
DeleteGypsy from Nowhere (Gypsy #1)
by Sharon Wagner
4.04 · Rating Details · 277 Ratings · 20 Reviews
Then there was Gypsy. Wendy loved horses - yet horses were the reason for her fight against living on a ranch. Her father's new foreign assignment was only for a year, but to Wendy, the thought of spending even one year on a ranch, so close to the hoses, was sheer torture.
Aunt Laura and Uncle Art were kind and sympathetic, of course, but they didn't really understand - about Buck and all.
Then there was Gypsy, a stunningly beautiful filly with one blue eye and one brown eye, who knew how to open doors - including the tightly locked door to Wendy's heart.
No one knew where Gypsy came from. She appeared at the Cross-R Ranch the same day Wendy arrived.
Gypsy and Wendy had other things in common, too. Each had something hidden in the past; each had been badly injured; each was afraid of people, afraid of being hurt again; each cried silently for understanding.
So it was natural that Wendy should be the only one who could rescue Gypsy. And it was just as natural that this courageous, intelligent horse - the gently, shy, love-hungry Gypsy From Nowhere - should be the only one who could restore Wendy's happiness and self-confidence. (less)
Since this is about the horse, not the book, I can say that Gypsy is the perfect horse that I always wanted ;). Yay storybooks!
The Black from The Black Stallion. One of the most famous fictional horses he also mellowed quite a bit as he got older in the series. And who doesn't dream of a horse like that? M
ReplyDeleteGreat topic!! I always loved the horses from the saddle club and the man from snowy river
ReplyDeleteBlack Beauty, Ginger, Brighty (kinda nonfictional?), Flicka, Brego, Condor from Green Rider, Cisco from Dances with Wolves, Denny from Man from Snowy River, Maximus from Tangled, Spirit, Lil Sebastian.
ReplyDeleteOMG yes to Maximus.
DeleteWindy Foot the welsh pony. The Maltese Cat (story by Kipling). All the Marguerite Henry books were based on real horses (Sham, Justin Morgan, Hambletonian, Black Gold, Misty, Sea Star, Brighty, etc.) so either they are all in or all out. I vote out, there are plenty of fictional ones. Mookie from Summer Pony by Jean Doty. Definitely National Velvet's Pie. Little Black and Big Red (Farley). Blaze from Billy and Blaze (CW Anderson). Golden Sovereign (Dorothy Lyons). Dark Sunshine (Dorothy Lyons). Silver Birch and Midnight Moon (also both Dorothy Lyons).
ReplyDeleteI've got a million. Taffy the Shetland pony.( was it Taffy? must check)
Zorro's Tornado, Hidalgo, Belle from the Saddle Club, Xena's Argo, Sterling from Thoroughbred
ReplyDeleteFlame will forever be my favorite, though The Black is a close second. If Walter Farley wrote it, I loved it! Including all of The Black's offspring.
ReplyDeleteI'll try to remember to scan my shelves at my parent's house tonight to see what other books I was into that were all horse-related. They still live there.
Aspercel from The Year of the Horse/Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit!
ReplyDeletePie from National Velvet. Joey from War Horse
ReplyDeleteI guess it depends on the scope of your definition of fiction...is it limited to just characters from literature? If not, then what about Starlight or Onyx from Rainbow Brite; Pokey from Gumby; Noble Heart from Care Bears; Spartan from the Heartland show; Argo from Xena; the other animated movie horses like Khan from Mulan, Angus from Brave, Bullseye from Toy Story...etc
ReplyDeleteI always liked the Silver Brumby stories, so I'll nominate the silver brumby himself, Thowra.
ReplyDeleteBut, super soft spot for Walter Farley's Flame too.