Stephen Holt (1) (1894–1987)

Ugh. Amazingly stupid book. The characters are pleasant, if shallow, but make pretty uniformly stupid decisions. Our Hero (well trained by his foster parents, who do the same thing) tends towards formulating the problem, then sitting and fretting about it until luck steps in and magically makes things right. Serious case of author on his side. Sky belongs to someone else - so Glenn stares at the brand and frets about him being taken back. And said owner comes and _steals_ him back, why? Why didn't Glenn tell the sheriff or the doctor or someone? Maybe that's why Balleau stole him, he assumed the kid would be smart enough to actually warn that he might take the horse. Oh, I forgot - Glenn also actually boldly does things...and then sits and frets because they were entirely the wrong thing to do. But again, luck steps in and makes things work for him. There were some interesting bits - I didn't know mange was such a big deal on the open range, interesting. I'll have to look for more information about that, in some more reliable source. But overall, so stupid as to be infuriating. Glad I read it, now I can get rid of it.… (more)

Um, pretty bad, actually. A 'kid's' book - as in, never mind making the threats/challenges realistic, let alone creating genuine reactions to them. Strawman challenges throughout - the kid is in a hurry, making a long trip by horse with a strict deadline - so he spends half a morning hanging out at one ranch and in that time solves a many-years-old mystery. Which is the deus ex machina that enables him to achieve his aim at the end...bleah. So why didn't the guy say something at the time? Why make the kid go compete (and, of course, win) in the rodeo, if he was gonna give him the horse anyway? Bleah and bleah. Nice atmosphere and description, but the plot ran on rails, never mind reality. The blatant stereotyping was merely a fillip of annoyance on top of that (sneaky, cheating Mexican, surly Indian whose every other word was 'Ugh!'...hmmmph. OK, of the times, but still.)… (more)

Great old-fashioned Western-style coming of age novel. A young cowboy sets off to fulfill his dream of becoming a vet. Hitchhiking across Canada, he rescues a mangy, injured, outlaw roan with a nasty attitude. Against the advice of his new employer, he nurses the horse back to health, and befriends him. A side story covers the issue of mange management and the government-required dousing that many ranchers attempted to avoid. The main action kicks in when the outlaw roan's former owner, a rodeo livestock promoter, reclaims the horse with plans to return him to his former career as a vicious outlaw bucking horse.… (more)