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Silver
Horse story.
- GenresAnimals
First published January 1, 1934
1 person is currently reading
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About the author
Thomas C. Hinkle
53 books7 followersThomas Clark Hinkle, (June 12, 1876 – May 13, 1949) was an American novelist.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 22, 2025
This is a review of the Comet paperback edition, the back cover of which is shown here at Goodreads. Unbelievablely, the back cover also gives away the entire plot. Fortunately, I didn't read the back cover or the blurb before reading the book.
Unfortunately, Thomas C. Hinkle used the same basic plot structure for all of his horse and dog books. This was the reason that he was so prolific. If you've read one Hinkle horse or dog book, you've basically read them all. A few years back, when I was flush, I bought about ten Hinkle books, including this one. Imagine my disappointment after the third book.
What is the plot? Boy meets extraordinary dog or horse, they are forced to separate and eventually get back together.
Knowing this, I decided to read this anyway, when our power was knocked out by a storm of straight-line winds (which also knocked one of our trees over, but anyway). I wanted to see if there was any variation of the plot (no) and if there were any interesting details to the plot this time around (yes.)
There were actually times I enjoyed this, and even looked forward to continuing it, even though I had a pretty good idea how it would end. The artwork in this edition (and hopefully in other editions) was done by the late, great Pers Crowell. He had a very limited color palette of black, white, and an artificial grass green. The back cover showed nine of these interior illustrations in full color. Sometimes, illustrations would precede key events, serving as spoilers, which was a little irksome.
Another irksome quirk of Hinkle's this time around is to keep changing the color of one of the major horse characters in the book, that of Silver's sire, just known as the chestnut (no capitalization.) In the very unhelpful introduction, Hinkle doesn't quite explain what he means by "chestnut" and "chestnut sorrel". So, in the course of the book, the chestnut goes from regular chestnut, to liver chestnut, to BAY. I don't know how you can mess up a horse character's color if YOUR NAME FOR THAT HORSE IS THE HORSE'S COLOR, but doggone his ornery hide, Hinkle manages it.
The main villain this time around isn't a human, or a bear, or Mother Nature. It's a horse. That was a nice touch. This evil baddie is a homicidal stallion named the Blue Roan, because he's a blue roan. He manages to stay a blue roan all throughout the book. I've noticed in a few other wild horse fiction books, like The Golden Stallion's Adventure at Redstone by Rutherford G. Montgomery or in the Phantom Stallion series by Terri Farley, the bad horse is also a blue roan.
Since when did blue roan get such a bad rep?
Anyway, the main question is Silver's color -- pure white. He was born that way from a dun dam and a chestnut sire. Could that happen in real life? Since horse color genetics were completely unknown in Hinkle's lifetime, did he happen to get this one right? He also claimed Arabians had white foals. Was he right?
There's only one horse color that fits the description of Silver -- dominant white. This is related to the sabino gene. Now, granted, I'm no expert on horse color genetics, but I do know the basics. There usually has to be one parent that is a sabino or dominat white in order to have dominant white offspring. In incredibly rare instances, such as with Standardbreds, white foals seem to pop out of nowhere. But, chances are both parents contained sabino genes, even if they weren't sabinos.
So -- yeah, maybe, Hinkle got it right. He was correct that dominant whites do appear in Arabians. They are one of many, many breeds containing the sabino gene.
And, last and certainly least, the Silver of this book has absolutely nothing to do with the Lone Ranger.
Unfortunately, Thomas C. Hinkle used the same basic plot structure for all of his horse and dog books. This was the reason that he was so prolific. If you've read one Hinkle horse or dog book, you've basically read them all. A few years back, when I was flush, I bought about ten Hinkle books, including this one. Imagine my disappointment after the third book.
What is the plot? Boy meets extraordinary dog or horse, they are forced to separate and eventually get back together.
Knowing this, I decided to read this anyway, when our power was knocked out by a storm of straight-line winds (which also knocked one of our trees over, but anyway). I wanted to see if there was any variation of the plot (no) and if there were any interesting details to the plot this time around (yes.)
There were actually times I enjoyed this, and even looked forward to continuing it, even though I had a pretty good idea how it would end. The artwork in this edition (and hopefully in other editions) was done by the late, great Pers Crowell. He had a very limited color palette of black, white, and an artificial grass green. The back cover showed nine of these interior illustrations in full color. Sometimes, illustrations would precede key events, serving as spoilers, which was a little irksome.
Another irksome quirk of Hinkle's this time around is to keep changing the color of one of the major horse characters in the book, that of Silver's sire, just known as the chestnut (no capitalization.) In the very unhelpful introduction, Hinkle doesn't quite explain what he means by "chestnut" and "chestnut sorrel". So, in the course of the book, the chestnut goes from regular chestnut, to liver chestnut, to BAY. I don't know how you can mess up a horse character's color if YOUR NAME FOR THAT HORSE IS THE HORSE'S COLOR, but doggone his ornery hide, Hinkle manages it.
The main villain this time around isn't a human, or a bear, or Mother Nature. It's a horse. That was a nice touch. This evil baddie is a homicidal stallion named the Blue Roan, because he's a blue roan. He manages to stay a blue roan all throughout the book. I've noticed in a few other wild horse fiction books, like The Golden Stallion's Adventure at Redstone by Rutherford G. Montgomery or in the Phantom Stallion series by Terri Farley, the bad horse is also a blue roan.
Since when did blue roan get such a bad rep?
Anyway, the main question is Silver's color -- pure white. He was born that way from a dun dam and a chestnut sire. Could that happen in real life? Since horse color genetics were completely unknown in Hinkle's lifetime, did he happen to get this one right? He also claimed Arabians had white foals. Was he right?
There's only one horse color that fits the description of Silver -- dominant white. This is related to the sabino gene. Now, granted, I'm no expert on horse color genetics, but I do know the basics. There usually has to be one parent that is a sabino or dominat white in order to have dominant white offspring. In incredibly rare instances, such as with Standardbreds, white foals seem to pop out of nowhere. But, chances are both parents contained sabino genes, even if they weren't sabinos.
So -- yeah, maybe, Hinkle got it right. He was correct that dominant whites do appear in Arabians. They are one of many, many breeds containing the sabino gene.
And, last and certainly least, the Silver of this book has absolutely nothing to do with the Lone Ranger.
August 14, 2017
Silver is a wild stallion, who captures the heart and imagination of a local cowboy in his stomping grounds amid the Rockies. Charlie Barr was that cowboy, intent on possessing Silver, and desperate to protect his interests in the horse. The book follows the life of Silver from birth, with particular attention to Charlie's attempts to catch and tame him.
It's a good cowboy story... but as a horse story, it lacks compassion for the plight of the wild horse or the consequences of the cowboys' actions on the wild herd as they make multiple attempts to cull the herd and catch Silver.
It's a good cowboy story... but as a horse story, it lacks compassion for the plight of the wild horse or the consequences of the cowboys' actions on the wild herd as they make multiple attempts to cull the herd and catch Silver.
February 10, 2024
This book is one of my favorite books ever - that says a lot as I read a ton of books! This book is filled with thrilling adventure, excitement, and a true horse story. Read many times, and shall read many more times!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews