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Sky rocket;: The story of a little bay horse
Nursed back to health by two teen-agers who are impressed with his spirit, a mistreated and starving young bay colt turns into a champion jumper.
270 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 5, 2024
Known for her non-fiction horse books, this is the only long fiction horse book the venerable Margaret Cabell Self wrote. It's a fictionalized life of a very small Thoroughbred she rescued in the 1940s or 1950s. Sadly, no photographs of the real Sky Rocket were included, and I was not able to find any on Google.
Shy Rocket's best horse friend would be a half-blind chestnut Thoroughbred named Easy Going. The 1989 Belmont winner was the stunning chestnut Easy Goer. However, he got his name from his dam, Relaxing, most likely, and not because of this book. Still ...
This book is for horse lovers only. It is heavy on details of classes, equipment used ... and abuses suffered by horses in America. Sky Rocket is starved by a dim-witted horse trader and his horse-hating, cock-fighting groom Pegleg. He's sold to a teenage boy who rides Sky Rocket for hours a day at the gallop. He's sold again to another evil man who owns a livery stable and unsanctioned rodeo.
He finally winds up in the good hands of the Mounted Troop. This is where the book drags, and is completely out of date for modern readers. Margaret Cabell Self helped start a series of junior riding clubs based on the U. S. Cavalry. It's the basis of her non-fiction book for kids, The Happy Year. The first troop she founded is still in existence as a drill riding team. All the rest disappeared when the Army got rid of horses for war. I think the last war horse for America was Sgt. Reckless, who was a Korean horse bought to carry ammunition for the U. S. Army in the Korean War.
This was illustrated by the legendary Sam Savitt. I think he added a sly editorial comment by what he thought of the Junior Cavalry by deliberately not drawing their uniforms. Savitt was usually very good about following the text of any book he illustrated that he didn't write, which is why I think the "mistakes" were deliberate.
The book also draws attention to some of the abuses horses suffer at horse shows, from Saddlebreds getting ginger under the tail to jumpers getting jabbed with spiked sticks to make them jump higher. Sadly, these practices have not stopped. There is also mild swearing in this book, for those of you who can't take it.
You could make a drinking game out of every time you read the phrase "to be sure". There are many Irish immigrants in this book, and Cabell Self (an American) picked up this verbal tick.
You can find this book sometimes at the Internet Archive. You need to search under "Self, Margaret Cabell" and then select the book from the list presented in order to find this book. Good luck.
Shy Rocket's best horse friend would be a half-blind chestnut Thoroughbred named Easy Going. The 1989 Belmont winner was the stunning chestnut Easy Goer. However, he got his name from his dam, Relaxing, most likely, and not because of this book. Still ...
This book is for horse lovers only. It is heavy on details of classes, equipment used ... and abuses suffered by horses in America. Sky Rocket is starved by a dim-witted horse trader and his horse-hating, cock-fighting groom Pegleg. He's sold to a teenage boy who rides Sky Rocket for hours a day at the gallop. He's sold again to another evil man who owns a livery stable and unsanctioned rodeo.
He finally winds up in the good hands of the Mounted Troop. This is where the book drags, and is completely out of date for modern readers. Margaret Cabell Self helped start a series of junior riding clubs based on the U. S. Cavalry. It's the basis of her non-fiction book for kids, The Happy Year. The first troop she founded is still in existence as a drill riding team. All the rest disappeared when the Army got rid of horses for war. I think the last war horse for America was Sgt. Reckless, who was a Korean horse bought to carry ammunition for the U. S. Army in the Korean War.
This was illustrated by the legendary Sam Savitt. I think he added a sly editorial comment by what he thought of the Junior Cavalry by deliberately not drawing their uniforms. Savitt was usually very good about following the text of any book he illustrated that he didn't write, which is why I think the "mistakes" were deliberate.
The book also draws attention to some of the abuses horses suffer at horse shows, from Saddlebreds getting ginger under the tail to jumpers getting jabbed with spiked sticks to make them jump higher. Sadly, these practices have not stopped. There is also mild swearing in this book, for those of you who can't take it.
You could make a drinking game out of every time you read the phrase "to be sure". There are many Irish immigrants in this book, and Cabell Self (an American) picked up this verbal tick.
You can find this book sometimes at the Internet Archive. You need to search under "Self, Margaret Cabell" and then select the book from the list presented in order to find this book. Good luck.
October 6, 2012
A visit back into childhood and one I rather wish I'd left to memory. Sky Rocket is still well-written, but it's a difficult book to re-read when you know the ending already.
September 5, 2018
If I was still a tween I would have rated this a 5 star. At that age I was so into horses. The story is told with the horse, Sky Rocket mainly narrating but sometimes the story is just told straight. This is a story of survival and redemption. According to the author there really was a little bay horse named Sky Rocket that arrived at the riding school of a Troop like the one in the book in the shape that this little horse was in. I would highly recommend this book to any horse crazy girl or boy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews