Black Storm: A Horse of the Kansas Hills

by Thomas C. Hinkle

Hinkle lived on the plains of Kansas in the late 1880's. This is suppose to be the true story of his life handling horses and rough coated hounds, only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Great story. Good portrait of a time and place.

Genres: Horses, Fiction, Animals, Young Adult, Westerns

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1929

About the author

Thomas Clark Hinkle, (June 12, 1876 – May 13, 1949) was an American novelist.

Reviews

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 4 out of 5]

"My mare is good, Joe," the Major said, "but Black Storm is matchless. He has the greatest combined speed and endurance of any horse I have ever seen."

A wrangling crew out west are taking turns trying to tame a beautiful outlaw bronco named Black Storm. While these rough cowboys are thrown by the horse over and over, they finally call out to their best hand Joe Bain to take a try. Joe sees the marks of spur-caused cuts and injuries on the horse's flanks and smartly sheds his spurs, also leaving his lariat in the dust, calmly walks up to the gelding, speaks to it, sets up in the saddle, and weathers the horse's attempts to dislodge him for 30 whole minutes. From that point on, we hope that the kind Joe Bain and his newly-befriended wild horse Black Storm will be inseparable.

The two engage in horse races, dog rescues, cattle stampedes, prairie fires and a number of other western adventures before the horse is stolen and we engage in a POV narrative from Black Storm himself as he tries to escape, survive, and return to his friend Joe.

Hinkle's other books are about heroic animals, so if you enjoy this one, it might be possible to find more.

"Black Storm" has a young adult feel at times - maybe a good read for boys who think the Little House on the Prairie kind of story is too girly for them, but in that vein. I'll admit it also kept my interest as an old guy who likes westerns; I wanted to know what happened next, I was vested in this horse's relatable adventure, and this novel really feels "earned." Hinkle grew up in and wrote a fiction tale about a world he knew; all the authenticity that we read in a Zane Grey story, for example, because Grey actually lived and hung out with folks who participated in western adventures, exist in this story published in 1929 but with a younger-reader edge to it.

Verdict: "Black Storm" (1929) is one that will be best for fans of old-school wholesome westerns or for young readers who have interest in cowboy tales. As a movie it would be rated G.

Jeff's Rating: 4 / 5 (Very Good)
movie rating if made into a movie: G

[Kayleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Story of Hinkle's growing up on the Kansas prairie in the 1880s. He spent his youth training horses and dogs. This is the story of one special horse that touched his life.

[Dad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I added this book that I read as a boy in 5th grade (1965). I enjoyed it so much.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

found this book while sorting the kids bookshelves..it was my aunts, then I got it when I was a kid....and I just reread it. Great story, I think I'll keep it around a little longer.

[Charles · Rating 2 out of 5]

I probably would have loved this book when I was a teenager. It falls into the category of many of the Walter Farley and Jim Kjelgaard books that I loved at that time. I did enjoy it but there were a couple of glitches that bothered me, perhaps out of porportion to how serious they were.

First, it seems clear that horse Black Storm must be a stallion given his behavior and description, but at one point in the book the author refers to him as a gelding and it stopped me short.

Second, the author made it clear that the person who rides Black Storm uses neither spurs nor quirt, but at one point in time he seems to forget that and has the rider use a quirt on the horse. Later, the author seems to forget that a quirt had been used previously because he makes a big deal about how the man uses the quirt in a confused state and how hurt Black Storm is by this first use of the quirt against him.

Minor things, perhaps, but they were pretty glaring. Maybe if this hadn't been the first book I'd ead by Hinkle it wouldn't have leaped out at me so.

[Rena Sherwood]

I used to own a copy decades ago but cannot remember it other than I liked it and wanted to read more books by Hinkle.