For 20+ years, give or take a year, I have been searching for this pony/horse book that I read back in the 1980s and today I found it!
I could not remember the title, author, year of publication, etc. and I just had some vague story outline of a poor boy who works on a horse farm (I was thinking a harness horse racing farm) and gets to name the horse. Over the years I have probably ordered 100 horse books, give or take a horse book, from various libraries in my quest to find this book. Do you know how many horse books were published in the 1980s? Or I should say how many horse books were published for girls in the 1980s? Hundreds! I have asked people, searched the Internet, I have asked people to ask other people at funerals (yes, I know I am weird), and I have commented on posts and tweets about this book. And nothing. I put in another request last week for yet another horse book, expecting another disappointment, and it arrived today and it was the book! “Little Vic” by Doris Gates and illustrated by Kate Seredy, originally published in 1951 and republished in 1971 with multiple book covers.
The book blurbs from Amazon and Google write: “An undersized colt, son of a famous racer, has the potential to be a winner but is recognized only by his stable boy who trains to become a jockey and wins the right to ride his favorite to victory” and “An orphaned stable boy’s love for a horse motivates him to become a jockey and ride in the big races.”
I am not sure why I was so obsessed about finding this pony book, but I have one of those inquisitive minds that needs to find the answer. Also I am very persistence.
