A Horse’s Tale

Posted by Rebekah
Categories: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Older Readers, Review
Tags: Animals, Funny, Horses, Mark Twain, Westerns

Our rating:

Soldier Boy, Buffalo Bill’s horse, is one of the finest scout horses in the west. When an orphan named Catherine comes to stay with General Alison, Kathy becomes good friends with everyone at the garrison, including Buffalo Bill who allows her to ride Soldier Boy. After a period of time, Kathy, General Alison, and some others return to Spain (Kathy’s home), and they take Soldier Boy with them. Unfortunately, Soldier Boy is stolen and eventually is killed in a bullfight.

This is reminiscent of A Dog’s Tale in that the hero of the story, Soldier Boy, dies. However, it takes it a step further because Kathy dies too! There are some funny parts, particularly one in which Soldier Boy and another horse discuss what makes something a reptile — “That any plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium that hadn’t wings and was uncertain was a reptile.”