Smoky the Cowhorse by Will James (published 1926) is an animal book telling of one young horse from the day he was born until his old age retirement. Smoky learns in a free, mountainous home for his early years, is broken in as a cow horse by a loving cowboy, spends years rounding up cattle, finds himself on the rodeo circuit, and then . . . well, I shouldn’t spoil it all for you, should I?
Smoky does focus, for most of the book, on Smoky’s “thoughts.” The author doesn’t assign words to the horse’s conversations and learning moments, so it still feels like a realistic fiction animal story and not a human-created world. This also means it was a slow book, with lots of description. Once Smoky is captured to be trained as a cow horse, the perspective shifts at times to Cliff’s perspective, and there is some human dialogue at times. We still get glimpses into Smoky’s mind, though. At any rate, it’s clear that the author is well acquainted with horses. He must have been a cowboy, and he loves the creatures.
Although Smoky the Cowhorse is an animal book, it does share a little bit of animal death and abuse, so animal lovers need to be aware of this. In nature, there are animals who die, of course. Then, of course, not all horse trainers or horse riders are the same. Cliff loves horses and he and Smoky have a great friendship. But others who ride Smoky are more interested in dominating rather than loving the creature. I gasped at points (and I’m not an animal person). Any abuse is strongly condemned in the book.
People who want an exciting cowboy story may enjoy the scenes describing the cattle round-up with much more gusto than I did. Maybe they’ll also like the rodeo scenes. They made me cringe, but I appreciated the author’s distinction, from Smoky’s perspective, that some riders did so for control while others did so to play. The kind riders enjoyed Smoky’s bucking at the rodeo as a fun challenge. Smoky could tell the difference between pure hate and adoration, and I love that this came across as such in the author’s story.
The writing was horrible. It was cowboy’s book for sure, with plenty of words spelled like “eddicate,” “kinda,” and “crethure” throughout, and not just in dialog. The human characters were unmemorable, with only Cliff coming back to mind, along with the general personalities of the “bad guys.” I do also remember Smoky’s brother-horse, Pecos. Given the era in which it was written, it is also not surprising that even Smoky was racist: he shied away from anyone with dark skin after a “degenerate halfbreed and not fit to be classed amongts humans” abused him.
As I said, I’m not an animal person. Reading this book showed me that maybe I do prefer a fictionalized animal communication story like The Eyes and the Impossible (reviewed last week) or Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (reviewed earlier this year). That said, I also did find merit in the 1920s “animal” story Bannertail (reviewed last year), which told of the life of a squirrel. I guess it was just Smoky’s story, then, that did not grab my interest as much as others do. Nothing really happened. It was just . . . the long life story of a horse.
I rate Smoky the Cowhorse “Okay” and say “Don’t Bother.”
Newbery rating scale: FANTASTIC | REALLY GOOD | PRETTY GOOD | OKAY | BLAH
What to do with this Newbery: KEEP IT AND READ IT | MAYBE IF YOU HAVE TIME | DON’T BOTHER
