The Black Stallion

The Black Stallion is a novel for young readers by the American writer Walter Farley, first published in 1941. It was his first book, begun while he was still at school, and it established the horse of the title as one of the best-known animals in American children's fiction.

Alec Ramsay is on his way home when a black stallion is brought aboard the steamer Drake. When the ship goes down in a storm, the boy and the horse are the only survivors, and they come ashore on a deserted island with nothing between them and starvation but each other. Alec, who has never been allowed near a horse, learns to approach and feed the animal by patience alone, and the two of them fall into a working partnership that keeps them alive until a passing ship takes them off.

Back in America the stallion is still unbroken and dangerous to everyone but Alec, and the boy's ambition turns to racing: he wants to know how fast the horse can run against the best thoroughbreds in the country. Alec's friend Henry Dailey, an old trainer, takes an interest in the pair, and the novel works towards the contest that gives the book its second half.