The Silver Brumby.

Sadly, I was never one of those girls who fall in love with horses in elementary school. Apparently, my fourth grade teacher was; that year, she read aloud every Marguerite Henry horse book ever written, to my dismay.

I wish Mrs. McKinnis had read aloud The Silver Brumby. I don't know if it would have had the same effect on me at ten as it did when I read it last month at fifty-six, but suddenly I'm in love with horses. At least Australian horses. Thowra eludes capture time and time again and has to fight bad horses and seeks out the wild parts of the land and leads a herd of other beautiful wild horses.

Yes, a great story.