A Horse Named Sky by Rosanne Parry

A horse named Sky  is born into a family of horses that includes Mother, Auntie Gale and Auntie Rain, their stallion Thunder, and Rain's filly, Storm. Sky looks up to Storm who can run like the wind and he spends the seasons trying to catch her. Sky also learns that he must run from the "howlers", and that speed is strength. He also learns many other things from his family: Auntie Gale tells Sky to "watch for the claw beast", while Auntie Rain tells him not to eat the purple flowers.

Storm, as a filly, will stay with the mares, but Sky who is a stallion must soon either fight Thunder or move on.

One summer day, after several more seasons have passed, Sky and Storm wonder at the humans arriving with their "draggers", pulling various heavy loads. They have seen humans before: in the past "buckskin-dun humans with black manes" (Indians) have come to take the cones off the pinon trees for their seeds, and harvest sage. But the two mustangs note that the new humans are not interested in the seeds. Sky thinks they have come for the trees. Thunder tells them to avoid the humans.

The summer heat continues into the fall and the horses struggle to find food and water. Jack, the old burro stallion rounds up his jennies and leaves, telling Sky he is taking them to a place where there is a single mountain and a swift river. Auntie Gale leads the mares and their foals, and the colts to a spring which bubbles out of the ground on a rock. Although Sky is the last to drink, he is thankful. However, as the drought continues, Sky is frequently chased away by Thunder, who wants what little water there is for his mares.

As the spring begins to dry up, Sky knows the time for him to leave has come. Storm doesn't want him to leave though. Sky tries to follow the rain clouds, walking across the steppe. He remembers that water goes into ravines, so that's where he walks and he soon finds water...and meets up with Storm. Sky is surprised to see Storm, telling her "mares don't leave", but she tells him they can choose. However, Sky and Storm's freedom and time together is short-lived.

While tasting salt-licks, suddenly a group of humans riding large horses charge out of the brush and give chase to Sky, Storm and three brother stallions. The horses race across the steppe and into a narrow canyon where they hope to hide. However, they quickly find themselves trapped and Sky and several of the stallions are taken captive. Soon Sky finds himself pressed into running for the Pony Express. But no matter how well he's treated, with delicious food, rubs and shelter, the urge to be free and to reunite with his family and find Storm make him determined to escape.

Discussion

A Horse Named Sky is another well-told animal story by Rosanne Parry. This time she imagines an engaging story about a mustang stallion living with his family band in the Virginia range east of Reno, Nevada. In Sky's family band, Thunder is the adult stallion and some of his mares include Sky's mother, and his Aunties Gale and Rain. The story is told from the perspective of the young stallion, Sky. Since Sky is narrating, he uses language that describes what he sees and experiences in the way a horse might: human arms are "front legs", hands are "grabbers", oxen are "draggers", a cougar is a "claw beast", human adults are "stallions" and a human child is a "colt". 

In the first chapters, Parry describes Sky's life as a young wild horse growing quickly in the Virginia Range. This area is home to the single-leaf pinon pine, from which the Indigenous peoples of the area, the Paiute, Washoe and Shoshone, collected nuts for food. Sky refers to them as "buckskin-dun humans with black manes". Life is good, with the mustangs able to outrun the "claw beast" to find food and water. Sky quickly grows into a young stallion. His best friend is a young mare, Storm who can run very fast. This almost idyllic life will be in contrast to the experiences Sky will soon have and the changes to his homeland that will come about with the arrival of more humans. 

Drought hits their homeland and the mustangs must move to find water. Although Sky strikes out on his own, everything changes when he is captured and  sold into the Pony Express. Storm and their family band, he later discovers, ends up working in a silver mine. 

From the beginning of his capture, Sky struggles with the loss of his family band. "Every day, for days on end, I've missed my family with a dull ache like the cold. But now I miss them sharp, like a broken bone." Despite being well treated, fed good food, cleaned and given water, Sky misses freedom. "I feel the tug of the homeward horizon, and no amount of water or crunchy bits will make me feel better."  Sky is determined to escape and find his way back to Storm whom he believes is free. The loss of freedom, being forced to carry humans, and travel treacherous mountain routes make him even more determined. To that end Sky's determination and intelligence leads him to learn the signs that will help him get home and to try to earn the trust of the humans in the hope they will eventually stop tying him up at night. It is when Sky learns to undo the wooden bar that locks him in, that his chance for freedom comes.

Parry incorporates a number of historical events within the story: the Pony Express which ran from Missouri to California from 1860 into the fall of 1861 , the presence of dromedaries purchased by the U.S. Army and which Sky encounters on the mountain trail, the arrival of silver mining in the Virginia Range in 1859 which decimates the delicate ecosystem of Sky's homeland through clear cutting all the trees and poisoning the waterways, and the indenture of Indigenous peoples as a result of the California Indian Act of 1850. 

Of all the humans Sky encounters, it is a young Paiute boy  whom he describes as "a buckskin human with a black mane" who "looks like one of the pinon gatherers"  who has the most impact. Like Sky, the Paiute boy is enslaved, creating a bond between them. Sky refers to the boy as a colt: he "is too big for a yearling, but he is definitely not of fighting age. A cold, then." This Paiute boy  takes good care of Sky. When he rests his head on Sky's shoulder, Sky thinks, "I've missed this so much -- a friend to lean on at the end of the day."  However, Sky also witnesses him being maltreated, noticing that he is not fed in the morning, and beaten by the older man at the Pony Express station, It is an action the young stallion cannot comprehend.  "When colt comes outside, there's a fight mark on his face. He's shaking from head to foot. I don't understand. A stallion only fights another grown stallion....The salty-faced colt is no stallion to be sparred with. He's far too tender for such rough treatment."  Eventually, Sky witnesses the young Paiute boy being freed by his father and he decides it's time for freedom too!

One of the most poignant scenes in the novel is when Sky arrives at his home, only to see how it has been devastated. There are no birds in the air, no animals on the ground and the trees are gone. Instead, Sky sees knee-high stumps with sage and  grasses left.

Sky not only undergoes a journey home, but also a personal journey from an insecure young stallion to one who not only rescues his entire enslaved family band but leads them to safety. He is a courageous leader, willing to risk his life for family and friends.

A Horse Named Sky is another wonderful animal story by American author, Rosanne Parry. The novel is filled with beautiful pencil sketches done by Kirbi Fagan, and which add so much to the story-telling. Parry has included a Map of Sky's journey (which would be better situated at the front of the novel), detailed notes titled, Wild Horses in North America, Horse Families, About Mustangs, The Habitats, Water Before Everything, The Pony Express, Silver Mining in Nevada, and the California Indian Act of 1850. There is also a short Author's Note and Artist's Note, and a list of Selected Sources for further reading, and a List of parks, museums and wildlife refuges in the Great Basin.

Book Details:

A Horse Named Sky by Rosanne Parry
New York: Greenwillow Books     2023
260 pp.