White Stallion of Lipizza

We finished Marguerite Henry’s White Stallion of Lipizza as a family read-aloud. I shouldn’t be surprised to be blubbering at the end, since I always do in animal stories. But I found this story extraordinarily touching – not sad, but moving. It’s a story about young Hans Haupt, a 13-year-old son of a baker in Vienna, who dreams of being a rider for the elite Spanish Court Riding School.

I liked it because the story takes us through the years of determination and hunger for knowledge and hard, often tedious work his dream involves. I liked it because Hans has as unlikely a dream as could be imagined, and he achieves it against the odds. I liked it for the illustrations, sketches by Wesley Dennis, a true seer of horses. I liked it for its educational value. I liked it for its modeling of a heroism earned through great effort and patience and humility, not just easy brilliance. Let’s face it: I liked it!

My daughter is (just barely) 7, and though the language of the story is at times technical, and is never really aimed at someone younger than probably 10 or 11, she listened eagerly to the whole thing. It’s dense with information, and her stuffed horses are now training to do the corbette and the piaffe and various other high-sounding ballet moves. (In addition to this tale, we watched Miracle of the White Stallions last week while this book was still in process, and it provided some nice historic supplementation as well as a glimpse of the Lipizzaners in action. However in all honesty, the dressage in this clip on YouTube surpasses that seen in the movie.)

I value this book for its wonderful factual content, but even more importantly because it gives us a language for talking about both dreams and hard work. That’s something she will benefit from every bit as much as those stuffed horses.