When I was a young girl, any book that featured a horse on the cover would be snapped up - regardless of content. This is how I discovered such gems as My Friend Flicka, Snow Cloud Stallion, and, the best of them, The Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell.It is hard to review a story that was so much a part of my childhood. I read and re-read this book. I plagiarised it shamelessly when I attempted my first stories. I dreamed that I would see Thowra whenever we went out into wild country. To my brother's disgust, I even tried to read it aloud to him. For me, it is absolutely magical and difficult to look at objectively.I'm trying hard to think about and articulate why I loved it so. As a girl, it was a book that took me into another world, with strong graceful horses and Australian terms for flora and fauna. Thowra was shown to be a magnificent stallion, wise and beautiful, and it appealed to me tremendously. It really was absolute escapism. I was horribly dismayed to learn, as I got older, that brumbies are not the stunning horses I believed them to be - in fact, are known as being rather 'scrubby'. Similarly, I imagined Thowra with a coat of shining silver - I've since learnt that the term 'creamy' probably means a palomino horse rather than a white.With some of these childhood assumptions shattered, I thought I would try reading the book once more and see how I felt about it, with some of that rose-tinted attitude stripped away.What did I find?A book that still charmed me, even disregarding nostalgia and warm feeling. This tale of Thowra, the silver stallion, is written very well, with warmth and clear love for the subject matter. The life of these wild horses is shown to be tough, with threats from lack of food and Man constantly affecting them - and yet there is joy to be found.Thowra is never given 'magical' abilities. All of the ways in which he outsmarts the men and the other horses comes from bushlore, knowing the country better than they and using rocks to step on and hide his tracks. He is clever, but only insomuch as he is forced to be, thanks to his creamy coat which is desired by all men who see him. He is a somewhat mischievous character as a foal, but grows into a wise horse as he matures, and I liked this character development.I liked the fact that Mitchell didn't anthropomorphise the characters at all - although there are occasional lines of dialogue between the horses, they are not given human qualities. They are horses, and driven by all the issues that affect horses, such as searching for grass during the winter season and seeking a mate.The Silver Brumby is a very natural book, full of grace and passages that demonstrate Mitchell's great love for horses. It is a book I would not hesitate to give to a pony-mad girl now - the language and the story are timeless, and very beautiful. In terms of pony classics, Thowra easily stands alongside Black Beauty, and I would love to see more people reading and enjoying this remarkable story.
I've decided that by commenting on this book, I'm commenting on all the Brumby books, because my passionate and heartfelt reviews for each one would take me too long.Growing up on a station amongst horses, I've always loved them. Their majesty and grace and intelligence... Everything. But growing up, I also only read books based in America and England, about dressage and show jumping and all that other stuff I can't relate to.But then one day, in the middle of a summer storm, I was scrounging through the bookshelf when I found The Silver Brumby. Of course, being the horse girl I was/am/will always be, I instantly began reading it because of the cover and the title, nothing more.And I have read it a total of eight times since then. I loved them. All of them. I may be from WA, but I could tell this woman knew a heck of a lot about rural Australia and the Snowy Mountains and all those other places every horse-loving Aussie girl dreams of visiting. Everything was perfect. Every plant she described was vivid and suited to the environment, the animals and their behaviour were definitely accurate, the weather and its patterns and the landscape and terrain, the naming of everything with Aboriginal names of that area... EVERYTHING. I couldn't find a single flaw.And then there were the brumbies. The perfect, courageous, cleverly characterised, gorgeously stunning, fast, sure-footed brumbies.The brumbies that knew more about the land than any human could. Everything they did was what brumbies do. Their herd instincts, the way they deliberately hide their foals in bushes, the rights each stallion had over certain land and how he fought to win it... It was all so vivid in my mind. Thowra was without a doubt the most gorgeous thing my brain could manage to put together. I felt so attached to them - Thowra, Bel Bel, Mirri, Storm, Yarraman, Golden, Kunama... etcetcetc.... I fell in love with them all and when I reached the book where Thowra died, I literally refused to read further. Of course his legacy continued through the children of his grandchildren etcetc, but without Thowra it didn't seem to carry the same magic it had since the first page of the first book.Still. Of course. The rest of the books would have been marvellous - how could they be anything less - but me being me, I couldn't bring myself to read on. This book will forever remain on my bookshelf, no matter how many times I have to sticky tape the cover back on and squint to read through the coffee stains on the yellow pages.
Do You like book The Silver Brumby (1982)?
A brumby is an Australian wild horse, and this tale by Elyne Mitchell is the first of a series, which as far as I knew was of just four books, this, The Silver Brumby’s Daughter, Silver Brumbies of the South, and Silver Brumby Kingdom. Looking on the internet now, I see there are more – maybe I should read them!The Silver Brumby of the title is Thowra, a cream-coloured wild horse in the Australian Snowy Mountains, whose coat turns silver in winter. The first book deals with his birth and growing up, all the way through to finding his first mate. There are challenges for supremacy between the reigning stallions on the territory, and in time Thowra throws down his own challenge. I loved the way the terrain is described, and what was then exotic wild plants and animals. A pair of wise kangaroos features, as do an opossum and various birds including kookaburras, sulphur-crested cockatoos and galahs. I vividly imagined all these creatures. Having a map at the start of the book helped me imagine the terrain too.I first read these book when I was about fourteen, so I was surprised to see the date on the copies I have, which suggests I bought them when I was 21! My horse-obsession hasn’t waned much in the meantime, so I recommend these tales for horse-lovers of any age, although the book imprint itself is described as ‘for older boys and girls’.Unlike my own stories, Elyne Mitchell places Thowra firmly in a natural setting, with realistic interactions between the herds and his search for his own mates. Horse whisperers and would-be horse whisperers will be happy with the treatment. The events that present them with life-threatening dangers are appropriate and normal extremes in the Australian climate. What I didn’t appreciate was that the terrain described is real. I was lucky enough to visit Thredbo on an Australian trip, and checking the map in the Youth Hostel, I found I was right on the edge of the Cascades, where Thowra was born. A hike the next day took me into the Cascades and to my delight, we found some brumbies – brown and black ones, but still brumbies!I still love these stories, and I recommend them to horse lovers of any age, and indeed any younger children with good reading skills looking for an exciting wildlife adventure. I mentioned ‘forever books’ on a blog recently – these are ones that have been carried round all the places I’ve lived and stayed on my shelf rather than boxes in the attic. Precious stories indeed!
—Jemima Pett
Just finished rereading this - again! I love this story. I first discovered it in my city library when I was just a kid and would recheck it from time to time to read it again. Finally found a copy as an adult at the Tattered Cover in Denver several years back.I really enjoy this story of an Australian brumby from his birth to his undisputed reign as king of the Cascade brumbies. Thowra is named for the wind, since he will have to be as swift as the wind to escape men, who will want him for his unusual color - a pale creamy with silver mane and tail. The exploits of Thowra and his best friend Storm, born the same night of the storm as he was, are wonderful reading. Thowra and Storm have both been trained by their mothers to read all the signs of the earth and sky, to travel trackless and to know well the country they are going through or find themselves in. Then Thowra steals Golden from the men who bring the cattle in the summer and everyone is looking for him - The Brolga to take Golden from him and the men to capture Golden and Thowra. This may be my comfort book. Whenever I'm restless or agitated, I seem to go to this book to relax.
—Susan Ferguson
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.
—Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance
