"Whenever the horseboys raced their horses beyond the city gates, Sham outran them all. He outran the colts his own age and the seasoned running horses as well. He seemed not to know that he was an earthy creature with four legs, like other horses. He acted as if he were an airy thing, traveling on the wings of the wind."
I didn't expect much from King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (1949 Newbery winner)--I've always had a hard time with horse stories. Maybe my low expectations made this one not so bad. I may not have cared much about the horse, but I did care about what happened to his horseboy, Agba, who follows Sham from the Sultan of Morroco's stable to court of France and then the English countryside. In between, both Agba and Sham find themselves in the most desperate of situations, suffering beatings and starvation.
Once when Sham has been taken away from him, Agba is faced with the possibility of losing his cat as well: "Agba's bound hands flew out in a pleading gesture. They must not take Grimalkin away! He would have no one at all to care for." Agba's devotion to his horse is touching, but I cared much more for Agba than for his horse. And Agba's story ends when Sham's does.
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