There was another stallion involved in one of the books - The Island Stallion. They raced at some point but I don’t remember the details.
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We should organize a Black Stallion book club.
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And they thought his name was McGregor, because that was the name on his…hat, maybe? 
And then there was the Island Stallion Races- was that the one with the space aliens?
Oh yeah – that one was weird. The only book in the series that I never finished.
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Oh, I finished it. And I believe I read all of them. But that’s the one I remember as taking a sudden left turn. Lol.
So while I was cleaning tack yesterday I watched all of The Black Stallion and 2/3 of The Black Stallion Returns. Now I remember why I was so disenchanted with Returns—it does not follow the book well at all. I hate it when that happens! Of course the horse and the scenery make up for some of that.
Watching prompted me to look up Kelly Reno. At 18 he was in an accident where he was nearly killed by an 18-wheeler. Now he drives 18 wheelers for a living in Colorado.
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Wow. You must have had a lot of tack to clean!
2 saddles, 1 western, 1 dressage
4 bridles
3 extra sets of reins
1 extra noseband
1 halter and lead
2 sets of stirrup leathers
1 girth extender
All cleaned and conditioned. I am currently horseless, so it’s well cared for and ready to go for the next one or to be sold if it doesn’t fit the next one.
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Very productive!
That reminds me that I have a bunch of tack I need to oil. Maybe I will do a Black Stallion movie festival for the occasion.
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I would not be surprised if Bagnold’s National Velvet made it to the banned books list under accusation of promoting cross-dressing.
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Plus she was in the men’s changing room before the race, right? 
Similar to the way they tried to erase any trace of the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima since it was called the Enola Gay. 
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Totally off track here but… in the 70’s my brothers next door neighbor was ‘Gay’. Her first name. It’s a nice and perfectly normal name and she was a good neighbor. If she’s still alive I wonder if she uses it.
I remember there was a lady who judged shows when I was a kid who also had that same first name. Nobody thought twice about it, as I recall.
I knew someone 50 or so years ago whose name was actually Gay - with the surname of Smiley!
What on earth were her parents thinking?
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I heard he was the nephew of one of the crew on the movie. They needed a kid who could ride and this guy said, my nephew can ride and fall off if needed. I think it went something like that.
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I looked up the lady I was thinking of with that first name. I can’t even believe I remembered her last name after all these years, to tell the truth.
But she was born in 1929, when I’m sure that was just a typical name that people gave their kids. And she passed away a little over a decade ago.
Apparently she was a school teacher for many, many years, which I did not realize. I only remembered her from horse shows when I was a kid.
Gay used to mean happy back in the day. You must be young if you don’t remember this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s13X66BFd8
Edited to fix the link…
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That link didn’t work for me, but it probably saved me from an earworm, so maybe it’s just as well.
The Flintstone theme song. Remember the last part, “we’ll have a gay old time”?
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Glad I ducked it, then! I don’t need that stuck in my head for a week. Lol.
I wonder if the same people created the theme to the Jetsons. That one is similarly invasive.
