A Horse is A Horse of Course of Course, Unless...

When I saw the cover of Teddy Horse, I thought I would hate it. Despite my childhood love of Hasbro’s line of My Little Ponies and a penchant for reading, the two did not mix in my mind. However heart wrenching the life of Phar Lap or enduring the tale of Black Beauty, I read their stories with forced interest. To my initial dismay, then, not only is Teddy Horse equine inspired, but the cover art also boasts a red-suited monkey riding the Shetland pony. Now, I know D-list moviegoers may disagree, but performing monkeys do not to me spell comedy, fun, or quality (and please forgive me as I lump together monkeys, gorillas and chimps for the sake of argument here). Gorillas in the Mist (1988) aside, if there is an ape involved, I want nothing to do with it, thanks to the monkey hijinks smeared across the big screen by the likes of Matt LeBlanc’s Ed (1996), Clint Eastwood’s Every Which Way But Loose (1978)—it’s sequal Any Which Way You Can (1980)—and Annette Funicello’s The Monkey’s Uncle (1965), to name just a few. That Teddy Horse’s Jimmy is outfitted on the cover in gold-studded quasi-military-inspired attire that would arouse jealousy even from Bubbles—the late Michael Jackson’s ever-faithful companion—doesn’t help.

What I discovered when I actually read Teddy Horse, however, is that the story has very little to do with monkeys, and everything to do with pulling the heartstrings in all the right ways. No, Youmans isn’t inventing the wheel here. Teddy Horse is yet another tale of separation from loved ones, a menagerie of domesticated and barnyard animal friends, and survival in unfamiliar territory—all of which are familiar themes in her string of novels and short stories. Such themes are central not only to her writing, but to Youmans’s own life as well, as she bounced back and forth between relatives in Missouri and Ohio in her youth, and surrounded herself with constant cat and dog companions throughout her adult years. She writes honestly and with only a little pandering. I knew I was being manipulated as Teddy Horse faces danger looming large, but enjoyed the emotional response the words on the page evoked in me as the pony deftly clears the hurdles blocking his safety. Teddy Horse is a sweet story that far exceeds the ridiculous connotations brought to mind by late twentieth-century popular culture. I guess the old adage still holds: Don’t judge a book by its cover.