A Horse Named Sky

Set in the American West during the late 1850s and early 1860s, this middle-grade novel follows a wild mustang colt from birth through capture, escape, and the search for a new home. The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Pony Express mail relay system and the silver mining boom in Nevada Territory, both of which threaten the survival of the wild horses.

Sky, a mustang colt with cloud-like white splotches on his coat, is born in the fall of 1856 on the Virginia Range of Nevada Territory. His family band includes his bright chestnut Mother; Auntie Rain, a black mare; Auntie Gale, a brown mare scarred from a cougar attack; and Thunder, the band's black-and-white stallion. Below the hills lies the band's home waters, a vast wetland of streams and ponds shared by horses, pronghorn, and other animals. Mother tells Sky this water is the source of all his strength.

Sky grows up alongside Storm, Auntie Rain's bold gray filly, who becomes his closest companion. Storm is faster and braver, daring him to race, jump streams, and explore the edges of their territory. Old Jack, the scarred and grouchy stallion of a neighboring burro band, scolds Storm when she leads the yearlings too far, and Sky fears his temper. Sky understands that fillies stay with the mares, but colts must eventually fight their stallion or leave, and he dreads this prospect.

By the summer of 1860, silver miners arrive in growing numbers on the far side of the hills, digging holes and cutting down piñon pines. Entire bands of horses flee the diggers, crowding Sky's home waters. A severe drought compounds the crisis. Old Jack declares the situation dire and leads his burro family northward toward a place he has heard of: a single mountain standing alone, with a swift river and a white salt desert.

As water grows scarcer, Thunder fights off a rival stallion to defend the band's hidden spring. Sky recognizes the old stallion still protects the family better than he can. Rather than fight Thunder, Sky decides to leave so there will be more water for the mares and Frost, the youngest foal. Storm begs him to stay, but Sky insists colts are made for leaving.

Alone on the steppe, Sky wanders for two days, chasing rain clouds that never reach him. Using lessons from his upbringing, he locates a stream and drinks deeply. Storm appears on the opposite bank, having chosen to follow him. That night they stand together under the stars.

Their reunion is short-lived. While licking a suspiciously flat salt block, Sky, Storm, and three brother stallions are ambushed by humans on horseback who herd them into a dead-end canyon. Sky tries to break through, but a lasso catches him around the neck. That night the captives kick down the branch barrier blocking the canyon. Storm clears it with a powerful leap, and two of the brothers follow, but a speckled stallion called Fire falls short and blocks Sky's path. By the time Sky circles back, humans stand along the barrier with flaming sticks. Storm escapes, but Sky and Fire do not.

After days without food or water, Sky accepts water from a human's hand. He and Fire are led to Fort Churchill, a human settlement, where they are branded with a hot iron. Sky is separated from Fire and tied to a red roan mare named Cloud, who tells him that as a branded horse, any human who finds him will return him to captivity.

Cloud's rider takes Sky to a Pony Express station near Lake Tahoe. The Pony Express is a mail relay system in which riders switch to fresh horses at stations, allowing mail to travel at a continuous gallop. Sky learns the basics: a bridle, a saddle, and voice commands. At the station he meets River, a red dun mustang also born wild, whose home waters lie near the Alone Mountain Old Jack described. River advises Sky to stay calm, run hard, and earn trust.

Sky's first ride takes him over the Sierra Nevada mountain pass to Strawberry Station. There he bonds with a young Paiute stable hand, an Indigenous boy who tends the horses with remarkable gentleness. The boy sleeps beside Sky in the stable and hoots like an owl into the forest each night, listening for a reply that never comes. Sky recognizes that the boy, like him, is trapped far from his family.

Through the winter, Sky runs the mountain route daily. On a snowy run, the palomino rider, the kindest of them all, kills a cougar on the trail with a single gunshot. Sky is deeply shaken: The gentlest human carries the power of instant death. He resolves to escape.

Sky learns to open his stall latch with his teeth but must wait for the snow to melt. In early spring 1861, the owl call finally answers the Paiute boy. A tall figure emerges from the forest, and the boy throws his arms around the stranger. Together they disappear into the trees. Inspired, Sky opens his own latch and frees the station's mules, who scatter in opposite directions to confuse pursuers and buy the boy time. As Sky flees down the mountain path, River passes and catches his scent but does not betray him.

Sky gallops toward home. Along the way he encounters a bewildering dromedary camel, a humped creature with a long neck. As he nears the familiar hills, he finds every piñon tree cut to a stump and the home waters warm, quiet, and treeless. No horses or burros remain. From the hilltop, Sky sees the mining camp: dark holes, rock-crushing pits, and trapped horses stumbling with exhaustion. He hears Storm screaming from within and charges down the hill.

Sky crashes into the human trying to mount Storm and fights alongside her. A team of mules decides independently to help and charges Storm's pen, smashing through the rails. A calm, wild-haired human, implied to be journalist Samuel Clemens, quietly removes the restraint from Storm's neck. Storm leaps free and sprints uphill with Sky close behind.

On the hilltop, Storm is gaunt and scarred from being beaten when she refused to work. She reveals that mining has poisoned the water and destroyed the landscape. After escaping the canyon months ago, she returned to lead the family away, but the mares refused, not knowing where to go. Sky tells her about the Alone Mountain, and together they plan a rescue.

That night they return to the camp. They find Mother, now blind; Auntie Rain, limping; and Auntie Gale with her head hanging low. The mares are too afraid to leave, so Storm sends Sky to find Thunder, whose leadership they trust. Sky works Thunder's knot loose and sends him to lead the mares. He rallies Old Jack and the burros to scatter as a diversion.

Sky dashes from trap to trap, opening every latch. Old Jack and his burros kick over oil lamps, starting fires along the wooden walkways. Horses, mules, and burros pour out and flee into the hills. Storm leads the band over the ridge while Sky guards the rear with Old Jack and Thunder.

The journey north is long. Thunder is the first to fall; once he sees no humans pursuing, his heart gives out. Sky doubts his leadership, but Old Jack reminds him the band follows because Sky came back when he was free and opened every trap.

Following waymarks Fire and River once described, the band crosses the dry steppe for weeks until they hear fast-moving water and smell green grass. They find a swift river and follow it to a peak with a sheer cliff on one side and a white salt desert at its base: Steens Mountain in present-day Oregon. Sky declares they have found their new home. Mother, the aunties, and Frost graze nearby, together and safe. A great horned owl blinks from a tree, reminding Sky of the Paiute boy and everything that brought him here. He turns to the setting sun, knowing this is home for all the free horses and burros who followed.