Well, after 19 recaps and three years, I’ve officially finished my journey through all of the Black Stallion books.
I have one remaining question: what was the craziest thing that happened in the books?
Let’s all decide together, shall we?
I used my own judgment to choose and then seed eight moments from the series, and set them up for a vote, March Madness style.
In order of least to most insane, they are:
- The Black’s second son, Bonfire, is a harness racing champion, and Alec steps in to train and drive him just in time for the Big Race. (The Black Stallion’s Blood Bay Colt, The Black Stallion’s Sulky Colt)
- Henry’s training method for breaking Satan’s spirit is to hit him with a whip repeatedly, then lasso him to the ground. (Son of the Black Stallion)
- Tahari lures Alec and the Black to a remote mountain hideaway somewhere in Europe with a complicated plan to kill the Black as revenge for killing her father, except it all goes wrong and she ends up killing the Black’s sire instead. (The Black Stallion Mystery)
- The Black causes a plan crash because he colics too hard, wanders the wilderness, and fights a bull moose to the death. (The Black Stallion Revolts)
- Alec and the Black get lost in the Florida Everglades and hallucinate and/or actually experience a vengeful local god. (The Black Stallion and the Ghost)
- Flame and the Black team up to fight a vampire bat to the death. (The Black Stallion and Flame)
- Aliens land on Azul Island and bring Steve and Flame to Cuba to race. (The Island Stallion Races)
- Alec and the Black fulfill a Native American prophecy about the end of the world, and then the world actually ends. Maybe. (The Black Stallion Legend)
So, here we go: four votes to advance the craziest moments to the semifinals. I’ll do the semis on Monday, and then next Friday will be the final showdown for the absolute nuttiest moment in the series.
Are there any totally nutty moments that you remember but I forgot? Disagree with my power ranking in any way?
beljoeor.com 
I am so torn on which one I want to see come out on top… Lol!
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End of the world, hands down for me.
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I was hoping the end of the world would feature! I re-read all the books as an adult and had somehow NOT REMEMBERED that bit?????
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I feel like you need to put all these blog posts together in a book. It’s like a horse version of The Onion. I would pay $ to have this in print all in one place. Not sure if you could get sued by his estate, but there was that spoof book about Martha Stewart years ago. Something like Martha Stewart is Better Than You.
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I’ve so loved your recap of the insanity that is this series. As a kid, I must have read them somewhat in order because I loved the black stallion, the island stallion, the assorted offspring and totally buying in and being excited for each new book. Then all of the sudden it was aliens/Lost in the everglades/end of the world and I remember being so disappointed and almost feeling ripped off. As an adult I can see all the early warning signs that the series was going off the rails and I think that combined with your reviews makes me love it again. It’s fantastically funny 🙂
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vampire bat!
I didn’t read this book, but the summary tells me everything I need to know
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Just to let you know, I’m loving this whole series – I read them all when I was a kid, and yeah, I did feel like they were starting to get WEIRD… I don’t think I ever read the End of the World one though! Well, you finished this series up a few years ago, but I just wanted to give feedback where feedback is due!
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Ha, I’m so glad to hear that, thank you for sharing! I really enjoyed writing them.
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