The Black Stallion

Francis Ford Coppola was the executive producer. Did you know that?

A book series by Walter Farley beloved by little girls everywhere. The first books deal with Alec and the Black, a half-wild Arabian stallion he comes across while on a cruise. When the ship crashes, Alec and the Black are stranded together on a desert island. He builds a bond with the horse, and both are eventually rescued and return to New York. Home again, Alec meets up with an old racehorse trainer and convinces the man to train him and the Black. They then enter a match race as a wild card between a champion of the West Coast and a champion of the East. Obviously, they win.

The second book details Black's real owners stepping forward to claim him, and Alec has to venture back to Arabia to stake his claim on his favorite horse. Other books follow the exploits of the Black's son Satan and his other foals. The Black himself is still the main character throughout most of the series.

The first two books are also adapted into movies, The Black Stallion and The Black Stallion Returns. The twentieth and final book, a prequel, was also made into a film titled The Young Black Stallion.

Tropes used in The Black Stallion include:

• Accidental Athlete: Alec, fortuitously, stays small so he can be the Black's jockey.
• Adaptation Distillation: The movies.
• Automaton Horses: Averted, Farley does a good job of describing day to day care of the animals.
• Big Race
• Bond Creatures: Of a very mild sort -- only Alec can handle the Black and only Steve can handle Flame.
• Boring Invincible Hero: The Black never loses.
  • Rather justified, since the Black is half-Arabian and Arabian horses are specifically bred for speed and endurance. Nowadays Arabians and part-Arabs are only allowed to race other Arabians.
    • Justified more by his non-Arab half possibly mystical and/or aliens. No, seriously. In real life, Arabs don't have both the speed AND stamina to beat Thoroughbreds at modern racing distances. At a more moderate pace, they could outlast them, hence their popularity for sports like Endurance riding.
  • The Black does in fact lose at least once, but of course it's because Alec throws the race while helping save another jockey, whose saddle slips.
• Bus Crash: Pam.
• Crossover: With his Island Stallion series.
• Cool Horse: Take a guess.
• Coming of Age Story: Alec, throughout the whole series.
• Deserted Island: In the first book, and ostensibly Azul Island as well.
• A Dog Named "Dog": The Black, a black (horse).
• Family-Unfriendly Violence: Tom Pitcher's attempts to "tame" (read: brutalize and break) Flame.
• Friend to All Living Things: Pam.
• Genre Shift: Farley departed from his normal horse-and-his-boy story and wrote mysteries and even a horror novel within the series.
  • Heck, to full-on SCI-FI in The Island Stallion Races. To get himself and his horse to the mainland and into a race to save the island, Steve gets help from horserace-loving aliens. No, seriously. May be a symptom of Creator Breakdown as the books just got progressively stranger after that.
• Hellish Horse: The Black's sire in The Black Stallion Mystery.
• Heroic BSOD: Alec after learning of Pam's death.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Steve Duncan tells Alec he'll write a book about his discovery of Azul Island and Flame. Alec suggests he call it The Island Stallion.
• Miracle Rally: In the first book, but used again throughout the series.
• Old Master: Henry, who is an old racehorse trainer; when Alec has a bad fall in the third book, Henry proves he still has what it takes to climb into the saddle, though his techniques aren't always friendly.
• Prequel: The Young Black Stallion.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Farley first came up with the idea of Flame while under anesthesia for an ear operation.
• Rearing Horse: On the cover of many books, including Son of the Black Stallion.
• Spin Offspring: Several books center on the Black's sons and daughters, including Satan, Bonfire, and Black Minx.
• Underdogs Never Lose