FAYETTEVILLE — Some 2,200 fourth-grade students from schools around Northwest Arkansas spent part of Thursday with Frederik the Great.
Frederik, an enormous black Friesian stallion from Rogers, drew great cheers as he galloped in front of the students at Pauline Whitaker Arena on the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville campus. With a long, black mane that nearly touched the ground, Frederik resembled the titular black stallion from Walter Farley’s best-sellingfiction series about a horse and his young owner, Alec Ramsay.
Frederik’s run was part of the Horse Tales Literacy Project, a program that aims to develop a love of literacy in children by connecting them with horses. Laura Graves of Big Flat, who along with her husband, Gene, is one of the southeast regional directors for the program, said the project expects to perform in front of 11,000 fourth-grade students over the course of this school year. Upcoming spring show locations include Fort Smith, Searcy,Jonesboro and Pine Bluff.
There were two performances Thursday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
“If we demand our children to read and don’t have them enjoy reading, we miss the forest for the trees,” Laura Graves said. “This program is all about finding the joy and magic that books can bring.”
Formerly known as the Black Stallion Literacy Foundation, the nonprofit Horse Tales Literacy Project was first performed in Arkansas in 2006, Graves said. That year, some 5,000 children saw performances. (Graves said the name was changed to allow the addition of a fifth-grade program, which was launched this year.)
From the start, all students attending events have received free books. The fourth-graders who came Thursday each received a copy of The Black Stallion, the 1941 book thatlaunched Farley’s series.
“The kids really like this event,” said Jennifer Worthy, a fourth-grade teacher at Springdale’s Sonora Elementary School who was in attendance for the fifth time. “It brings The Black Stallion to life. When you’re reading about horses, to see mustangs in person is big.”
In years past, the Horse Tales program in Northwest Arkansas had been held in the spring, after students had already completed The Black Stallion, said Rich Schaeffer, Springdale Public Schools communications director. This year, it took place in the fall, and most students were either in the middle of the book or about to begin reading it.
Regardless, the event is always a popular one among students, said Kari Spurlock, another fourth-grade teacher at Sonora Elementary.
“They know about it, from older brothers and sisters who have gone through it the year before, so they really look forward to it,” said Spurlock, who, like her students, was wearing a gray T-shirt that read “Black Stallion Project.”
The Springdale teachers said the event and the book connect with several subjects, from Arkansas history to the physiology of horses to the role of horses in the Civil War. Re-enactors at the event rode around the arena demonstrating practice drills that Civil War soldiers and horses performed in preparation for battles, including shooting pistols at targets and picking up paper plates with sabers.
Performer Fred Woehl of Harrison told students that the horses they saw Thursday were descended from the ones brought to the New World by Spanish settlers in the 15th and 16th centuries.
“These are the living legend, the horses that won the West, that the Calvary and Native Americans rode,” Woehl told the audience. “They’ve got the blood of the Spanish[in them]. These horses have truly been a blessing to us.”
Thursday’s program began with Mary Kathryn Bryant, Miss Arkansas High School Rodeo Queen, bearing the United States flag as the national anthem was sung. Then came an appearance by Woehl, who brought two mustangs from his farm and spoke of their heritage.
Woehl told the students how he developed a lifelong love of reading at an early age, which inspired him to dream big. Between 2008-2011, Woehl spent 28 months in the Middle East, volunteering to teach farming in Iraq for the U.S.State Department and then teaching better horse-care techniques in Jordan for the Department of the Interior.
“When I was in the fourth grade, I started reading Walter Farley’s books, and I understood a different way of treating horses,” Woehl told the students. “[I learned] that horses had personalities, that they had a life. I encourage you to read all of The Black Stallion books. ... If there’s one thing I want to tell you,it’s read as much as you can. Keep your dreams alive.”
Thursday was Woehl’s first time appearing as part of the Horse Tales Literacy Project. In years past, the show had featured the Arabian Nights, a horse show from Kissimmee, Fla., but this year all performers hailed from Arkansas, Northwest Arkansas coordinator Jacci Perry-Ryan said.
Other performers included Steve Jones, “the Whipmaster,” who demonstrated whipping techniques; a parade of Arabian horses; and Civil War re-enactors.
“I think it went very well,” Perry-Ryan said after the first show. “We want to encourage and motivate students, their love of reading and horses.Teachers told me they liked having local talent.”
In addition to fourth- and fifth-graders, the Horse Tales Literacy Project has programs for first-graders, which take place in the spring. In those, the horses come to the firstgraders’ schools, and kids receive a copy of Little Black, a Pony, a 1961 Farley book for younger readers.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 11/30/2012