The Story of Red Eye — Robert J. Trout

Red Eye was never supposed to be like most other horses. The boy who helped raise and train him to race knew that Red Eye could have been a champion many times over. But war came, and Red Eye could not escape it. Like other horses, he suffered through the heat, the rain, and the snow; marched for hours over rough roads or struggled through muddy tracks; went without food and water; and worse. The boy, who had grown up and gone to war, too, found Red Eye wounded and scared but could not help him and had to leave him in the care of a young girl. She came to love Red Eye as the boy had. When danger threatened her family, she asked Red Eye to do the impossible and he gave her everything he had. No one who met Red Eye ever was the same. All of them came to love him. But more, his courage and strength changed them. Their lives were better for knowing him.