Matt Armstrong

Matt Armstrong was a Canadian writer.  As far as I am aware, he wrote just the one book.  He also contributed a short story to Teenage Horse Stories, which is probably an extract from Turtle River Filly.  Illinois Ideals gives the book the following rather scathing review:

“A trite horse story in which a high-school boy dreams of a black filly, sees her, buys her, loses her through a bit of chicanery, and then wins her again. A side plot of an ice cutter who loses his girl friend to the town's rich play boy and then wins her again adds little to the story. Not recommended.”

If anyone can add any more detail (perhaps you read it and liked it) or any biographical detail on the author, I’d be delighted to hear from you.  Many thanks to Lisa Catz and Fiona Williams for the photographs.

Finding the book:  difficult to find, and can be expensive.  The book was not published in the UK.  

Links and sources:
A short review of Turtle River Filly
A ruder review of Turtle River Filly
Terri A. Wear:  Horse Stories, an Annotated Bibilography, Scarecrow Press, 1987

Turtle River Filly

Doubleday, New York, 1950, 213 pp.  Illus Charles Banks Wilson, HB.

Ramey dreams about having a trotting horse of his own:  black, with white socks.  He finds a filly who matches
his dreams, but she is to be sold at auction.  Ramey decides he has to have her, even though she is in theory
too small to be a trotter.

Bibliography - horse books only

Teenage Horse Stories

Lantern Press, pb, 1964, 1969

Reprinted as Horse Stories

Contributed a short story:  A Filly Owns A Fella - probably an excerpt from Turtle River Filly.   .