Dark Horse

By John Fischer

In John Fischer's multi-layered story, white horses are pampered, celebrated, and trained to pose in ways that hide any of their darker markings. The herd is consumed with appearances and addicted to a comfortable lifestyle of food, shelter, and praise. When one white horse bravely risks all he's ever known to follow a dark horse who promises adventure, he begins a journey that will lead to unparalleled freedom. The journey, however, will not be easy.
Dark Horse explores what it means to live in authentic faith and break out of complacency. It calls readers to ponder the meaning of leadership and the importance of discarding the masks we wear to hide our imperfections. Back in print by popular demand, Fischer's first-ever book is now available in this beautifully packaged gift edition for a new generation of readers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
• Release date: Oct 15, 2003
• ISBN: 9781441239174

John Fischer

John Fischer is a resident of New York, and divides his time between writing and a career as a marketing consultant. His work has appeared in Guernica, PANK Magazine, Palooka Journal, the Random House Anthology, Twentysomething Essays by Twentysomething Writers, and was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2012.

Book preview

©1983 by John Fischer

Published by Revell

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.revellbooks.com

Previously published under the title Dark Horse: The Story of a Winner by Multnomah Press.

Ebook edition created 2012

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the prior written permission of the publisher and copyright owners. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

eISBN 978-1-4412-3917-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

"John Fischer’s Dark Horse is a story that surges with power, an equine pilgrim’s progress whose largeness and significance is belied by its brief telling. Some parables, like those of Jesus, are greater than the sum of their parts."

Luci Shaw, Regent College’s writer-in-residence

and author of The Green Earth: Poems of Creation

"Dark Horse is a book you will end up reading over and over again. Thundering across the pages of this tiny allegory is a mysterious, dark horse with fire in his eyes calling tamed horses to follow him to ‘plains they have never run and mountains they have never seen.’ Because of John Fischer’s imaginative writing, the reader is stampeded into a mysterious world of adventure and danger, much like the world of faith, where we are called by a wild Savior whose eyes are filled with light beckoning us to follow him. What a read!"

Mike Yaconelli, author of Messy Spirituality

"I’ve been a John Fischer fan since the release of Saint Ben. Looking at the blemished human condition through allegory, Dark Horse contains one of the most cherished prizes of literature: a metaphor to remember for the rest of our lives."

Noel Paul Stookey, singer/songwriter,

Peter, Paul & Mary

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Endorsements

Foreword

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

About the Author

Other Books by Author

FOREWORD

Perhaps the most basic characteristic of fallen man is his inability to see himself in a true light. Personal blind spots afflict us all. We seem to see others clearly and are amazed at their blindness to themselves. But we are equally amazed at what they often see in us that we do not see!

It is this human quality that makes allegory helpful. Allegory is a way of seeing ourselves clearly (even our faults) precisely because it is not us that we are looking at. Ever since Pilgrim’s Progress, the English-speaking world has been indebted to the allegorical method for spiritual insight and personal enlightenment.

In John Fischer’s analogy of a horse that longed to be white, we shall all see the hidden hypocrisies that sabotage our dreams, but also those unexpected resources of the Spirit that can lead us to fulfillment.

The book is small, but the theme is great. I hope you will enjoy both.

Ray C. Stedman,

author and former pastor

Peninsula Bible Church,

Palo Alto, California

Dark Horse

He’s a dark horse in the nighttime

Heading straight for the enemy camp

And he has no fear

’Cause his eye is clear

Throwing light like a burning lamp

1

For as long as I can remember, I had always wanted to be a white horse. I wasn’t all white, but my good ancestry had left me more white than most horses I knew, and fortunately, in the most important places. Most of my face was white, and the white of my right front leg ran up to my shoulder so that if I stood at an angle . . . with my good leg out . . . and my head slightly cocked . . . all you could see was white.

It was a good sign, I was told, and the mark of a leader.

It was for this reason that when

Reviews for Dark Horse

[bill5bradford · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

(Minor spoilers)I liked the idea and I think I know where the author was going...sort of a "Pilgrim's Progress" with horses...but it either was too long or too short. We have one short story, which is a nice allegory...and then all but one of the characters disappear (die? we are not sure) and another, shorter story begins - and they are connected, but do not form a whole.. It is well written, and nice for horse lovers...but it seemed disjointed. I would liked to have seen the story more fully developed. I would love to read more explaining what happened....and what will happen