Um, pretty bad, actually. A 'kid's' book - as in, never mind making the threats/challenges realistic, let alone creating genuine reactions to them. Strawman challenges throughout - the kid is in a hurry, making a long trip by horse with a strict deadline - so he spends half a morning hanging out at one ranch and in that time solves a many-years-old mystery. Which is the deus ex machina that enables him to achieve his aim at the end...bleah. So why didn't the guy say something at the time? Why make the kid go compete (and, of course, win) in the rodeo, if he was gonna give him the horse anyway? Bleah and bleah. Nice atmosphere and description, but the plot ran on rails, never mind reality. The blatant stereotyping was merely a fillip of annoyance on top of that (sneaky, cheating Mexican, surly Indian whose every other word was 'Ugh!'...hmmmph. OK, of the times, but still.) ( )