This post first appeared on my former blog January 13, 2011.
Raise your hand if you were a Mr. Ed fan. Remember him? The talking palomino who lived in architect Wilbur’s little barn? (Go ahead, I’ll wait while you sing the theme song…) For a city kid who dreamed of one day owning a horse, that show was like candy.
I have always loved the majestic beauty of horses. No one else in my immediate family rides, but from the time I could walk, I was horse crazy. I pretended to be a horse. I learned to make sounds like a horse. I tried my best to draw horses. Instead of Barbie dolls, I played with Breyer horses. I still have a collection of over 200 of them around my office. I may be practical enough to know I can’t own a horse, but I still love them.
I was also one of those geeky kids who read a lot. Naturally, I sought out horse stories. An early one was Little Black, A Pony. Little Black is saddened when the boy who rides him chooses to ride Big Red instead, but when the boy gets into danger, it’s Little Black who rescues him.
I had a number of Marguerite Henry’s classics. The stunning illustrations by Wesley Dennis in Album of Horses made me sigh with longing for a horse (and sent me for paper and pencil, but I was just never able to capture the beauty myself). Henry’s stories Misty of Chincoteague and King of the Wind were two of my favorites.
By the age of ten I had moved onto The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. And when I discovered there was a whole series of books featuring The Black and Alex? There was no stopping my visits to the local library. I think every book report I gave through fifth grade was about a horse story.
Hollywood has given us wonderful horse stories, too. National Velvet features a vibrant pre-teen Elizabeth Taylor as a girl who wins a horse in a town raffle and trains him for Britain’s greatest horse race, The Grand National. Pop up the popcorn and grab a box of Kleenex. This is great stuff. (Movie Trailer here, but the video quality is a bit rough.)
The Black Stallion came to the big screen in 1979 in a stunning film, but I still love the books better. And since then, we’ve enjoyed Hidalgo, Spirit—Stallion of the Cimarron, The Horse Whisperer (never saw the film, but the book was amazing), Seabiscuit and most recently, Secretariat. By the way, Secretariat clippings adorned my bedroom walls in 1973. You can watch his races on YouTube—brilliant runner!
And one of my guilty pleasure favorites, Arwen’s determined ride to save Frodoe in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring.
Enjoy! And if I left off your favorite horse story–in book or movie–please let me know!