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The very best horse in the world is the one you’ve got in your field – but whether you grew up with your nose buried in a pony novel or you rewatched your favourite films until the tapes disintegrated, there’s probably a spot in your heart that’s reserved for fiction’s finest equines. Here are some of our favourites.
8. Sailor from Jilly Cooper’s Riders
Some people read Jilly for the men, but anyone with any sense knows that the best rides in her epic bonkbusters are the horses. Nary has any writer offered up a more delicious selection of equine characters, each with their own distinct personalities and quirks. There’s strong-willed Macaulay, who overcomes abuse to become one of the top showjumpers in the world; tiny, feisty Desdemona who leaps fences taller than her little roan withers; and the Bull, who delights in eating the fruit from the Pimms jug. But our favourite has to be Sailor, the unlikely legend whose huge heart makes up for his rather ungainly appearance. We’ll never underestimate a fleabitten grey with oversized ears, and it’s all because of him.
7. Shantih from Patricia Leitch’s Jinny of Finmory
Though they never reached the soaring popularity of, for example, the Jill series, Jinny of Finmory was the go-to horsey novel series for slightly older children with a taste for twisting, slightly esoteric plots. Set in the Scottish Highlands, they centred around the titular 12-year-old Jinny and her half wild chestnut Arab, Shantih, who she rescues from cruelty at the hands of a travelling circus. Their adventures together spanned all the usual horsey fare – training woes, first shows, and midnight adventures across the moors – and interspersed elements of folklore and mysticism in a thoroughly addictive way. Do we reckon Shantih would put us straight on the floor if we tried to ride her? Sure. Would we like to give her a go anyway? Absolutely.
6. Arizona Pie from International Velvet
For equestrians of a certain age, the words “it’s the foal!” alone will put a lump in your throat. What the sort-of sequel to National Velvet lacked in believability – we’re yet to be scouted for the British team in any 1m jumping class we’ve been to – it absolutely made up for in gooey-eyed horse madness. This is a film that will make you want to move to Devon and spend your days cantering on a deserted beach in a wax jacket and a headscarf, because in this perfect world, a good horse is definitely an acceptable substitute for the years of therapy a person would need after, like, a LOT of car-crash trauma.
5. Topside from Bonnie Bryant’s The Saddle Club
Sure, it was Carole’s Starlight who made us all think we could competently train our own youngsters when we were 11, but the lanky bay showjumper Topside truly set us to dreaming. Originally ridden by an Olympic candidate that the trio are inexplicably friends with, he’s gifted to Pine Hollow Stables after she’s badly injured in a fall. All’s well that ends well, though – the Olympian becomes one of the world’s top trainers, and 13-year-old Stevie (the best part of the Club, let’s be honest) gets to enjoy a Grand Prix horse in her weekly lessons. A realistic fantasy for us all.
4. Breehy-hinny-brinny-hooya-hah from C.S. Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy
You can keep The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe ¬¬¬– those of us with refined (read: horsey) taste knew that the underrated tale of a kid with a talking horse was the best part of the Chronicles of Narnia. An epic escape from slavery, riding lessons on the run, and a horse with many of the same personality traits as Harry Potter’s compellingly vain Gilderoy Lockhart? Sign us up – although we’re not convinced we’d like Bree’s feedback on how we ride flying changes.
3. Pilgrim from The Horse Whisperer
If you made the mistake of watching the Robert Redford film too young, you probably nursed an unreasonable fear of riding on the roads for years to come. But it’s the physical and emotional recovery process that both the striking chestnut and his teenage owner, Grace, go through that truly captivated us. While Pilgrim’s drastic transformation into a dangerous and feral rogue after his accident might be a bit beyond the realm of reality, it’s still a poignant watch – and the book by Nicholas Evans is also well worth a read, particularly as it has a completely different twist ending to the film.
2. Justa Bob from Jane Smiley’s Horse Heaven
Smiley’s sprawling ensemble novel about the US horse-racing scene is one of the most criminally underrated books out there – but if you’ve never read it, at least you’ve got the utterly enviable treat of diving into it for the first time ahead of you. There are several segments of the book that focus on its core cast of equine characters, but our favourite is Justa Bob, the little brown Thoroughbred who knows his job better than most of the inexperienced jockeys who end up on his back. Kind-hearted and jovial, he likes to tease bettors by never winning a race by more than a nose – but he’s no Derby winner, and as he ages out of allowance races, he’s passed on in low-stakes claimers like a modern-day Black Beauty. The whole book is absolutely delectable, but it’s Bob who’ll have you gobbling it down in one sitting – and then jumping online to browse for your own ex-racehorse.
1. Joey from Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse
There are so many ways to consume Morpurgo’s best-loved tale – there’s the children’s book that started it all, or the big-budget blockbuster film, but the very best of them all is the extraordinary stage show that’s travelled around the world. If you spend all your free time with real horses, it can be hard to imagine forming any kind of emotional attachment to an equine puppet – but the life-size creations for the show were so beautifully created and deftly choreographed that they became almost real. If Joey – the titular war horse – didn’t win you over with his realistic ear movements and shoulder twitches alone, his story certainly will have done. War Horse begins as a weanling Joey is sold at auction, and follows his saga as it takes him through training on the farm with young Albert and, eventually, his inevitable sale as a cavalry horse on the frontlines of World War One as Albert struggles to find him again. Honestly, we’d love to say we didn’t start crying while writing this, but that would be a rotten lie.
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6 thoughts on “Eight fictional horses we’ve always wanted to ride”
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It was always the Black Stallion for me (even though I was an eventer). Can’t believe you left out Flicka!
The Black. Period.
The Godolphin Arabian from Marguerite Henry’s book, ‘King of the Wind’ …
I used to take it out of the library, read it over and over and then take it out for the next week too …
I always wanted to ride Black Boy or Rapide from the Ruby Ferguson books about Jill and her ponies. You’ve also missed out Black beauty too.
I always wanted to ride either Arizona Pie or Black Beauty, (can’t believe he wasn’t on list). I always cry at the goal moment in International Velvet though.
I enjoyed the silver brumby books by mary patchett and fancied riding the original wild grey stallion.