Good Horse Movies

[dressagetraks]

Inspired by the Black Beauty thread in Off Topic (not recommended; the movie, not the thread).

We’ve all seen the awful, the unrealistic, the ones written by people who never were within a mile of a horse, apparently. But what are the good ones you can recommend?

My list:

The Man from Snowy River. Simply the best movie ever. It has everything: Horses, scenery, music, romance. Ah!

Phar Lap: Good and seems fairly true to life.

Champions: Again, an actual true story, not just waving at a true story from the car as the screenwriters speed by it.

The Black Beauty with Sean Bean is a good and faithful adaptation.

[Jenerationx]

Not the most realistic of course, but one of the most memorable I saw as a kid on the big screen was The Black Stallion.

[GoneAway]

If anyone likes documentaries, “Buck” (about Buck Brannaman) is probably one of the best I’ve ever seen.

[equinelibrium]

Jappeloup! It’s in French but it’s one of the best horse movies I’ve ever seen.

The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit is one of my favorites from childhood. It has the most amazing footage of old school hunters and open jumpers from the 60s. I’m pretty sure they hired actual big time riders, though I’m not sure who.

[dressagetraks]

I have seen Buck and enjoyed it. There is also a good and realistic handling, I thought, of the difficult issue of what to do with a truly dangerous horse.

[Brown_Derby]

Into The West. One of my all time favorites, not just as a horse flick.

[RhythmNCruise]

Phar Lap is my all-time favorite horse movie with The Black Stallion a very close second.
I also really like Seabiscuit.

[Old_Mac_Donald]

“Ride like a Girl” and “Kiwi” are two antipodean Melbourne Cup flicks that are A+. Ironically, Kiwi was the half brother of Our Paddy Boy, a NZ runner that placed in the Melbourne Cup and was owned/trained by the Payne family. Bringing Our Paddy Boy to Australia was the turning point for the Payne family to immigrate here, thus setting the scene for Michelle to go on to win the cup with Prince.

Ride Like A Girl - Official Trailer

1983 VRC Melbourne Cup _ Kiwi

“Of Horses and Men” is an Icelandic movie, not for the sensitive though! Dark humour.

Of Horses and Men Official US Release Trailer - Romantic Comedy HD

And OMG they ripped off “Danny”!

A Gift Horse - Official Trailer HD

[Brown_Derby]

I thought 50 to 1, about Mine That Bird, was really well done.

[Jenerationx]

@RhythmNCruise

I also really like Seabiscuit .

I forgot about that one. I really loved that too.

[Haybert]

I liked Brady’s Escape, sad, but good horse culture.

Black Stallion holds up.

Buck is good. Free if you poke around on youtube. Spanish subtitles.
(After watching Buck, you may want to watch The Horse Whisperer)

Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit has some fun history.

Snowman is good.

Disney’s “The Horsemasters” not great, but a thing the BHS used to offer. All the Disney schmaltz.

Flambards. Good luck finding it. The author wrote another book on steeplechasing. Flambards is historical fiction with a good amount of horses.

[Mulligan314]

In Pursuit of Honor - If you haven’t seen it, beware, it’s hard to watch in the beginning - I enjoyed the history though, and while there are debates on whether it’s actually based on true events, it’s still a cool story.

Wild Hearts Can’t Be Broken - and to know they were still diving a horse until the mid 90s…say what?!

National Velvet…International Velvet…

I love Secretariat. Sorry, not sorry. I get chills every time I watch it. And Seabiscuit.

Miracle of the White Stallions

not to be confused with Lightning: The White Stallion, which was terrible…but I still watched it a 100000 times…lol. Also, Is Mickey Rooney just in every horse movie ever? jk…kinda. But I love the idea that someone can go from never touching a horse to winning the super top show jumping finals in a season…on like 7 different grey horses… all within the same course. You go, girl!

I was totally unimpressed with the new Black Beauty. But it was fun saying things like, ‘Oh, that owner seems really nice…wouldn’t it be sad if he GOT SICK?!?’…2.3 seconds before the guy starts coughing.

[2DogsFarm]

@Brown_Derby

Into The West. One of my all time favorites, not just as a horse flick.

YES! X1Million!
Great movie on all accounts & no annoying horse stuff… well, maybe the horse in the elevator…

*National Velvet - Only the original & the book I can read & reread into infinity
*The Red Pony - very hard to watch scenes, but overall honest horse stuff - the novella is good too
*My Friend Flicka - the Roddy McDowell version - someday I need to read the book(s)…
*Champions
*Phar Lap
& for Best.Documentary.Ever!:
*National Geographics Ballad of the Irish Horse - there was a poster on here whose grandfather was featured in the film & bred Welsh here herself - not far from me in Peotone, IL

ETA:
Obscure French film directed by Bartabas.
Subtitled, but WHT - the horse stuff is mesmerizing.
An artist joins a circus to lean to more accurately paint horses.
Featuring a scene where a horse performs piaffe across a courtyard for what is supposed to be hours.

[GoneAway]

The Bartabas film is “Mazeppa.” Not a kid’s movie but very interesting horsemanship. The courtyard scene was not piaffe but an hour-long canter across a (relatively small) courtyard and then they cantered backward to the start.

[dressagetraks]

And while it’s not per se a horse movie, Ladyhawke is worth watching just for the scene where the good guy charges into the cathedral right as his love is being forced to marry the bad guy, and the good guy rides his magnificent Friesian all the way down the aisle to them. I could watch a Friesian prance down the aisle in a cathedral all day.

[FjordBCRF]

Holy smokes I just watched Of Horse and Men…I was NOT prepared!!! I feel like I need to learn morse code and have binoculars though…

[equinelibrium]

@2DogsFarm

@Brown_Derby

Into The West. One of my all time favorites, not just as a horse flick.

YES! X1Million!
Great movie on all accounts & no annoying horse stuff… well, maybe the horse in the elevator…

I thought of Into the West the other day when my boyfriend had to get a Coggins for his new horse. We board our horses and live in a rented condo, so the vet used our home address on the forms. It was rejected because an apartment dwelling is not a suitable home for a horse! Kinda weird since I’ve never had an issue with my horse’s Coggins, but silly nevertheless.

The scene where they force the dad to sign away the horse even though he can’t read is heartbreaking.

Update: Just watched Of Horses and Men last night. Definitely very dark comedy. I can’t say I would recommend it as a horse movie. No spoilers, but it was shocking and graphic at times. Cute Icelandic ponies though!

[seriously1]

Also - Matthew Broderick and Rutger Hauer…

[SuzieQNutter]

I saw a horse movie about a racehorse that made me cry, when I was a kid. It was in black and white. They have to get the money together to get the money to race. They get him a rooster as a companion. They also get the money together to afford the jockey. I cant say how it ends without giving it away.

I also recently saw James Morgan had a horse. A lot of yeah rights. Then the name twigged and I googled it. It is based on a true story of the Morgan breed and The Morgan Society has the movie listed on their site and say that it is a true story.

[Mulligan314]

@SuzieQNutter

James Morgan had a horse

Justin* Morgan - and, yes, based on the foundation sire of the Morgan Horse.