Cinematic liberties?
Here’s a chapter-by-chapter review of the original Steinbeck series:
Nowhere is there mention of buzzards attacking Jody & I honestly don’t recall it in the movie, but… OldLady Memory :o
Also in the book they do have to kill the mare & it is considerably more graphic, so I imagine was left out of the movie for that reason.
It is really not a kids book or movie, but Steinbeck was hardly known as a kids writer.
I must have been a morbid kind of kid…
Must re-read The Red Pony because way back in the day I loved it, being perhaps not very discrimatory in my reading selection.
I read it in either my freshman or sophomore year of high school. That and Grapes of Wrath put me completely off Steinbeck. I haven’t even been able to read Travels with Charley, which I’m sure I’d like, but it’s still Steinbeck.
No, that would be Secretariat (to which it is necessary to yell F-bombs at the screen because it is soooo saccharine). I’d rather watch The Story of Seabiscuit with Shirley Temple alternating with the horse as love interest. Or Virginia’s Run, providing I could wear a straightjacket.
Yep, dystocia and the ranch hand Billy Buck caves her skull in with a sledgehammer and then basically guts her to get the foal out. At least Steinbeck let the foal survive.
I read that book at age 10 or so and it instilled a dislike of Steinbeck in me that persists to this day.
Good God, what kind of monster was Steinbeck? There’s an image no person should have to carry in their head…
And I was an English major who had to read some stuff I’d rather not remember.
Back to the movie…I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing the White Stallion, but my vote for the worst horse movie still goes to International Velvet. Lame. O.
Oh thank you I also consider International Velvet dreadful, but it comes up on lots of “recommended” horse movies lists. Even setting aside the sappy “Aunt Velvet” and the obnoxious child, the equine inaccuracies and unlikely plot points in violation of eventing rules drive me crazy. (Like you’d have the least experienced rider ride the anchor leg! Plus she was handed her whip after her fall - elimination at the time the movie was made.)
Now, now. If you judge these movies based on how many little kids saw the movie and then fell in love with horses and immediately demanded that their parents (who should have known better than to take their kids to a horse movie… any horse movie…) get them riding lessons, some of the movies redeem themselves. 
Personally, I am still waiting for Jim Craig (“Man from Snowy River”) to fall in love with me.
On the subject of Worst Horse Movies - don’t forget Moondance Alexander. A veritable who’s-who of B-listers (Don Johnson, Lori Loughlin) plus a retired figure skater (Sasha Cohen as the requisite snobby rich girl).
Riding in a hunter classic in rubber boots…yeah no.
Isn’t Moondance Alexander the one where the Paint horse colics and they don’t walk it, or “drench” it (the DIY method of old) or call a vet. The girl just sits there with the horse lying down (quietly) and Don Johnson sits in his office and drinks. Then in the morning the horse gets up and is just fine? (although the jumping sequence wasn’t too horrible. At least it was obviously the same horse and the jumps were small. The ridiculous part was the idea that it was a big championship of some sort).
I think the movie must be worse…it was honestly traumatizing at the end because I didn’t remember the end being so awful! I ordered a bunch of horse movies off eBay one day, all the ones I could remember watching as a kid. When my internet goes out due to weather or whatever I always watch them with my boyfriend and we crack up (like at the White Stallion). But The Red Pony was just awful at the end! I felt like it was bad omen having that in the house and got rid of it LOL
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