• National Velvet – Poor Mickey Rooney so young…did he know he would be forever linked to horse movies after this? Did he know that hardly anyone would remember the rest of his career? This is the original, and I mean original Girl and her Horse movie, it invented the genre.
• The Electric Horseman – Redford, Fonda, a gorgeous horse, the very best of the Utah backcountry. Need I say more?
• Into the West – This is the horse movie hardly anyone has ever seen or heard of, that is too bad because it is probably the best one on the whole list.
• The Horse Whisperer – For extra fun you can play spot Buck Brannaman in some of Redford’s “whispering” scenes. Try not to cringe during the opening sequence that did for trail riders what Jaws did for swimmers.
• Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron – I have not actually seen this movie, but I did put enough Spirit plastic toys on ice cream cakes to know there are about 4 million six year olds out there who would want it included.
• Sylvester – Shamelessly hokey, shamelessly early 80’s, Melissa Gilbert in the spunky girl role and Richard Farnsworth in the Mickey Rooney-gruff-but- loveable-horseman role, yet another overcoming-long-odds-with-my-horse story, what’s not to love?
• The Black Stallion – I know everyone will tell you that its the first half of this movie that they found most inspiring at age 8 or 11, especially this gal: Stacy Westfall and yeah, the whole riding bareback on the beach is pretty irresistible, but personally I always found the second half a little more gratifying. Kelly Reno may have been chosen for his riding abilities, but he and Mickey Rooney are so good together, the shots of the Black running through those empty city streets are so ghostly and haunting, and the final race somehow overcomes its goofy trappings to come out quite perfect. Its really the second half of the movie that shows you why Carol Ballard directed four of my top ten movie picks.
• Dances With Wolves – I would argue that this movie is the real reason “Dun Factor Fever” hit the western US in the 90s and hasn’t quite left the horse world yet. Yes, there are Indians and a civil war and romance and some kind of history lesson and dancing wolves in here, but I think the real story here is all about Cisco. If you’ve ever driven through South Dakota and seen the highway signs every like, 12 miles advertising “the REAL Cisco from Dances With Wolves” at the next gas stop/tourist black hole only to find some buckskin nag in a corral out back, then you understand why I feel this way. Truly that horse hit some kind of nerve with the American public.
• Hidalgo and Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken – What? these movies aren’t anything alike! Well ok, but really they are…Both shamelessly, hopelessly hokey, hokey, HOKEY. Both about flawed but basically good people who have had some bad breaks overcoming long odds with the help of that one special horse that understands them better than the humans around them. Both “based on a true story” and then sanitized, glamorized, and Disney-fied to be almost unrecognizable from their much darker and more controversial roots. Do I own both of these films on DVD? You bet. Have I watched theses movies over and over to the point of memorization? Yup, and I haven’t tired of them yet.
• The Man from Snowy River – The movie inspired by a poem that inspired a TV show, a musical “arena spectacular”, an Olympic opening ceremonies, and basically an entire tourist industry in Australia…Yes, actually its that good. Personally I have always been more of a fan of Return to Snowy River – I know, I know but what is a horse crazy child of the 80’s to do? It was the first movie I ever saw in a theatre. The first. Actually, it may have been Harry and the Hendersons, but I’m not prepared to talk about that right now.
• The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit – Dean Jones, a Disney contract player from such films as The Ugly Dachshund, The Million Dollar Duck, Monkeys, Go Home! and That Darn Cat stars in….You’ve never heard of The Ugly Dachshund?! You missed Monkeys, Go Home?! You don’t know about the Million Dollar Duck?! Well that is really a sad loss for you though hardly unexpected, however if you haven’t seen That Darn Cat you are beyond help…Anyway, Dean Jones’ movie daughter wants a horse, Dad can’t afford a horse so he gets his pharmaceutical company boss to sponsor her, enter Aspercream the dapple gray show jumper, zany escapades ensue….and oh yeah, a very boyish Kurt Russell appears. This movie has the barest hints of being inspired by the real life Snowman….You don’t know Snowman?! Snowman – bought off a slaughter truck went on to win several national show jumping titles? Snowman, like the greatest Cinderella story in horse history? Ok, well if you ever spot The Horse in Gray Flannel suit jammed in the bargain rack between straight to video Barbie features and a Vin Diesel flick, its worth the $4. Trust me.
• Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers – No, this is not a movie about trolls and elves and evil wizards and walking trees. This is a movie about horses, and horse people. This is a movie about Shadowfax and….that horse that Viggo Mortensen rides. And have you seen the totally awesome extras on the expanded DVD? No I do not think its geeky to own the expanded 4 disc DVD set. If you saw it you’d wish you got to be one of those New Zealand riders who got to camp out with their horses and dress up and armor and you know, try and kill orcs and trolls, and its SO cool how they trained all these horses and how they did all the battle scenes and yeah, they sold the horses afterwards and some of the stunt people got to buy them….yes that’s right some lady OWNS Shadowfax. Oh, I bet you’d like to see all this cool stuff but you can’t borrow my DVDs now. Not after that geek comment.

My Friend Flicka – No its not on the list, because it is a good movie but a better book, and no I am not open to discussing the possibility of including the remake with Tim McGraw either.

Seabiscuit – Box office gross notwithstanding, read the book.

Black Beauty – I think there are like 14 different versions of this story on film, the reason? None of them came anywhere near the phenomenal and phenomena that was the book.

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