A film lover’s guide to horses

Sallie Gardner is arguably the most important horse in the history of cinema. Photographer Eadward Muybridge’s sequential series of 24 photographs, shown in motion, depicted the moving gallop of racing mare Sallie Gardner, ridden by jockey Gilbert Domm at the Palo Alto track. Sallie Gardner at a Gallop is regarded as one of the earliest silent films and marked a breakthrough for cinema; the star is none other than a humble horse.

12-year-old Elizabeth Taylor plays a horse-obsessed teen in Clarence Brown’s Technicolour National Velvet, based on Enid Bagnold’s 1935 novel of the same name. The film charts Velvet (Taylor) as a mini horse whisperer, taming her rogue thoroughbred, The Pie (King Charles), for the Grand National. Knowing she’s the only competent rider for Pie, Velvet saddles up and disguises herself as a male jockey to compete—a horse girl’s passion knows no bounds.

Not exactly a horse, but still part of the Equus genus, the star of Au Hasard Balthazar is Balthazar, the robust donkey. Writer-director Robert Bresson’s tragic narrative follows the life of Balthazar as he’s passed between owners, adored by some and subjected to cruel mistreatment by others. Bresson’s composed frames observe Balthazar as the story’s silent narrator; simultaneously, the life of Balthazar’s loving first owner, Marie (Anne Wiazemsky), plays out with heartbreaking parallels of helplessness.

The horse is a noble symbol of endurance and strength, and it is that very spirit which lingers throughout Clint Bentley’s directorial debut. The sports drama chronicles Clifton Collins Jr. as ageing rider Jackson Silva fighting for one more championship on a promising new horse. The potential of the feisty young mare lights a fire under Jackson, acting as his source of motivation and purpose against a backdrop of troubled masculinity.

There’s a beautiful moment in Carroll Ballard’s feature directorial debut where a young boy and a jet-black Arabian stallion quietly gaze out at a picturesque ocean sunset. The peaceful tranquillity is a stark contrast to reality: young Alec (Kelly Reno) and The Black (predominantly champion stallion Cass Ole) are each other’s only hope for survival after a shipwreck left them stranded on a desert island. The bond between boy and horse transcends time and place in The Black Stallion.

Hungarian masterpiece Son of the White Mare is an unforgettable psychedelic animation. The kaleidoscopic film centres on Fanyüvő (György Cserhalmi), the titular human son of a horse, who is imbued with superpowers by the glowing mare goddess who gave birth to him, tapping into equine mythology and the Hungarian folktale of Fehérlófia. After the death of his beloved mother, Fanyüvő ventures into the Underworld to meet his brothers and reclaim their ancestors’ kingdom that has been lost to evil dragons.

The holistic approach to the human-horse bond is key to equine therapy, a perspective that underscores Western legend Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer. After a traumatising accident, teenager Grace and her horse Pilgrim attempt to heal under the watchful eye of horse whisperer Tom Booker (Redford). As the neo-western drama unfolds, it becomes clear that the key to Grace’s psychological healing is for her to get back in the saddle.

Another Hungarian gem, The Turin Horse marked the final feature from creative partners Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky. The black-and-white sombre period drama captures the daily rhythms of a farmer (János Derzsi) and his daughter (Erika Bók) over six gruelling days. Established in the opening moments, their workhorse is paramount to their operation, so when the equine grows stubborn, uncooperative and ill, the lives of these weathered humans collapse.

Writer-director Chloé Zhao’s contemporary take on the Western refigures the traditional cowboy narrative for her portrait of a young rodeo star finding his feet after a brain injury. Overlapping fact and fiction, The Rider sees Brady (real-life cowboy Brady Jandreau) determined to return to his rodeo career and the horses that offer him escapism. As he puts it: “I believe God gives each of us a purpose, for horses it’s to run across the prairie and for a cowboy it is to ride.”