Horse Breeds That Look Like They Belong in a Fantasy Movie

Somewhere a costume designer is being paid to invent a horse that already exists. A golden one with a metallic coat. A black one with hair to its knees. A war horse whose ears curl together into a crown. Every breed below is real, registered and alive today, and each picture is from that breed’s own page in our encyclopedia.

1. Akhal-Teke: the golden horse

A pale cream Akhal-Teke stallion with a fine, gleaming coat standing beside his handler

The Akhal-Teke of Turkmenistan is built like a greyhound and shines like polished metal. The sheen is real: the coat catches the light so strongly that pale ones look gilded. Stands 14.2–16 hands, was bred for speed and stamina in the desert, and appears on its country’s state emblem. Cast as: the mount of the desert queen.

2. Friesian: the black steed

A jet black Friesian mare with a long mane standing over her black foal

Always black, with a high arched neck, a mane like a curtain and feathered heels. The Friesian carried armored riders in the Middle Ages and has never really stopped looking the part. If a film needs a black steed for a knight, a villain or a headless horseman, there is a fair chance it is one of these. Cast as: whatever the dark lord rides.

3. Marwari: ears like a crown

Two Marwari horses in embroidered ceremonial trappings in front of a pink sandstone palace

The Marwari of Rajasthan has ears that curve inward until the tips touch, and sometimes cross. Our breed page notes that this is taken as a sign of pure blood. It was bred as a war horse, and it is still the horse of weddings and processions, dressed for the occasion. Its neighbor the Kathiawadi has ears that curl even further. Cast as: the prince’s charger.

4. Knabstrupper: the spotted one

Head and neck of a white Knabstrupper covered in black leopard spots

A Danish warmblood wearing a Dalmatian’s coat. The Knabstrupper traces to a single spotted mare called Flaebe, bought from a butcher in the early 1800s, and carries the same spotting genes as the Appaloosa on a warmblood frame (15.1–16 hands). Cast as: the horse the heroine is told she cannot possibly ride.

5. Andalusian: the one from the tapestry

A dapple grey Andalusian with a long wavy mane standing in golden autumn woodland

The Pure Spanish Horse, with its arched neck, rounded quarters and a mane that falls in waves. For centuries the Andalusian was the horse kings were painted on, and it is an ancestor of several other breeds on this page. Cast as: every royal horse in every royal portrait.

6. Gypsy Vanner: more hair than horse

A black and white Gypsy Vanner with long white leg feathers standing by the sea

A compact cob with a double mane, a tail that sweeps the ground and feathers that hide its hooves entirely. The Vanner was bred by Traveller families to pull their painted wagons and to look splendid doing it. Some even grow a mustache (really: see hairy horses). Cast as: the enchanted forest’s resident.

7. Black Forest Horse: dark chocolate, white-gold mane

A dark chestnut Black Forest horse with a thick pale mane and tail ridden in a show ring

It comes from the actual Black Forest, which is already unfair. The Black Forest Horse is a small draft with a coat of dark chestnut and a mane and tail of pale flaxen, a color scheme nobody would believe if you painted it. Cast as: the woodcutter’s horse who turns out to be important.

8. Camargue: the white horses of the sea

A white Camargue horse standing in dark marsh grass

In the salt marshes of the Rhône delta in southern France, herds of small white horses live half wild and gallop through the shallows. Camargue foals are born dark and turn white as they grow up. Cast as: the herd that appears out of the mist.

9. Lipizzan: the horse that flies

A white Lipizzan stallion leaping clear of the ground under a spotlight

Born dark, white by maturity, and trained at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna to rear, balance and leap into the air on command. Those movements, the “airs above the ground”, are the nearest thing to a horse flying without wings. The Lipizzan stands 15–16.1 hands. Cast as: the Pegasus stand-in.

10. Kladruber: the emperor’s carriage horse

A black Kladruber and a white Kladruber standing side by side

Bred for four centuries to draw the coaches of the imperial court, in exactly two colors: white for the emperor, black for the dignitaries of the church. The Kladruber is tall (16.2–17 hands), with a noble, convex profile, and looks as though it expects a coronation. Cast as: the team pulling the royal coach.

11. Rocky Mountain Horse: chocolate and silver

A chocolate brown Rocky Mountain Horse with a pale flaxen mane grazing among wildflowers

A deep chocolate coat under a mane and tail of pale silver-blond, produced by the silver dapple gene. Despite the name the Rocky Mountain Horse comes from eastern Kentucky, and has a smooth four-beat gait to go with the looks. Cast as: the ranger’s horse.

12. Norwegian Fjord: the Viking’s horse

A cream dun Norwegian Fjord horse with a dark stripe down its back grazing on a hillside

Dun, sturdy, with a stripe down its back and a two-tone mane, pale outside and dark in the middle, traditionally trimmed so it stands up in a crest. The Fjord looks like a horse drawn by someone who had only had one described to them, in the best way. Cast as: the longship raider’s shaggy mount.

13. Icelandic: small horse, extra gears

A dark Icelandic horse standing in a meadow of yellow flowers

Thick mane, heavy forelock, enormous attitude. The Icelandic has two gaits beyond the usual walk, trot and canter, including the tölt, so smooth that riders show it off by carrying a full glass. Alone on its island for a thousand years. Cast as: the dwarf king’s war pony.

14. American Cream Draft: the pale giant

A cream American Cream Draft horse with a white mane walking through a sandy paddock

A heavy horse the color of clotted cream, with a white mane, pink skin and amber eyes. The American Cream Draft is the only draft breed developed in the United States, and one of the rarest horses in the world. Cast as: the gentle giant who carries the whole party.

15. Yakut: the frost horse

A thick-coated dun Yakut horse rimed with frost standing in deep snow

Lives outdoors in the Siberian winter, in one of the coldest inhabited regions on earth, under a coat so dense it frosts over. The Yakut is small, round and entirely unbothered. Cast as: whatever lives beyond the northern wall.

Honorable mentions

The American Curly, with a coat of ringlets.
The Shire, because a knight in full armor has to ride something (the biggest breeds).
The Falabella, for anyone casting a fairy steed at the correct scale (the smallest breeds).
Przewalski’s horse, straight off a cave wall (ancient breeds).

Build your own

If the casting department still isn’t satisfied, design a horse from scratch with our avatar generator, see what color foal two of these would produce in the foal color calculator, or ride out across the map in Open Range. And if you know a real horse that looks like it wandered off a film set, there are 977 breeds in the encyclopedia and it is probably in there.