The Best Horse Movies to Watch This Holiday Season
If you only watch one, make it The Black Stallion: it works for a six-year-old, a grandparent and the relative who claims not to like horse films. For everyone else, here are eighteen films sorted by who is on the sofa, drawn from the decade-by-decade lists in our horse movie library.
A warning that applies to the whole genre: horse films are fond of a sad ending and fonder still of a frightening middle. Where a film is likely to upset small children or anyone who has recently lost a horse, we say so.
For the Whole Family
The Black Stallion (1979)
A boy and an Arabian stallion survive a shipwreck and learn to trust each other on an empty island, in a long stretch of film with barely a word spoken. Then they go racing. Carroll Ballard directed, from Walter Farley’s 1941 novel; Mickey Rooney plays the old trainer and the horse is an Arabian called Cass Ole. Suits: everybody.
National Velvet (1944)
Velvet Brown wins a horse in a village raffle and decides he is going to run in the Grand National, with her in the saddle. A very young Elizabeth Taylor stars opposite Mickey Rooney, from Enid Bagnold’s 1935 novel. It is in the US National Film Registry and has aged far better than most films of its day. Suits: families, and anyone who was once a horse-mad girl.
Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)
An animated western about a Kiger mustang who is captured by the cavalry and refuses to be broken. The horses do not talk; they behave like horses, with a narrator filling in. It was nominated for the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Suits: younger children, and adults who will pretend they are only watching for the children.
Dreamer (2005)
A trainer down on his luck and his daughter take on a filly with a broken leg that everyone else has written off. Kurt Russell and Dakota Fanning star, and the story was inspired by a real racehorse, Mariah’s Storm. Gentle, sincere and safe for all ages. Suits: families with children of about six and up.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022)
A hand-drawn short film from Charlie Mackesy’s picture book, in which four unlikely friends cross a snowy landscape looking for the boy’s home. It first aired in Britain on Christmas Eve 2022 and went on to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Suits: the very young, the very tired, and Christmas Eve.
Bush Christmas (1983)
The one film here that is actually set at Christmas, though an Australian one, so expect heat and dust instead of snow. A family’s horse is stolen just before the race that could save their farm, and the children set off across the bush to get him back. It was Nicole Kidman’s first feature film. Suits: families who have seen all the others.
Proper Weepies
Have tissues within reach. None of these is suitable for a child who cries when a cartoon dog looks sad.
War Horse (2011)
Steven Spielberg’s film of Michael Morpurgo’s novel follows Joey, a farm horse sold to the army in 1914, from Devon to the Western Front and through the hands of soldiers on both sides. It earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. The war scenes are intense. Suits: teenagers and adults; not small children.
Black Beauty (1994)
Anna Sewell’s 1877 novel, told as she wrote it: by the horse. Beauty narrates his own life as he passes from kind owners to careless ones and on to the London cab trade. Caroline Thompson wrote and directed. You can read the whole book here afterwards. Suits: older children and adults; it is sad in places and meant to be.
Phar Lap (1983)
The Australian film about the big chestnut who became a national hero during the Depression, and the strapper who loved him. Tom Burlinson plays the groom. It follows history, and history did not give Phar Lap a happy ending. Suits: racing fans and anyone who likes a good cry.
True Stories That End Well
Seabiscuit (2003)
An undersized racehorse, a half-blind jockey, a silent trainer and an owner starting over, all put back together by one another in the 1930s. Based on Laura Hillenbrand’s book, with Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges and Chris Cooper. Seven Oscar nominations. Suits: adults and teenagers; the best grown-up crowd-pleaser on the list.
Secretariat (2010)
Diane Lane plays Penny Chenery, who took over her father’s stable and campaigned the colt who won the 1973 Triple Crown, the first in 25 years. You know how it ends and it does not matter. Suits: the whole family, and anyone who needs cheering up.
Dream Horse (2020)
A barmaid in a Welsh village talks her neighbours into putting in a few pounds a week to breed a racehorse. The horse, Dream Alliance, was real, and so was the syndicate. Toni Collette and Damian Lewis star. Warm, funny and free of villains. Suits: everyone; ideal for the flat days after Christmas.
Classics
White Mane (1953)
Albert Lamorisse’s short black-and-white film about a boy and a wild white stallion in the marshes of the Camargue. It won the top short-film prize at Cannes, runs well under an hour and has very little dialogue, so the language barrier barely matters. It was filmed on location in the home of the Camargue horse. Suits: film lovers and patient children. The ending is open to interpretation; be ready to discuss it.
Miracle of the White Stallions (1963)
Disney’s account of how the Lipizzaners of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna were brought through the last days of the Second World War, with Robert Taylor as the school’s director, Alois Podhajsky. Stately by modern standards, but the riding is the real thing. Suits: dressage people and history buffs.
The Man from Snowy River (1982)
Banjo Paterson’s poem turned into an Australian western, with Tom Burlinson as the mountain boy, Sigrid Thornton as the station owner’s daughter and Kirk Douglas playing two brothers. The ride down the mountainside is still one of the great pieces of riding on film. Suits: families, romantics and anyone who has not seen that ride.
After the Children Are in Bed
Buck (2011)
A documentary about the horseman Buck Brannaman, his clinics and the hard childhood behind his quiet way with horses. It is the most useful film here for anyone who actually handles horses, and one of the most moving. Suits: adults, and teenagers who ride.
The Horse Whisperer (1998)
Robert Redford directs and stars as the Montana horseman asked to mend a traumatised horse and the girl who was riding him, played by a young Scarlett Johansson. It is long and unhurried, and the accident at the start is hard to watch. Suits: adults with a free evening.
Hidalgo (2004)
Viggo Mortensen and a pinto mustang take on a desert endurance race against the finest Arabians in the world. The film is based on the legend of the rider Frank Hopkins, and legend is the right word, so enjoy it as an adventure, not a history lesson. Suits: teenagers and adults who want galloping rather than crying.
A Quick Guide
| If you want… | Watch |
|---|---|
| One film everyone will sit through | The Black Stallion |
| Something for small children | Spirit, or The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse |
| A good cry | War Horse or Black Beauty |
| To feel better about the world | Dream Horse or Secretariat |
| Something actually Christmassy | Bush Christmas |
| To learn something about horses | Buck |
Keep Going
There are well over a hundred more films in our lists, one page per decade: the 2020s, 2010s, 2000s, 1990s, 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s and 1940s. If you prefer fact to fiction, try our list of horse documentaries, and if you want an argument, we once picked the coolest horse moments on film.
Where to watch changes from month to month and country to country, so we have not listed streaming services. Search the title on whichever ones you already pay for before renting.