Behold the Horse

Hollywood loves horses, in every form.  They love the horse that can win a race, or the horse that stands by his man until the last shot is fired.  They have given us talking horses, horses that fly, singing and dancing horses, carousel horses and horses that have broken our hearts.  They are the favorite means of transportation in an entire genre of movies, and most of the favorite film stars of the forties, fifties and sixties ended up on a horse at one time or another.   Horses are back in style on the silver screen with westerns making a come-back over the last fifteen years.  Today’s westerns are more violent and the main characters never bathe, but one thing is consistent with the early western.  The best friend of the cowboy, rancher, farmer, or settler is still the horse.  The west simply wouldn’t have been settled without them.  The four legged beasts are beautiful, noble, intelligent, usually gentle pictures of the soul of an era that was misbehaved, poorly planned and truly brutal.  When everyone else was spitting, drinking too much, gun fighting in the streets, the horse brought a grace and sureness to America’s wild picture of the west that makes us love them.  They are the spirit of what we wish we could be; strong, sleek, peaceful.  And they do talk by the way – you just have to listen really carefully.