Monday, March 31, 2008

Horse Movies

I do two blogs and sometimes it’s hard to come up with what I want to say. Face it, it’s hard to always be sorta interesting and get readers to not only enjoy the blog but also want to pick up your book(s). What makes this blog fun to write is that the writers here can gear it towards our passions and pretty much trust than anyone visiting is coming here to read a tidbit or two about horses.

I typically don’t have a plan for the blogs, and it worked the same way today. I started with a question, just like I do when I begin writing a new book. My book question is always: What if…. For today’s blog, I thought about what do horse people love as far as entertainment goes, and guess what—duh—we love the same thing in our entertainment as we love in our world—HORSES! There are some great books out there that incorporate the horse world, and I personally am going to toot the Equestrian Ink authors here, and say that we are some of the very best. But not only do we as horse people love to read about our worlds, they love to watch them, and that started me thinking about great horse movies.

I remember my first horse movie. I was ten-years-old or so, and my mom took me and another friend to see International Velvet with Tatum O’Neil. I loved this movie, and it actually started me on my first horse book, which turned out to be about sixty hand written pages in a notebook about a girl who had lost her parents and went to live with her aunt on a ranch and fell in love with the horse world and her major goal was to become and Olympic champion (I know it sounds just like the movie, but come on—I was ten). I still love this movie and was delighted to see my daughter watching it the other day. I bought it for her for Christmas along with National Velvet, which of course is such an all time classic—no horse lover should be without.

How about The Black Stallion? Has there ever been such rich and beautiful cinematography? I wanted to be Alec Ramsey so badly and ride that amazing animal. That movie would still bring tears to my eyes. Not only did I love the movie but read every Walter Farley book I could get my hands on growing up. Ah—those were the days.

We recently watched the updated version of My Friend Flicka, which made both my daughter and me cry. We saw it at the theater and then when it came out had to go and get a copy.

Has anyone seen Back to the West (think that’s what it’s called)—about the Irish gypsies and the kids who is fortunate enough to have a magical horse enter their lives? This movie was amazing in scenery and the love the boys felt for the horse is exactly the same type of love most all horse people I know feel toward the animal. If you have not watched this movie (it was made in the early nineties) then do so. You will not be disappointed.

And, who can forget The Horse Whisperer? Okay, there is something extra special when you combine Robert Redford and horses!

There are so many wonderful horse related movies out there that I can’t think of them all, but I’d love to hear from all of you so I can add to my list. Tell us your favorites and why.

Have a wonderful week.

Cheers,
Michele
www.michelescott.com
www.cozychicks.com
www.equestrianink.blogspot.com

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

That great blog about equestrian

Jami Davenport said...

How about Seabiscuit, though I liked the book better, it was still a good movie.

Unknown said...

Here's a blast from the past. The old Disney movie "Miracle of the White Stallions."

Jan Scarbrough said...

I was flipping channels this weekend and saw a special on KET about arabian horses. I learned that there's a Black Stallion literacy program. http://www.bslp.org/ The kids read The Little Black Pony and then went to a horse farm to see the "charcters" from the book.

I was going to mention Seabiscuit too. But for TV - what about Fury? (an American Saddlebred) Mr. Ed (another American Saddlebred) and of course Trigger and Buttermilk, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans horses. Oops! I'm telling my age!

Anonymous said...

Into The West, with the Irish magical horse and gypsies has always been a favorite in my house.

Natalie Keller Reinert said...

I think the only horse movie I've ever really loved was Seabiscuit. They did an amazing job with that film. Now if you're going to talk equestrian CO-STARS I can think of a few awesome films... The Lord of the Rings trilogy comes to mind, as does Ladyhawke!