War Horse

Two nervous German soldiers lead Joey and Topthorn down the green valley to a field hospital. Joey feels hungry, thirsty, and angry, and he flicks his tail impatiently while a knot of wounded soldiers gathers around to admire the horses. Then a tall, commanding man with bandages on his head and leg emerges from the hospital tent. At once the troops snap to attention. The man (soon identified as Herr Hauptmann) looks with admiration on the two horses, then he speaks to the troops. He praises the animals for their bravery, calling them heroes. It’s not their fault they were sent on a fool’s errand. He orders men with less severe injuries to immediately tend to their needs. The men seem inexperienced in caring for horses, but that doesn’t make Joey any less grateful for their attention.

Herr Hauptmann supervises this work until the field doctor emerges from the tent to tell him that headquarters has ordered him to claim them as stretcher horses. Hauptmann, himself a cavalry officer, vehemently objects to such noble animals being reduced to draft work. The doctor, unintimidated, points out that neither side will likely be using their cavalry against machine guns and barbed wire for much longer. Besides, the lives of medical attention can save the lives of injured German and British soldiers. Hauptmann reluctantly agrees, but he insists that men who understand and can appreciate the horses’ value handle Joey and Topthorn. Because the doctor has no such men, he asks if Hauptmann can hitch the horses to carts and play ambulance driver, at least until the next ambulance convoy arrives to transport him—and the rest of the injured—away from the front lines.

Despite his own injuries, Herr Hauptmann helps two medical orderlies hitch the horses up to carts borrowed from a nearby farmer and begins to lead them through the field of strewn bodies. Joey finally has an opportunity to offer comfort and reassurance to Topthorn, who feels agitated by the novel experience of pulling a cart. Hauptmann takes it as a sign of British insanity that someone would have trained Joey, clearly a riding horse, for draft work. He tells Joey that the war will show whether the British or the Germans are crazier. All afternoon, Joey and Topthorn haul the bodies of injured soldiers to the field hospital as each side “hurl[s] their men at one another across no-man’s-land.”

As night falls, Herr Hauptmann climbs into an ambulance to be taken away from the front lines, and the doctor tells the orderlies to see that Joey and Topthorn get the best care. They put the horses in a nearby barn. It’s the first time Joey and Topthorn have had shelter since going to war. After a meal of refreshing water and delicious hay, Joey drowses in the stall. Suddenly, the door creaks open and a lantern illuminates the barn. Momentarily caught in a memory of the farmer and the danger he represented, Joey scrambles to his feet. But then he hears the gentle voice of a young girl (later identified as Emilie), speaking to her grandfather. She admires the horses and asks if she can keep them as her own.