War Horse

Joey and Topthorn are continually regarded as heroes as they pull more and more wounded soldiers home from the field. The soldiers repeatedly thank the horses for their help, and one even awards them with an Iron Cross, which they hang “on a nail outside [their] stable door” (72). The soldiers often visit the horses, bringing them treats of sugar cubes or apples and showering them with praise.

Each evening, they return to the stable and little Emilie and her grandfather, who live on the French farm where the German Army has made camp. Emilie cares for the horses as if they are her own. She is “a tiny, frail creature, but [leads them] about the farm with complete confidence” (73) as she talks to them about her day and how proud she is of them. Emilie dreams of riding both horses when she’s older, assuring them that they would “never want for anything if they would stay with her forever” (74). Joey grows to love Emilie, who spends every spare moment with him and Topthorn.

Then, one evening, Emilie is not there when the horses return from their day’s work. Instead, her grandfather puts them in their stable solemnly and silently. Later that night, he returns to tell them Emilie has fallen ill and may not survive the night. Grandfather tells the horses that she prays every night for them, her dead parents and brother (who were victims of the war), and for the war to pass. That night, though, he pleads with the horses: “If you can understand anything of what I said, then pray for her to whatever horse god you pray to—pray for her like she does for you” (76).

The next morning, there is no sign of Emilie as the horses make their daily trek to the front lines. One of the soldiers remembers that “it [is] Christmas morning, and they [sing] slow, tuneful carols all the way back” (77). When they return, the shelling stops and the starry night is still for once. Grandfather greets them with more mash and hay and water than usual. He thanks them for praying for Emilie, for she has awakened and is on the mend.

All is well on the farm for a while, “for the war suddenly move[s] away from [them] that spring” (79). Emilie is still weak from her illness and prone to violent coughing fits. Nonetheless, she begins to ride the horses. She primarily rides Joey and “[sits] astride [Joey] not as [his] mistress, but rather as a friend” (80), while Topthorn walks along contentedly by their side.

One day they return to the farm to find the orderlies from the hospital camp talking to Grandfather. The Germans agree to let Joey and Topthorn stay on the farm as payment for their help during the winter. The Germans bid the horses a tearful goodbye, and then, to Joey’s “great delight, [he finds] himself once more a farm horse” (81). He and Topthorn, who adjusts to his new role surprisingly well, begin to work the very next day with Grandfather. Emilie worries they are being worked too hard, but Grandfather puts her at ease. They are born to work and love it, he tells her. It is true: for Joey, “it was a dream [he] had dreamed many times since [he] left the farm in Devon” (82). Life with Emilie and Grandfather is almost like being back with Albert—a good peaceful life with good peaceful people.

Sadly, “the return to the peaceful life of a farm horse [does] not last long, not in the middle of that war” (83). A new group of German soldiers visits the farm and stays the night, but they are quite different from the kind soldiers that worked the hospital: “[T]heir faces [are] strange and harsh, and there [is] a new alarm and urgency in their eyes” (83). They stay the night at the farm, and the next morning, they demand Grandfather turn over the horses to them. Grandfather tries to resist, but the Germans are relentless.

Emilie tries to bravely say goodbye to Joey and Topthorn, but she cannot stop a few tears from coming. She pleads with them to come back to her one day. When she leads them out of the stable, she tells the Germans that she is only lending the horses to them, but they belong to her. She insists they take care of the horses and return them to her after the war. Once again, Joey is taken away from his beloved farm. However, he is grateful that he isn’t alone and has Topthorn for company this time.

What Joey and Topthorn have to endure next is some of the harshest conditions of the war so far. Without the comfort of Emilie and a stable to sleep in each night, the work feels longer and harder than before. The men aren’t afraid to use a whip to urge the horses through the mud with the guns. Joey feels that “[i]t was not that they were cruel men, but just that they seemed to be driven now by a fearful compulsion that left no room and no time for pleasantness or consideration for each other or for [the horses]” (88).

Aside from Joey and Topthorn, there are four other horses on the team: Heinie is the only one who “[has] the height and strength to pull as a gun horse should” (88), who leads the team alongside Topthorn. Next to Joey is a “whin, wiry little horse they called Coco” (88), and behind them is a “perfectly matched pair of smaller dun-colored ponies” (88). The team soon begins to show signs of malnourishment and fatigue as they trudge through the mud. They deteriorate quickly, first Heinie, then the others. One by one, “there [is] not a horse in the team that [is] not walking lame.

Heine and Coco don’t survive that winter, and Joey soon notices that Topthorn is also starting to fade. Joey picks up the slack on the gun in an attempt to lessen the load for Topthorn. He worries over his friend as he tries to comfort Topthorn at night when his coughing fits shake him from sleep. He “console[s himself] with the thought that no horse I had ever seen had the power and stamina of Topthorn” (92). The vet deems him fit to go on pulling the gun but warns the Major to go easy on him.