by Rachel Stibi

Created on: February 05, 2007   Last Updated: August 31, 2008

Animated, live action, true story, or fictional account, horses are magical creatures and film captures their beauty in a way that no other art form can. With their grace of movement and endearing spirit they have always been a favorite among filmmakers. Listed here are three picks for some of the best horse movies ever.

The Black Stallion

One of the best live action movies about a horse that has ever been made is The Black Stallion. Kelly Reno stars in the adaptation of the Walter Farley novel about a young boy who experiences the loss of his father and at the same time gains the greatest friend he will ever have.

The story is quite simple, young Alec Ramsey is lost at sea when his passenger ship sinks in the Mediterranean, with his father dead, his only salvation is a giant black stallion. In the water as the ship is sinking Alec saves the stallion from the confines of a harness that threatens to drown him, when the horse swims to the nearest land Alec holds on to him, and in turn they end up saving each other. Stranded on a deserted island with the stallion, they survive together, eat together, play together, and end up making a making a bond that will last a lifetime.

When Alec is finally rescued from the island he takes the stallion home with him, but problems arise when the horse is put up in the yard, in a residential neighborhood, and he ends up breaking free and running away. When Alec finds him he is locked in a strange barn and Alec meets Henry, a former jockey that sheltered the stallion in the night. He knows the black', as Alec calls him, is special, a born and bred racer, and with Alec's help he wants to prove that he is the fastest horse in the world.

Besides the wonderfully endearing story of a boy and his horse, there are stellar performances given by both Terri Garr as Mrs. Ramsey, and Kelly Reno as Alec, and Mickey Rooney's brilliant performance garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The Black Stallion was also nominated for film editing that year and was the winner of a special award in the area of sound editing. The sound of the horse during the racing is so real because the sound was captured in a way that had never been done before, by putting the microphones on the running horse, this editing technique has now been used to capture other horses on film and is now an industry standard.

Beautifully directed by Carroll Ballard and produced by Francis Ford Copolla, this film has some of the most beautiful scenes where

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