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My Favourite Horse Stories
A selection of 15 short stories about horses. These stories were compiled by Dorian Williams, a famous writer on horse, more so in Great Britian than in the United States. One of the stories included is Scene 7, Act III, of Henry V by William Shakespeare. Some of the stories are abridgements of well known whole books on horses.
Hardcover
Published January 1, 1969
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 9, 2026
This book seems to be a heavily abridged, illustrated version of William's doorstoper of an anthology, The Horseman's Companion from 1967.
Dorian Williams (1914 - 1985) was best known as "the voice of show jumping" for the BBC. He also competed in show jumping, was deeply into fox hunting, and wrote quite a few horse books, both fiction and non. Here, all he had to do was cobble together 15 pieces of writing having to do with equines, then tap out an intro for it.
Although I've read a couple of books by Williams that were pretty good, after this collection, I wonder if he actually liked horses. Almost all of the selections were about horses being killed. And this is meant for children? This is one of the worst horse anthologies I've ever read, and I've read dozens.
The illustrations, described as "line drawings" on the copyright page, were by Peter Kesteven. They're quite good -- often better than the book chapter or poem that they accompany. They appear above the selection's title.
Selections:
* "Introduction" by Our Editor. He loves horses, had fun doing this book, a bit about the authors, and so forth. There's a replica of his signature at the end.
* "Horses and People" by Monica Dickens. From Cobbler's Dream. First piece -- and we already have a horse getting shot. And a black horse named Nigger. Not an auspicious beginning.
* "The First Grand National" by Con O'Leary. From Grand National. Another horse dies in this muddled and rambling retelling of the first Grand National of 1839.
* "Act III, Scene vii" by William Shakespeare. From Henry V. Just a guy bragging about his horse, as you do.
* "Malek Adel" by Ivan Turgenev. From A Sportsman's Notebook. Translated by Charles and Natasha Hepburn. Do yourself a favor and skip this. Guy shoots his horse. What kind of sick mind lists this a favorite horse story?
* "Our Gymkhana" by Susan Chitty. From My Life and Horses. Perhaps this silly but frenetic bit of fluff was meant to be an antidote for "Malek Adel." This chapter from the book really doesn't make much sense, since it refers to events that occurred previously in the book. After three pages, I wound up just skimming this.
* "The Smuggler's Leap" by Richard Harris Barham. From The Ingoldsby Legends. Terrible rhyming poem that winds up with a dead horse.
* "Anything Long and Sharp" by Dick Francis. From Flying Finish. ANOTHER KILLING THE HORSE STORY. I'm really starting to hate Our Editor.
* "A Ride at Sandown" by John Hislop. From Far From a Gentleman. This chapter from a jockey's memoirs is about people, not about horses. It does highlight what a valet does.
* "The Zebras" by Roy Campbell. From Adamastor. Very short, overly romantic poem about a herd of zebras. The illustration was much better than the poem.
* "The Old Firm" by R. C. Lyle. From Brown Jack. This chapter is about Brown Jack's 1933 campaign, when he was 9. Amazingly, nobody dies here.
* "The Invasion" by Leo Tolstoy. From War and Peace. This is another people story, not a horse story. Horses are just part of the furniture here, suitable to be beaten when you can't beat your employer. The occasion is a wolf hunt.
* "The Donkey" by G. K. Chesterton. Very short rhymed poem told in the voice of a donkey. This poem can be found in many other, better anthologies.
* "Point-to-point" by Our Editor. From Pancho. You're better off just reading the whole book. This is when Our Editor tries to race Pancho.
* "Mr Jorrocks at Newmarket" by R. S. Surtees. From Jorrock's Jaunts and Jollilities. I absolutely despise the Jorrocks stories. They're dated, so what was funny in 1838 just isn't funny anymore. It's full of period slang and phonetic spelling of accents, with enough apostrophes to stab your eyeballs out.
* "The Haunted Hunt" by R. J. Richardson. From the novel of the same name. For this finale of stories about pointless deaths, we have a mutilated fox, a dead foxhound and, of course, a horse ridden to death. Bloody shite.
Dorian Williams (1914 - 1985) was best known as "the voice of show jumping" for the BBC. He also competed in show jumping, was deeply into fox hunting, and wrote quite a few horse books, both fiction and non. Here, all he had to do was cobble together 15 pieces of writing having to do with equines, then tap out an intro for it.
Although I've read a couple of books by Williams that were pretty good, after this collection, I wonder if he actually liked horses. Almost all of the selections were about horses being killed. And this is meant for children? This is one of the worst horse anthologies I've ever read, and I've read dozens.
The illustrations, described as "line drawings" on the copyright page, were by Peter Kesteven. They're quite good -- often better than the book chapter or poem that they accompany. They appear above the selection's title.
Selections:
* "Introduction" by Our Editor. He loves horses, had fun doing this book, a bit about the authors, and so forth. There's a replica of his signature at the end.
* "Horses and People" by Monica Dickens. From Cobbler's Dream. First piece -- and we already have a horse getting shot. And a black horse named Nigger. Not an auspicious beginning.
* "The First Grand National" by Con O'Leary. From Grand National. Another horse dies in this muddled and rambling retelling of the first Grand National of 1839.
* "Act III, Scene vii" by William Shakespeare. From Henry V. Just a guy bragging about his horse, as you do.
* "Malek Adel" by Ivan Turgenev. From A Sportsman's Notebook. Translated by Charles and Natasha Hepburn. Do yourself a favor and skip this. Guy shoots his horse. What kind of sick mind lists this a favorite horse story?
* "Our Gymkhana" by Susan Chitty. From My Life and Horses. Perhaps this silly but frenetic bit of fluff was meant to be an antidote for "Malek Adel." This chapter from the book really doesn't make much sense, since it refers to events that occurred previously in the book. After three pages, I wound up just skimming this.
* "The Smuggler's Leap" by Richard Harris Barham. From The Ingoldsby Legends. Terrible rhyming poem that winds up with a dead horse.
* "Anything Long and Sharp" by Dick Francis. From Flying Finish. ANOTHER KILLING THE HORSE STORY. I'm really starting to hate Our Editor.
* "A Ride at Sandown" by John Hislop. From Far From a Gentleman. This chapter from a jockey's memoirs is about people, not about horses. It does highlight what a valet does.
* "The Zebras" by Roy Campbell. From Adamastor. Very short, overly romantic poem about a herd of zebras. The illustration was much better than the poem.
* "The Old Firm" by R. C. Lyle. From Brown Jack. This chapter is about Brown Jack's 1933 campaign, when he was 9. Amazingly, nobody dies here.
* "The Invasion" by Leo Tolstoy. From War and Peace. This is another people story, not a horse story. Horses are just part of the furniture here, suitable to be beaten when you can't beat your employer. The occasion is a wolf hunt.
* "The Donkey" by G. K. Chesterton. Very short rhymed poem told in the voice of a donkey. This poem can be found in many other, better anthologies.
* "Point-to-point" by Our Editor. From Pancho. You're better off just reading the whole book. This is when Our Editor tries to race Pancho.
* "Mr Jorrocks at Newmarket" by R. S. Surtees. From Jorrock's Jaunts and Jollilities. I absolutely despise the Jorrocks stories. They're dated, so what was funny in 1838 just isn't funny anymore. It's full of period slang and phonetic spelling of accents, with enough apostrophes to stab your eyeballs out.
* "The Haunted Hunt" by R. J. Richardson. From the novel of the same name. For this finale of stories about pointless deaths, we have a mutilated fox, a dead foxhound and, of course, a horse ridden to death. Bloody shite.
April 28, 2013
I have to admit that I didn't read this all the way through. For a book of 'favourite horse' stories, most of them seem to end up with a horse dying, sometimes in the most horrible way. For instance, if you wanted to include a great moment from a Dick Francis book, would you choose one where the narrator has to slit a horses throat to save an aircraft? No. There were some good bits. I liked 'The Smuggler's Leap' and 'The Zebras', both poems. But with so much death included, I soon lost interest.
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