Your favourite horse poem?

[brighthair]

I can't choose between -

When all the light and life are sped
Of flowing tails and manes,
And flashing stars, and forelocks spread,
And foam-flecks on the reins;

I like to think from every land
And far beyond the wave
A crowd of ghosts will come and stand
In grief around that grave

and

The battered brigade

The mark of a stake in the shoulder,
The brand of a wall on the knee,
Are scars to the careless beholder
And blemishes. So it may be ;
But every such blemish endorses
The pluck of a steed unafraid,
And the heart of a lover of horses
Goes out to the Battered Brigade.

Their knocks have been gathered in duty,
Their scars in the front of the fray;
It isn't your cleanest-legged beauty
That's first at the end of the day.
When five foot of timber before us
Has half of the pretty ones stayed,
If you want to catch up to the chorus
Come on with the Battered Brigade

 

[spacefaer]

Ted Hughes, The Horses

I climbed through woods in the hour-before-dawn dark.
Evil air, a frost-making stillness,

Not a leaf, not a bird -
A world cast in frost. I came out above the wood

Where my breath left tortuous statues in the iron light.
But the valleys were draining the darkness

Till the moorline - blackening dregs of the brightening grey -
Halved the sky ahead. And I saw the horses:

Huge in the dense grey - ten together -
Megalith-still. They breathed, making no move,

with draped manes and tilted hind-hooves,
Making no sound.

I passed: not one snorted or jerked its head.
Grey silent fragments

Of a grey silent world.

I listened in emptiness on the moor-ridge.
The curlew's tear turned its edge on the silence.

Slowly detail leafed from the darkness. Then the sun
Orange, red, red erupted

Silently, and splitting to its core tore and flung cloud,
Shook the gulf open, showed blue,

And the big planets hanging -
I turned

Stumbling in the fever of a dream, down towards
The dark woods, from the kindling tops,

And came to the horses.
There, still they stood,
But now steaming and glistening under the flow of light,

Their draped stone manes, their tilted hind-hooves
Stirring under a thaw while all around them

The frost showed its fires. But still they made no sound.
Not one snorted or stamped,

Their hung heads patient as the horizons,
High over valleys in the red levelling rays -

In din of crowded streets, going among the years, the faces,
May I still meet my memory in so lonely a place

Between the streams and the red clouds, hearing the curlews,
Hearing the horizons endure.

 

[Storminateacup]

Tribute to the Horse
- as read at the end of the Horse of the Year Show

Where, in this wide world,
Can man find nobility without pride,
Friendship without envy,
Or beauty without vanity?

Here, where grace is laced with muscle,
And strength by gentleness confined.
He serves without servility.
He has fought without enmity.

There is nothing so powerful,
Nothing less violent.
There is nothing so quick,
Nothing more patient.

England's past has been borne on his back,
All our history is his industry.
We are his heirs,
He our inheritance.

The Horse.

 

[Nailed]

Another vote for Tribute to the horse. Beautiful.

Lou x

 

[Eira]

'Just a horse'

From time to time, people tell me,
“lighten up, it’s just a horse,”
or,”that’s a lot of money for just a horse”.
They don’t understand the distance travelled,
the time spent, or the costs involved for “just a horse.”
Some of my proudest moments have come about with “just a horse.”
Many hours have passed and my only company was “just a horse,”
but I did not once feel slighted.
Some of my saddest moments have been brought about by “just a horse,” and in those days of darkness,
the gentle touch of “just a horse” gave me comfort
and reason to overcome the day.
If you, too, think it’s “just a horse,”
then you will probably understand phrases like “just a friend,”
“just a sunrise,” or “just a promise.”

“Just a horse” brings into my life the very essence of friendship,
trust, and pure unbridled joy.
“Just a horse” brings out the compassion and patience
that make me a better person.
Because of “just a horse” I will rise early,
take long walks and look longingly to the future.
So for me and folks like me, it’s not “just a horse”
but an embodiment of all the hopes and dreams of the future,
the fond memories of the past, and the pure joy of the moment.
“Just a horse” brings out what’s good in me
and diverts my thoughts away from myself and the worries of the day.
I hope that someday they can understand that it’s not “just a horse”
but the thing that gives me humanity and keeps me from being
“just a woman.” So the next time you hear the phrase
“just a horse” just smile, because they “just” don’t understand.

 

[WelshRuby]

ISHY, did you write that? its beautiful

 

[Eira]

Gosh no

I haven't got a creative bone in my body

But the author is unknown to my knowledge so I can't tell you who wrote it !

 

[Nic]

Another vote for A tribute.

Also sad but:

I'll lend you for a little while
My grandest foal, He said.
For you to love while he's alive
And mourn for when he's dead.
It may be one or twenty years,
Or days or months, you see.
But will you, till I take him back,
Take care of him for me?
He'll bring his charms to gladden you,
And should his stay be brief
You'll have treasured memories
As solace for your grief.
I cannot promise he will stay,
Since all from earth return.
But there are lessons taught on earth
I want this foal to learn.
I've looked the wide world over
In my search for teachers true.
And from the throngs that crowd life's lanes
With trust, I have selected you.
Now will you give him your total love?
Nor think the labor vain,
Nor hate me when I come
To take him back again?
I know you'll give him tenderness
And love will bloom each day.
And for the happiness you've known
Forever grateful stay.
But should I come and call for him
Much sooner than you'd planned
You'll brave the bitter grief that comes
And someday you'll understand.

 

[brighthair]

I wanted to stay with you, my darling
And ask the Lord why
He'd taken my best horse from me
But to stay in Heaven with you
I would have to die

Sometimes I think I wouldn't mind
To spend my days with you up there
Here on Earth it's different now
The colours aren't bright any more
Just different shades of grey

I might be remembering the good times
And forgetting the bad
Either way, my beautiful boy
You brought so much to my life
But you've left me so sad

 

[Shrek-Eventing-SW]

He sat upon the galloping horse,
As fast as he could go.
His body like a question mark,
And together they began to flow.

He had to reach finish line,
In front of all the rest.
The winning post was in his sight,
He won and was the best.

Just a little poem that I made when I was 8 years old!

(edited because of a spelling mistake)

 

[WelshRuby]

I m sobbing

 

[kellyeaton]

my favourite is " may i go now" on the hoof prints to heaven website. this is my girls poem!