101 Notable Horse Quotes

compiled by About Your Horse Spirit & Freedom of the Western Outdoors Recognition of the spirit & freedom for the western-outdoor lifestyle of the Rocky Mountain region and a love of horses for which we share this wonderful land. Find western and horse theme gifts as well as easy and practical basic horse care information. www.AboutYourHorse.com

1) They say princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a prince as soon as his groom.
-- Ben Jonson

2) Each handicap is like a hurdle in a steeplechase, and when you ride up to it, if you throw your heart over, the horse will go along, too.
-- Lawrence Bixby

3) If I weren’t reasonably placid, I don’t think I could cope with this sort of life. To be a diva, you’ve got to be absolutely like a horse.
-- Joan Sutherland

4) He doth nothing but talk of his horse.
-- William Shakespeare

5) The one thing I do not want to be called is First Lady. It sounds like a saddle horse.
-- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

6) At my door the Pale Horse stands to carry me to unknown lands.
-- John Milton Hay

7) As the traveler who has lost his way, throws his reins on his horse’s neck, and trusts to the instinct of the animal to find his road, so must we do with the divine animal who carries us through this world.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

8) I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse.
-- King Charles V

9) There has to be a woman, but not much of a one. A good horse is much more important.
-- Max Brand

10) They use the snaffle and the curb all right; But where’s the bloody horse?
-- Roy Campbell

11) There is a touch of divinity even in brutes, and a special halo about a horse, that should forever exempt him from indignities.
-- Herman Melville

12) In Westerns you were permitted to kiss your horse but never your girl.
-- Gary Cooper

13) I don’t even like old cars ... I’d rather have a goddam horse. A horse is at least human, for God’s sake.
-- J. D. Salinger

14) She knew that the horse, born to serve nobly, had waited in vain for someone noble to serve. His spirit knew that nobility had gone out of men.
-- D. H. Lawrence

15) I sit astride life like a bad rider on a horse. I only owe it to the horse’s good nature that I am not thrown off at this very moment.
-- Ludwig Wittgenstein

16) Though I am an old horse, and have seen and heard a great deal, I never yet could make out why men are so fond of this sport; they often hurt themselves, often spoil good horses, and tear up the fields, and all for a hare, or a fox, or a stag, that they could get more easily some other way; but we are only horses, and don’t know.
-- Anna Sewell

17) The difference between an author and a horse is that the horse doesn’t understand the horse dealer’s language.
-- Siegfried Unseld

18) A fly, Sir, may sting a stately horse and make him wince; but one is but an insect, and the other is a horse still.
-- Samuel Johnson

19) A good seat on a horse steals away your opponent’s courage and your onlooker’s heart—what reason is there to attack? Sit like one who has conquered?
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

20) Treat a horse like a woman and a woman like a horse. And they’ll both win for you.
-- Alfred Allen Lewis

21) We judge a horse not only by its pace on a racecourse, but also by its walk, nay, when resting in its stable.
-- Michel de Montaigne

22) He has galloped through young girl's dreams, added richness to grown women's lives, and served men in war and strife.
-- Toni Robinson

23) A pony is a childhood dream; a horse is an adulthood treasure.
-- Rebecca Carroll

24) …a horse is a thing of such beauty…none will tire of looking at him as long as he displays himself in his splendor.
-- Xenophon

25) The essential joy of being with horses is that it brings us in contact with the rare elements of grace, beauty, spirit, and fire.
-- Sharon Ralls Lemon

26) It's a lot like nuts and bolts - if the rider's nuts, the horse bolts!
-- The Horse Whisperer

27) The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man
-- Winston Churchill

28) Horse thou art truly a creature without equal, for thou fliest without wings and conquerest without sword.
-- The Koran

29) A horse gallops with his lungs, perseveres with his heart, and wins with his character.
-- Tesio

30) My horses are my friends, not my slaves.
-- Reiner Klimke

31) There's nothing better for the soul of a man than the outside of a horse...
-- Ronald Reagan

32) For want of a nail a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe a horse was lost, for want of a horse a rider was lost, for want of a rider a army was lost, for want of an army a battle was lost, for want of a battle the war was lost, for want of the war the kingdom was lost, and all for the want of a little horseshoe nail.
-- Benjamin Franklin

33) Hard it is to teach the old horse to amble anew.
-- Edmund Spencer

34) Men are generally more concerned of the breeding of their horses than of their children
-- William Penn

35) There is no secret closer than what passes between a man and his horse
-- RS Surtees

36) I will not change my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns...When I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk. He trots the air, the earth sings when he touches it, the basest horn of his hoofs is more musical than the pipe of Hermes...When bestride him I soar, I am a hawk...
-- William Shakespeare

37) If your horse says no, you either asked the wrong question, or asked the question wrong.
-- Pat Parelli

38) Spending that many hours in the saddle gave a man plenty of time to think. That's why so many cowboys fancied themselves Philosophers.
-- CM Russel

39) He's the kind of horse with a far-away look. He'll sure take a man through some awful places and sometimes only one comes out.
-- WS James

40) For horses can educate through first hand, subjective, personal experiences, unlike human tutors, teachers, and professors can ever do. Horses can build character, not merely urge one to improve on it. Horses forge the mind, the character, the emotions and inner lives of humans. People can talk to one another about all these things and remain distanced and lonesome. In partnership with a horse, one is seldom lacking for thought, emotion and inspiration. One is always attended by a great companion.
-- Charles de Kunffy

41) If you desire to handle a good war-horse so as to make his action the more magnificent and striking, you must refrain from pulling at his mouth with the bit as well as from spurring and whipping him. [...] but if you teach your horse to go with a light hand on the bit, and yet to hold his head well up and to arch his neck, you will be making him do just what the animal himself glories and delights in.
-- Xenophon

42) Courage, wisdom born of insight and humility, empathy born of compassion and love, all can be bequeathed by a horse to his rider.
-- Charles de Kunffy

43) A horse 'held in shape' by his rider is only posturing in a seemingly correct form, usually for the benefit of inexperienced observers.
-- Charles de Kunffy

44) While the grass groweth the horse starveth.
-- John Heywood

45) The grey mare is the better horse.
-- John Heywood

46) A cowboy is a man with guts and a horse.
-- Will James

47) It is wonderful when one is out with these animals, how attached they become. There are times when I would walk up to my horse, that he would nicker in a low tone and rub his nose against me in a very knowing manner.
-- HS Young

48) I took to the life of a cowboy like a horse takes to oats.
-- Clinton McCoy

49) If your horse doesn't care, you shouldn't either
-- Linsy Lee

50) How the horse dominated the mind of the early races especially of the Mediterranean! You were a lord if you had a horse. Far back, far back in our dark soul the horse prances...The horse, the horse! The symbol of surging potency and power of movement, of action in man!
-- D. H. Lawrence

51) A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!
-- William Shakespeare

52) God forbid that I should go to any Heaven in which there are no horses.
-- R. Graham

53) Horses change lives. They give our young people confidence and self-esteem. They provide peace and tranquility to troubled souls
--they give us hope!


-- Toni Robinson

54) A horse gallops with its lungs, perseveres with its heart, and wins with its character.
-- Tessio

55) The horses prance and paw and neigh, fillies and colts like kittens play...
-- Oliver W. Homes

56) Dear to me is my bonnie white steed; Oft has he helped me at pinch of need.
-- Sir Walter Scott

57) A Hiberanium sage once wrote that there are three things a man never forgets: The girl of his early youth, a devoted teacher, and a great horse.
-- C. Mullen

58) There's something about the outside of a horse that's good for the inside of a man.
-- Sir Winston Churchill

59) The horse through all its trials has preserved the sweetness of paradise in its blood.
-- Johannes Jensen

60) Their horses were of great stature, strong and clean-limbed; their gray coats glistened, their long tails flowed in the wind, their manes were braided on their proud necks.
-- J.R.R. Tolkien

61) A horse is the projection of peoples' dreams about themselves-strong, powerful, beautiful-and it has the capability of giving us escape from our mundane existence.
-- Pam Brown

62) The sight of [that pony] did something to me I've never quite been able to explain. He was more than tremendous strength and speed and beauty of motion. He set me dreaming.
-- Walt Morey

63) In riding a horse we borrow freedom.
-- Helen Thomson

64) A canter is a cure for every evil.
-- Benjamin Disraeli

65) We have almost forgotten how strange a thing it is that so huge and powerful and intelligent an animal as a horse should allow another, and far more feeble animal to ride upon it's back.
-- Peter Gray

66) Far back, far back in our dark soul the horse prances...The horse, the horse! The symbol of surging potency and power of movement, of action.
-- DH Lawrence

67) We have been companions now for centuries. I rode you in the high festival to the Parthenon and to the edges of the unknown world under the Shadow of the Eagles. Together we re-took the Holy Places, endured the horrors of the crossing to Crimea. You took me to adventure and to love. We two have shared great joy and great sorrow. And now I stand at the gate of the paddock watching you run in an ecstasy of freedom, knowing you will return to stand quietly, loyally beside me.
-- Pam Brown

68) What a creature he was! Never have I felt such a horse between my knees. His great haunches gathered under him with every stride, and he shot forward ever faster and faster, stretched like a greyhound, while the wind beat in my face and whistled past my ears.
-- Arthur Conan Doyle

69) The rhythm of the ride carried them on and on, and she knew that the horse was as eager as she, as much in love with the speed and air and freedom.
-- Georgess McHargue

70) A horse loves freedom, and the weariest old work horse will roll on the ground or break into a lumbering gallop when he is turned loose into the open.
-- Gerald Raferty

71) Again the early-morning sun was generous with it's warmth. All the sounds dear to a horseman were around me-the snort of the horses as they cleared their throats, the gentle swish of their tails, the tinkle of irons as we flung the saddles over their backs-little sounds of no importance, but they stay in the unconscious library of memory.
-- Wynford Vaughan-Thomas

72) Is the music earth steals from the iron-shod feet; no whisper of lover, no trilling of bird, can stir me as much as hooves of horses have stirred.
-- Will H Ogilvie

73) If riding were all blue ribbons and bright lights, I would have quit long ago.
-- George Morris

74) If the world was truly a rational place, men would ride sidesaddle
-- Rita Mae Brown

75) Brooks too wide for our leaping, hedges far to high. Loads too heavy for our moving, burdens too cumbersome for us to bear. Distances far beyond our journeying. The horse gave us mastery.
-- Pam Brown

76) ...this most noble beast is the most beautiful, the swiftest and of the highest courage of domesticated animals. His long mane and tail adorn and beautify him. He is of a fiery temperament, but good tempered, obedient, docile and well-mannered.
-- Pedro Garcia Conde

77) Through the days of love and celebration and joy, and through the dark days of mourning-the faithful horse has been with us always.
-- Elizabeth Cotton

78) Look, what a horse should have he did not lack, Save a proud rider on his back.
-- William Shakespeare

79) Wherever man has left his footprint in the long ascent from barbarism to civilization we will find the hoofprint of the horse beside it.
-- John Trotwood Moore

80) She lifted the drooping muzzle with both hands...It was a special embrace saved for special occasions.
-- Jean M Auel

81) The horse is a creature who sacrifices his own being to exist through the will of another...he is the noble conquest of man.
-- Buffon

82) I heard a neigh, Oh, such a brisk and melodious neigh it was. My very heart leaped with the sound.
-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

83) It is the difficult horses that have the most to give you.
-- Lendon Gray

84) Of all creatures God made at the Creation, there is none more excellent, or so much to be respected as a horse.
-- Bedouin Legend

85) You cannot train a horse with shouts and expect it to obey a whisper.
-- Dagobert D. Runes

86) Every time you ride, you’re either teaching or un-teaching your horse.
-- Gordon Wright

87) If anybody expects to calm a horse down by tiring him out with riding swiftly and far, his supposition is the reverse of the truth.
-- Xenophon

88) One reason why birds and horses are happy is because they are not trying to impress other birds and horses.
-- Dale Carnegie

89) There are only two emotions that belong in the saddle; one is a sense of humor and the other is patience.
-- John Lyons

90) Horses are the dolphins of the plains, the spirits of the wind; yet we sit astride them for the sake of being well-groomed, whereas they could have all the desire in the world to bolt, but instead, they adjust their speed and grace, only to please us, never to displease.
-- Lauren Salerno

91) A polo handicap is a persons ticket to the world.
-- Sir Winston Churchill

92) A horse doesn't care how much you know until he knows how much you care.
-- Pat Parelli

93) There is something about jumping a horse over a fence, something that makes you feel good. Perhaps it's the risk, the gamble. In any event, it's a thing I need.
-- William Faulkner

94) An old horse knows the road.
-- Chinese Proverb

95) In training horses, one trains himself
-- Antoine De Pluvinet

96) It excites me that no matter how much machinery replaces the horse, the work it can do is still measured in horsepower…even in this space age. And although a riding horse often weighs half a ton, and a big drafter a full ton, either can be led about by a piece of string if he has been wisely trained. This to me is a constant source of wonder, and challenge.
-- Marguret Henry

97) He has known joy and violence. Felt the warmth of children and the cruelty of abuse. He has nearly died saving lives and merely been killed by a drunken act. He has known the finery of grand estates and the filth of stinking slums. He has survived fire and flood, starvation and torment. And nothing could break his spirit-or his great love. This is HIS life. He is called the horse.
-- Anna Sewell

98) Be wary of the horse with a sense of humor.
-- Pam Brown

99) When riding a horse we leave our fear, troubles, and sadness behind on the ground.
-- Juli Carlson

100) There is nothing like a rattling ride for curing melancholy!
-- Pared

101) Riders who force their horses by the use of the whip only increase their fear for they then associate the pain with the things that frightens them.
-- Xenophon