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4. "The Black Stallion" (1979)

As Alec Ramsey, the shipwrecked boy who falls in love with a black Arabian stallion, Kelly Reno is one of the most interesting child actors you'll ever encounter. Freckled, serious, given to long, considering looks, he's an old soul -- and you absolutely believe in his symbiotic relationship with his well-nigh mythic steed. The long approach-avoidance dance between the two, moving from opposite ends of a curving beach, as Alec reaches out to proffer food to the skittish horse, is elegant, sensual, endearing -- and when the lost child finally takes refuge in the black's great mane as they face the setting sun, the full stop is fitting climax to a sumptuous love ballet (courtesy of master cinematographer Caleb Deschanel). Even after they're rescued, Alec retains his otherworldly intentness, looking as though he needs to study up on everything but the black horse, his anchor. The film's blissfully free of simple-minded, PC labeling: Alec's mother (Terri Garr) never calls a shrink on her equine-obsessed son, and even gravely thanks the black for saving his life. Mickey Rooney earned an Oscar nom for his turn as the old trainer who "fathers" Alec and the black through their first, triumphant race.

3. "Black Beauty" (1971 and 1994)

Of these two adaptations of Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty," avoid the 1971 version like the plague. First, it's tainted by Mark ("Oliver!") Lester, perhaps the most annoyingly mannered of all child actors. More importantly, the creature that gives its name to the film amounts to little more than a prop as we are cycled through lifeless vignettes involving a clutch of cardboard characters and plots. Passed from hand to crueler hand, the once-handsome Black Beauty -- now "a sad, old horse," dragging an overloaded wagon through the mean streets of London -- is salvaged by Anna Sewell herself. This is the kind of heartless movie that can infect a child (or an adult) with more hopelessness than is good for anyone.

But do check out Caroline Thompson's 1994 "Black Beauty," enlivened by a terrific bunch of Brit actors: Alan Cumming, as the voice of the equine hero, David Thewlis, Sean Bean, Jim Carter, Eleanor Bron and Peter Cook. Thompson makes superb use of 19th-century rural and urban landscapes, contrasting the Edenic England of the past with the bustling industrialized nation that's coming. Black Beauty, the beloved ginger mare, and the white pony pal are anthropomorphized, yes, but never cloyingly so. We're moved by Cumming's uninsistent narration of the horse's aspirations, fears and joys, and we despair as he's sold farther and farther away from home. Far more than an objectified afterthought to shallow human frets and foibles, this Black Beauty plays a crucial part in the lives of engaging, three-dimensional folk.

2. "The Golden Stallion" (1949)

In this Roy Rogers-Dale Evans (sans singing) Western, Trigger (The Smartest Horse in the Movies) falls for a palomino mare who hangs out in a herd of wild horses that ranges back and forth over the U.S.-Mexican border. Roy would like to round that herd up to save Dale's ranch, but some Bad Guys object, because they're using some of the horses as "mules" to smuggle diamonds. When one of the Black Hats turns up dead, it looks like Trigger's the killer. The camera closes on Rogers' horrified face, which then slowly hardens with terrible resolve. The designated hero of this Western franchise confesses to murder and goes to prison to save his best friend from instant execution. "The Golden Stallion" comes highly recommended by Quentin Tarantino, who rightly reads the go-the-limit bond between man and horse as authentically "powerful and unexpected." And later, director William Witney turns the traumatic birth of Trigger's golden son into a sweet, naturally mythic moment. ("Stranger at My Door," another Witney movie Tarantino touts, features a horse-on-man battle that will knock your socks off.)

1. "My Friend Flicka" (1943)

Riding on his "How Green Was My Valley" laurels of the previous year, Roddy McDowall plays the can't-do-anything-right son of a rancher (Preston Foster) who's fighting big bills during wartime. Every time dad looks at his kid, he projects profound disappointment with Ken's inability to concentrate or properly ride a horse or write a passing English composition. McDowell seems to physically wilt under his father's hurtful gaze, his face contracting into something like clinical depression. Finally granted a horse of his own -- a filly he calls Flicka or "little girl" -- the boy's personality changes overnight, and he's able to train a horse his father considered irredeemably loco. Crisis comes, as it must to every story about horse-love (and dad-son bonding): Ken is discovered unconscious and shivering, having lain beside his fevered mare in a stream all night. Will either survive? Filmed in glorious Technicolor among spectacular Utah hills and lakes, "My Friend Flicka" features a breathtaking aerial shot of a herd of wild horses flowing like bright-colored streamers across a mesa.

What is your favorite horse movie? Write us at heymsn@microsoft.com

Kathleen Murphy currently reviews films for Seattle's Queen Anne News. A frequent speaker on film, Murphy has contributed numerous essays to magazines (Film Comment, the Village Voice, Film West, Newsweek-Japan), books ("Best American Movie Writing of 1998," "Women and Cinema," "The Myth of the West") and Web sites (Amazon.com, Cinemania.com, Reel.com). Once upon a time, in another life, she wrote speeches for Bill Clinton, Jack Lemmon, Harrison Ford, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Art Garfunkel and Diana Ross.