Ten Poems about Horses

The poems in this selection take us on an exhilarating canter through our friendships with horses. Along the way, we meet an edgy stallion waiting for his winter bale and a pony picking her way across paddocks after having her hooves trimmed:

“…she sidled through the silver air
pretending to shy at shadows
each hair of her coat
standing upright with joy.”

from ‘The Grey Pony’ by Dorothy Hewett

There are also encounters of a quieter kind – a moment lingering at a field gate as horses decide whether to come over and say hello. The poems beautifully illustrate that humans and equines are always equals. We can learn as much from them as they from us.

Alison Brackenbury is an award-winning poet who has kept and loved horses for most of her life.

Poems by Alison Brackenbury, Jane Commane, Tony Curtis, Sally Goldsmith, Adam Lindsay Gordon, Jen Hadfield, Dorothy Hewett, Geoffrey Holloway, Maxine Kumin and Robert Wrigley.

Cover illustration by Lizzie Ginbey and Barry Tottle.