War Horse

Albert is Joey’s very first owner and his best friend. Albert first meets Joey when they are both young and fiery, and the two grow up together on Albert’s farm. From the very beginning, Joey knows that, in Albert, he has “found a friend for life, that there [is] an immediate bond of trust and affection between [them]" (7). The two seem to understand one another from the start, and though Joey has many owners in his life, Albert is his only master.

Though Albert is kind and gentle by nature, he proves he is willing to be stern with those he loves when necessary. When Albert is faced with losing Joey if he can’t train the horse to work in a week, he becomes “a different Albert. […] His voice [has] a harshness and a sharpness to it that [won’t] tolerate any refusal on [Joey’s] part” (14). The prospect of being separated from his dearest friend stirs up a fighting spirit in Albert, and he will do anything it takes to protect those he loves.

When war looms on the horizon, Albert expresses his desire to join and fight. He feels that he and Joey would make a courageous pair of soldiers but knows he is too young to join. However, this doesn’t stop him from trying to sign up for the cavalry when Joey is sold to Captain Nicholls. Nicholls says, “I like your spirit, so when you’re old enough, you must come and join the cavalry. We need men like you” (29). Albert is then forced to say goodbye but promises Joey he will find him again one day.

Albert proves to be good for his word. Years later, Albert has joined the cavalry and devotes his time to the war horses in the hopes of finding Joey again. He never gives up, even when “everyone thinks [Albert will] never find him” (127). Even after they are reunited, Albert never stops fighting for Joey. He pleads for Major Martin to treat Joey’s tetanus and rallies his friends to raise money and bid on Joey when he’s up for auction. When Grandfather wins Joey in the auction, Albert refuses to leave until he can at least try to win Joey back. In the end, Albert’s loyalty wins out, and he finally has a peaceful life back home on the farm.

Topthorn is first introduced in the novel when Joey is sold to Captain Nicholls by Albert’s father. The “tall, shining black stallion” (38) initially belongs to Captain Jamie Stewart, Nicholls’s best friend. He is “half a hand or more taller than [Joey], a huge sleek horse that held his head with majestic dignity” (39). He is the only horse that can match Joey for strength. While the two are initially competitive, it is never because they feel threatened by each other. They hold each other up and soon develop a great friendship that mirrors their owners’.

Topthorn’s constant presence makes the war more bearable for Joey. When Joey is first around gunfire and begins to have nightmares, he wakes to find “Topthorn [is] always by [him] and would breathe his courage into [Joey] to support [him]” (44). He always puts Joey first, which is notably seen whenever the horses stop for water. Each time, Topthorn dips his head into the cool water and then shakes the droplets off so that they cool Joey’s neck and face. He is simultaneously strong and caring.

Throughout the war, Topthorn continues to be admired as a particularly beautiful horse. Rudi, one of the young soldiers, describes Topthorn’s fine physical traits: “He has the head of an Arabian. You can see the speed of an English Thoroughbred in his legs and the strength of a Hanoverian in his back and in his neck. He has the best of everything” (99-100). However, the harsh conditions of the war eventually take their toll on even the finest horses. Topthorn dies of heart failure, and his death leaves Joey alone for the first time since the two became friends.

Father is Joey’s first owner and the one who takes him away from his mother at the novel's beginning. When first introduced, he is a violent and drunken man who only bought Joey out of spite. However, he does “not turn out the be the monster [Joey] had expected. […] From time to time he could even be quite friendly, but [Joey is] never quite able to trust him, not after [their] first encounter” (9). Joey is still cautious around Father, especially on Tuesdays, when he “could still be relied upon to get drunk” (9). These Tuesdays are the worst for everyone on the farm. He is cruel to his family and the animals and becomes negligent in his work as a farmer.

Father is prone to prideful boasting when drunk, leading to him making a bet that he can tame Joey in a week. When Father fails to tame Joey himself, he vows that he will sell the horse if Albert can’t win the bet for him. Once the bet is won, Albert tells Joey, “My father is a man of his word. You can be sure of that—as long as he’s sober” (15). Despite his flaws, Albert knows that Father keeps his promises.

Mother does her best to help Albert understand why Father acts as he does. Most of the stress and pressure Father feels, which pushes him to drink, is related to money. Mother explains that Father mortgaged the farm years ago so that Albert could take over, but now the financing on the mortgage is a constant strain on their lives. This is proven when Father sneaks Joey away in the middle of the night to sell him. He tells Captain Nicholls to take care of the horse since Albert loves him so much. As he is saying goodbye, Father “reache[s] out and brushe[s Joey’s] nose with his hand. There [are] tears filling his eyes” (27). Father feels remorseful about having to sell Joey, but he needs the money.

Father doesn’t make another appearance in the novel until the end when Albert mentions him. He tells Joey that, after he was sold, Father became a different man. Albert says. “He knew he’d done wrong and that seemed to take all the nastiness out of him. He seemed to live only to make up for what he’d done” (133). After that, Father stopped drinking and treated Mother and Albert both with more kindness. Years later, after Albert returns with Joey from the war, Father “dote[s] on [Joey] almost as much as his own grandchildren” (165). In the end, Father proves to be the man Mother always knew he was, and Albert always hoped he was.

Joey first becomes a war horse when he is sold to a British soldier, Captain Nicholls. Captain Nicholls is “tall and elegant in his jodhpurs and military belt, with a silver sword at his side” (24). Though he is initially nervous about his new owner, Joey finds that “his hand and his voice [are] kind, and [Joey does] not shrink away from him” (25). As the two spend time together, Joey becomes quite fond of Captain Nicholls.

Nicholls is equally taken with Joey spending a great deal of time talking to the horse while he sketches. He tells Joey that when he’s finished with the painting, he’ll send it to Albert as a reminder of his promise to take care of Joey. During these intimate meetings, Captain Nicholls tells Joey they are very similar: Neither of them wants to be there, and neither has ever been in a war. Captain Nicholls tells Joey, “I’m frightened as hell, so you’d better have enough courage for the two of us” (34). He is concerned that the cavalry will never stand a chance against the new military weapons, such as machine guns and tanks.

Joey’s time with Captain Nicholls is short-lived because the soldier is struck down in his very first battle. For Joey, the loss of Nicholls is a “great and terrible sadness […] for he had been a kind and gentle man and had cared for me well, as he had promised” (47). Once Topthorn and Joey make it out of the battle safely, Nicholls’s best friend, Captain Jamie Stewart, tells Joey that Captain Nicholls would have been proud of him. This gives Joey some comfort, and he carries the memories of Captain Nicholls with him throughout the war.

After Captain Nicholls is killed, Captain Stewart places Joey in the care of Trooper Warren. Joey is frustrated with Trooper Warren’s riding, as he is “not a good horseman […] But once out of the saddle, he [is] the gentlest of men” (50). Trooper Warren admits that he never believed he would be able to ride on a horse again after his previous horse was shot down from under him. Joey helps Trooper Warren, who grew up with horses in his father’s blacksmith shop, regain his confidence and feel comfortable riding a horse again.

Trooper Warren did not wish to join the cavalry, but he had no choice because of his father’s obligation to the local squire. This is one other example of how class affected soldiers during the war and how the choice to fight or not was not a right but a privilege.

Warren is a family-oriented young man. He cherishes the letters he receives from his mother back home and tells Joey about his childhood sweetheart, Sally. The author uses these relationships to demonstrate that each soldier had a life they longed to return to after the war. The specific details of these fictional families make the tragedies of the real lives lost in World War I so much more heartbreaking.

The last time Trooper Warren is mentioned in the novel is when the Germans capture him and Captain Stewart as prisoners of war. It is unclear whether they survive, but it is comforting that the two of them have each other. 

Another person who cares for Joey and Topthorn is Friedrich, an older German soldier who is “thought to be crazy because he talk[s] continuously to himself” (96). Friedrich is very kind to the horses and always willing to complete tasks others don’t want to do. Joey and Topthorn quickly realize that “Friedrich [is] not in the slightest bit crazy, but simply a kind and gentle man whose whole nature cried out against fighting a war” (96). Like so many of the other men Joey encounters in the novel, Friedrich does not want to be on the battlefield. The only thing preventing him from running away from the war is the shame he would bring to his family.

Friedrich is teased for speaking and laughing to himself, but “he talk[s] to himself because he [feels] that he [is] the only one who [understands] himself or [will] even listen to what he was saying” (97). Once again, Joey provides a listening ear to someone who needs it most. Friedrich begins to talk to Joey and Topthorn and regards them as some of his closest friends. Friedrich admires Topthorn and will “often stand back and simply gaze at Topthorn with love and glowing admiration in his eyes” (98). The two of them seem to understand each other. From that moment on, the two never part ways, even in death. When Topthorn dies, Friedrich is killed trying to save Joey, who will not leave Topthorn’s side.

Emilie is the 13-year-old girl who lives on the farm in France where the German troops have set up their hospital. While Joey and Topthorn are in charge of pulling carts to retrieve the wounded from the front lines, they are housed in Emilie’s barn. From the minute they meet, Joey is taken with young Emilie. She is described as a “tiny, frail creature” (73) but is as much of a dreamer and as spirited as Albert. She is special to the horses, and “she [spends] every minute she [can] with [them] and lavishe[s them] with her affection” (74). Her comforting nature makes those days pulling the wounded more bearable.

At one point, Emilie falls gravely ill. While she survives, she never fully recovers and is left with a severe cough and much weaker than before she got sick. This doesn’t slow her down from visiting and riding the horses. Her loyalty is steadfast to the end. At the end of the novel, when Grandfather finds Joey again, it is revealed that her dying wish was that he find the horses and make sure they are cared for. Grandfather assures that Emilie “live[s] on in people’s hearts” (163) by asking Albert, to whom he sells Joey, to tell his friends and family about Emilie.