WAR HORSE

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 1.
Our narrator begins the story by telling us of his early childhood: being raised in a barn, sleeping with rats,
and being sold at six months old. Man, rough life. What is this, a Charles Dickens novel?
Plus, he describes his mother as "a fine, working farm horse." (2.1) She might not be very attractive, but
that's a little harsh, dude.
Wait, what's that? Oh, the narrator of this book is a horse. He's not a person. Got it. Now it all makes sense.
Moving on...
Some nasty drunk men purchase our little pony and take him away from his mother. He tries to fight them,
but he's outnumbered.
They take him to their farm and toss him into a stable with a nice old mare named Zoey.
After the drunks leave, two people, a boy named Albert and his mother, come to the barn to check out the
new horse.
When Albert sees the horse, it's love at first sight. He names him Joey and swears that he'll look after him.
This looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 2.
Joey and Albert grow closer, despite Albert's drunk father's occasional interference.
One day, drunk dad comes into the stable with a whip. He tells Joey that he's made a bet that he can train
Joey to pull a plow by the end of the week.
Joey don't want nothin' to do with no plow pullin', so he kicks Albert's soused papa in the leg.
The next day, Albert tells Joey not to do that again or his father will shoot him. Yowza.
Even though he was drunk, Albert's dad was serious about that bet. He makes Albert train Joey. If he fails,
he'll either sell or shoot him. The horse, not his son.
Being that it's only chapter 2, Albert and Joey succeed. Joey's not turned into glue, and he gets to stay on
the farm.
The chapter ends as Joey overhears Albert and his family talk of war. The war is creeping closer and closer
each day.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 3.
Albert and Joey continue to bond, riding around the countryside together.
Meanwhile, Albert's mother tries to convince Albert that his father isn't a bad person. Wow, this is a Very
Special Heartwarming Chapter of War Horse.
Thankfully, Albert's dad is here to screw things up before they get too sappy. He sweet-talks Joey, and lures
him away with food, saying "I need the money, Joey; I need the money bad" (3.11).
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 4.
Sure enough, Albert's tipsy pops sells Joey to Captain Nicholls, a soldier in town. He gets quite a few nickels
for him, too: forty pounds.
Before everything is complete, Albert shows up. He's determined to stop the sale.

 Unfortunately, the sale goes through, but Captain Nicholls tells Albert that he likes his spirit. Maybe someday
he can join the cavalry and find him. Sounds like trying to find a horse-shaped needle in a haystack the size
of France...
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 5.
Joey's in the army now, and he has a new rider, Corporal Samuel Perkins. Joey misses sweet little Albert a
lot.
When he's not being worked hard and put away wet by Perkins, Joey gets to relax by being a nude model
for Captain Nicholls.
Captain Nicholls gives Perkins a little pep talk, telling him how important horses are to the military and how
he better take care of them. After that, Perkins is a little more gentle when training.
Nicholls, all dolled up, takes Joey on his last maneuvers before departing for the front lines.
During these final maneuvers, Joey meets a new friend, this time of the four legged variety: a black stallion
named Topthorn.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 6.
Joey and the rest of the horses get a little seasick on the boat ride across the Channel.
When they dock, we no longer see London, but we do see France.
The men try to put on brave faces, but it takes a while for Joey to get accustomed to the noise of bombs and
gunfire.
During his first battle, Joey ends up as a horse without a rider. He loses Captain Nicholls in the charge.
Nicholls's friend Captain Stewart tells Joey that Nicholls died leading the charge. He also says that Nicholls
would have been proud of Joey.
We're not sure if horses can cry, but we sure need a tissue right about now.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 7.
After the death of Captain Nicholls, Joey gets a new rider: Trooper Warren.
Warren isn't the graceful swan that Nicholls was; he is "heavy in the saddle like a sack of potatoes" (7.4).
Having given numerous piggyback rides to sacks of potatoes in our time, we sympathize.
As they get into a minor skirmish here and there, Warren and Joey start to bond. Warren reads letters from
home; Joey starts thinking Warren is really nice, even if he is a terrible rider.
Time passes relatively peacefully, as far as wars go, until it's time for Warren and Joey to ride through the
barbed wire into no-man's land.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 8.
"The bedlam of battle had begun" (8.3). Horses and men fall on both sides of the battle.
The English forces are decimated, and Captain Stewart and Trooper Warren are taken by the Germans as
prisoners of war.
Topthorn and Joey are taken as P.O.W.s, too. Warren gives Joey one last stroke before he says goodbye,
and we reach for tissue number two.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 9.

 Herr Hauptmann, a limping German officer covered in bandages, orders his men to take good care of the
horses. We wonder if, under all those bandages, Hauptmann looks like Charlie Chaplin.
Although Hauptmann wants to keep Joey and Topthorn for his Regiment of Lancers, a doctor insists that the
horses be used to haul stretcher carts to retrieve the hundreds of wounded soldiers on the battlefield.
One night, while Topthorn and Joey sleep in their barn, they're visited by a man and his granddaughter.
Seeing the horses, she says, "Can they be mine, Grandpapa? Please, can they be mine?" (9.15) If it weren't
for the please, we'd think Veruca Salt had just shown up in WWI-era France.
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 10.
Joey and Topthorn are treated like heroes by the Germans. They even receive a war medal, the Iron Cross.
In the evenings, the young girl, Emilie, takes care of the two horses, brushing them, tossing them hay, and
offering companionship.
One night, Emilie doesn't come to the barn. Her Grandpapa comes instead, and tells the horses that Emilie
is sick. He asks them to "pray for her to whatever horse god [they] pray to" (10.8).
The next day, there is lots of snow on the ground, and retrieving the wounded is difficult.
But that night is Christmas. "Peace had come for one night" (10.12), a hiatus to the shelling and the
violence.
Not only that, but Emilie gets better. It's a Christmas miracle! Maybe this is a Dickens novel after all...
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 11.

Emilie is still weak from her illness, but she does her best to take care of the horses.
As the battles move farther away, Joey is thrilled to return to the work of a farm horse. Emilie doesn't want to
work them, but her Grandpapa insists that they must in order for them to eat. Farms don't plow themselves,
after all.
One quiet day, a group of soldiers riding new horses shows up. A pale, thin man announces, "I shall be
taking your horses with us" (11.12).
Little Emilie says she'll die if the horses don't come back, but she has no choice but to let them go.
Off goes Joey away from his human yet again, but at least this time he has his horse friend Topthorn with
him.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 12.

Their new job is to haul a giant gun around with four other horses: Heinie, who must be the butt of all jokes;
Coco, who puts the you know what in horse's you know what with his baditude; and two golden Haflingers
who don't have names.
The horses have to work in horrible conditions, trudging through deep mud that rubs raw the skin on their
lower legs.
Both Heinie and Coco are killed, Heinie by illness and Coco by flying shrapnel.
Even strong Topthorn gets ill, and comes down with a brutal cough. We hope this cough doesn't mean the
same thing as every other cough in literature and movies: certain death!

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 13.

The horses make it through the long winter and into spring. With spring comes more food, and everyone
man and horseis happier.

Joey, Topthorn, and the Haflingers are put into the care of Crazy Old Friedrich, who takes good care of
them.
Even though Friedrich seems to prefer Topthorn to Joey, Joey is still grateful for finding a new human friend.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 14.

Spring gives way to autumn, and not a day goes by when Friedrich doesn't shower Topthorn with
compliments.
Despite Friedrich's care, Topthorn just keels over and dies one day. Friedrich must have killed him with
kindness. Sorry, we joke because we're devastated on the inside.
Joey refuses to leave Topthorn's side, even as the shelling begins. Friedrich runs, but he's not fast enough.
An explosion kills him, too, leaving him face-up on the ground next to Topthorn's body.
Still not budging, Joey stands amid the chaos and watches as the last two horses he knows, the Haflingers,
escape into the trees.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 15.

Day and night, Joey stands in silent vigil over the bodies of Topthorn and Friedrich.
He probably would have stood there forever were it not for something coming through the woods that really
frightens him: a tank.
And Joey runs. He runs so far away. He just runs. He runs all night and day. But he can't get away... from
war.
He finds temporary reprieve in a small wooded oasis, complete with lush green meadow and clear drinking
water. The only thing missing is a flock of seagulls.
But when he wakes up, he's surrounded by gunfire and explosions on all sides. He runs again, only to get
caught up in a barbed wire fence.
The barbs (Walters and Streisand, maybe?) tear into his leg as he wriggles out.
Eventually, the damage from the barbs is too great, and Joey can no longer move. He rests his bleeding leg
on a mound of mud and waits for the fog of war to clear.
When it does, he finds himself back in the middle of no man's land. It's no horse's land, either.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 16.

Two soldiersone from each side, British and Germanwave white flags and approach Joey, who is stuck
in the middle of the trenches.
These guys have an incredible conversation about war and what it's really all about. If you read one chapter
in War Horse, this is it. (But read them allyou'll be happy you did.)
They flip a coin to decide who gets to take Joey. The English win, and take Joey away to safety.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 17.

Joey is loaded into a veterinary wagon and trundled off to the British horse hospital.
The hospital is run by a man who says the word "thundering" a lot instead of other more colorful swear
words. "Thundering" must be the "frakking" of World War I.
Joey is entrusted to the care of a young man named David and his friend Albert. Hey, hey, hey, it's that
Albert! The boy from the beginning of the book!

Since Mr. Ed is the only horse that can talk, Joey can't shout out his name and tell him how excited he is to
see him. He can only wait patiently, hoping Albert still recognizes him.
Following an extensive horse-washing scene, as David meticulously cleans Joey piece by piece, finally
uncovering the white cross shaped mark on his nose, Albert recognizes his childhood friend. "It's my Joey.
I've found him. He's come back to me just like I said he would" (17.27).
No, no, we're not crying this time. Just a little dust in our eyes. Move along, move along.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 18.

Despite the happy reunion with Albert, Joey is still ill. His condition deteriorates and even Albert's touch
makes him jumpy.
The diagnosis: tetanus. Recommended treatment: euthanasia. We knew it. All animal stories end with the
animal dying. Just because we were ready for this doesn't mean we're happy about it.
Albert refuses to put Joey down, and David backs him up, reminding Sergeant Thunder that he had told
them "a horse's life is maybe even more important than a man's" (18.14).
All the vets team up to keep 24-hour watch over Joey until he gets better.
After weeks in a sling, Joey recovers enough to whinny to Albert, letting him know he feels better. OMG, he
didn't die.
Joey gets to go for a walk with Albert to regain his strength. After, Albert and Joey daydream about the end
of the war and going back home.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 19.

If the war is ending, it doesn't seem like it. The battles get closer and hit closer to home. Albert's friend David
dies. Albert is devastated and depressed.
At the eleventh hour, the gunfire stops, but there are no celebrations. Men (and horses) are just happy to be
alive.
Impatient to get home, Albert has to first take care of all the sick and dying horses recovered from the
battlefield.
Finally, it's time to go home. But there's a problem: the horses aren't coming. They're to be sold to the
French.
Sergeant Thunder is furious that these noble war veterans will be made into glue or McPony burgers, but
there's nothing he can do about it.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 20.

Joey's not quite sure what's going on at the beginning of this chapter as a cup is passed around, and the
men all clink coins into it.
They groom Joey until he gleams and lead him off to auction. (Side note: Um, if they don't want him to be
sold, shouldn't they have made him look as raggedy as possible?)
Sergeant Thunder engages in a bidding war with Monsieur Cirac, the so-called "butcher from Cambrai"
(20.10).
Yep, we told you. Joey's not going to make it to the end of this one. Good thing we have one tissue left
Wait a second! Just as the auction is about to end, with Cirac making the final bid of twenty-seven English
pounds, an old man stands up and makes the highest bid. It's Emilie's Grandpapa!
The hammer falls, and Joey is sold.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER 21.

Joey and Topthorn are treated like heroes by the Germans. They even receive a war medal, the Iron Cross.
In the evenings, the young girl, Emilie, takes care of the two horses, brushing them, tossing them hay, and
offering companionship.
One night, Emilie doesn't come to the barn. Her Grandpapa comes instead, and tells the horses that Emilie
is sick. He asks them to "pray for her to whatever horse god [they] pray to" (10.8).
The next day, there is lots of snow on the ground, and retrieving the wounded is difficult.
But that night is Christmas. "Peace had come for one night" (10.12), a hiatus to the shelling and the
violence.
Not only that, but Emilie gets better. It's a Christmas miracle! Maybe this is a Dickens novel after all...