I think I saw
his one, but I want Lexi Alexander to direct an adult version. Maybe call it
Horse: War Zone.
One of my grandfathers, who was in the Royal Horse Artillery during the First World War, related the fate of their horses in a matter of fact manner. They were treated very much as depicted by the German artilleryman giving the orders.Once they'd dragged the guns up into position they were cut loose and many just simply galloped off in fright and were blown to bits or caught in the wire.
I very much doubt that army surgeons had the time or inclination to leave their human patients to treat horses. Joey was a thoroughbred, and they still shoot them in front of the punters on race days.
I've seen this book/play/film listed under numerous genres.
It
is an old fashioned film, and as such outdated and misrepresentative if placed under the 'war' genre. Adventure or animal story fit the bill. Even then I found it extremely heavy handed. A succession of clichés and coincidences.
The emotional content is bought with a heavy price: the constant need to suppress disbelief. Maybe children don't need to do that. But hopefully schools are still teaching the horrors of war from an early age. We had it drummed into us at least by the age of ten.
Battle Scenes = 6.5 out of 10 points (points deducted for extreme censorship)