War Horse: Chapter 12 Summary & Analysis

Although the physical labor of pulling the guns demands little more strength than pulling ambulance carts, Joey finds it much more taxing. He and Topthorn—and the rest of the horses—are exposed to the elements 24 hours a day, and they no longer have Emilie’s devoted companionship. And as the war drags into yet another year, life becomes harder. The men driving the horse teams demonstrate a casual cruelty born of desperation. Neither man nor animal has sufficient rations, and the battles become ever fiercer.

Only one horse in the gun team—the leader—has the size and strength for such punishing work. His name is Heinie. Because of his greater size, Topthorn gets teamed with Heinie in the front. Joey finds himself alongside Coco, a small, mean-tempered horse with white splotches on his face. Two identical ponies—which the soldiers call “the golden Halflingers”—bring up the rear. All six struggle mightily through the cold, sticky mud and insufficient rations of winter. When Heinie’s strength begins to fail, he and Joey swap places—to Joey’s delight, since this means he returns to his place by Topthorn’s side. Soon, neither Coco nor Heinie can do their share of the work any longer.

As cavalry horses, Topthorn and Joey became used to receiving solicitous care from their riders. The artillery soldiers view them as expendable work animals and care more about keeping their gun in top shape. Additionally, everyone is starving and focused almost exclusively on their own survival. Only one German soldier, a portly, odd little man who’s always talking to himself (later identified as Friedrich), spends any time or attention on the horses. As the winter grinds on, all the animals begin to develop sores and cracked skin, and their muscles waste away as the result of malnourishment. There’s little that anyone—even the field veterinarians—can do. When Heinie becomes too weak to continue, they shoot him. Soon afterward, flying shrapnel from an artillery shell kills Coco.

One day while crossing a stream, Joey looks over to see Topthorn struggling to go on through pain and weakness. That night, Joey stands over the coughing and restless Topthorn to protect him from the pouring rain. Topthorn gets back on his feet in the morning before the gunners bring the horses’ rations, but Joey can see how little strength he has left. So can the field veterinarian who warns Herr Major that the horse needs rest to recover. Topthorn is too fine a horse to waste on pulling a gun, but the German Army doesn’t have horses to waste.