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Intro
Joey, a six-month-old colt, finds himself separated from his mother at a livestock auction. The farmer ties him to the back of his wagon and drags him home. There, he takes some comfort from the kindness of the farm’s other horse, Zoey. When the drunken farmer’s son, gentle and loving Albert, comes to the barn, he and Joey immediately form an unbreakable bond of love and trust. Joey and Albert spend the next two years growing up together, during which time Albert trains Joey to follow his commands, accept a halter and saddle, carry a rider, and haul the farm’s plow. But when war breaks out between Germany and England, the farmer sells Joey to cavalry officer Captain Nicholls to avoid falling into debt. Corporal Samuel Perkins trains Joey in the necessary skills of a cavalry horse, then Joey finds himself on a boat to France with Nicholls, Nicholls’s friend Captain Jamie Stewart, and Stewart’s horse, Topthorn.
In France, Captain Nicholls dies in the regiment’s first charge, felled by machine gun fire. Captain Stewart assigns Joey a new rider, Trooper Charlie Warren, whom Joey carries through the winter. In the spring, the Germans capture Stewart, Warren, Topthorn, and Joey. Topthorn and Joey then spend some months pulling ambulances for a German field hospital and living with nearby French farmers Emilie and her grandfather before being commandeered to join Herr Major’s artillery unit. There, they haul heavy guns around northern France alongside Heinie, Coco, and the Golden Halflingers. They befriend Friedrich, a kindly German officer.
But the following spring, Topthorn dies of heart failure while pulling the gun. Seconds later, a battle breaks out between German and English troops. Friedrich is shot and killed instantly, and in his confusion and grief, Joey becomes separated from the rest of the unit. When approaching tanks finally drive him to bolt in terror, Joey becomes lost and eventually wanders into a strip of no-man’s-land. A British Soldier rescues him, and he finds himself being taken to a British animal hospital, far from the front lines.
Joey and Albert—who joined the veterinary corps in hopes of reuniting with Joey—are reunited at the animal hospital, where Albert and his friend David nurse Joey through a tetanus infection. David dies tragically just a few days before the end of the war. When it’s finally time for the veterinary corps troops to go home, Major Martin informs them of the Army’s decision to auction off all the horses instead of bringing them back to England. Sergeant Thunder and the rest of the orderlies pool their money to try successfully bidding on Joey for Albert, but they lose the auction to Emilie’s grandfather, who has been trying to find Joey and Topthorn since the end of the war. Learning about Albert’s history with Joey, the grandfather sells Joey back to his original master for one penny and a promise that Albert will honor the memory of Emilie, who died of grief after Herr Major took Joey and Topthorn from her.
Joey and Albert finally return to England and their farm, where they both live in peace and prosperity.
