Sapient Steed: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''Those old war horses never shut up.''|cite='''[https://www.gunnerkrigg.com/?p=321 Tom Siddell]'''|source=''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]''}}

 

 

Useful because it justifies/averts [[Automaton Horses]], as well as providing sage advice, companionship, and enabling some really cool stunts.

 

 

{{examples}}

* In the manwha "Yongbi". The [[Bounty Hunter]] Yongbi rides a horse that's basically a medieval Korean version of Maximus from [[Tangled]]. He's [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/yongbi/v01/c002/10.html intelligent] (he was able to determine the worth of a golden medallion offered by a boy they rescued just by licking it) , [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/yongbi/v01/c001/16.html stubborn], [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/yongbi/v01/c003/6.html rather arrogant] (during a stay in the emperor's stable he forces the servants to serve him hoof and foot and pushes around the other stable horses), [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/yongbi/v01/c004/9.html defiant] , [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/yongbi/v01/c005/26.html VERY expressive], a [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/yongbi/v01/c001/22.html pervert], [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/yongbi/v01/c001/23.html has a sense of humor] , and [http://www.mangafox.com/manga/yongbi/v02/c008/6.html constantly bickers] with his rider like an old married couple.

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== [[Fairy Tales]] ==

* Falada in "The Goose Girl", in the original Grimm story and all adaptations, such as [[Shannon Hale]]'s novel by the same name.

 

* In the ''[[My Little Pony]]'' fanfic ''[[The Son of the Emperor]]'', ponies are intelligent, capable of speech and exist alongside humans. Some even hold positions in the military or are nobles.

 

== [[Film]] ==

* Donkey briefly in ''[[Shrek]] 2''. Otherwise he isn't actually a steed.

* Cyril Proudbottom from ''[[The Wind in the Willows]]'' segment of ''[[The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad]]''.

* Before there was [[Mr. Ed]] there was [[Francis The Talking Mule]].

* Dilvish's steed, a steel horse that's the embodiment of a demon, in [[Roger Zelazny]]'s ''Dilvish the Damned''.

* Eshinarvash and other Wise Horses from the ''[[Firekeeper]]'' series of books are sapient and intelligent, they only lack the ability to speak to humans other than Firekeeper (and, later, Derian). The people of Liglim can work around this somewhat, through use of rituals and divination they use to read omens of the future.

* In ''[[The Silmarillion]]'', the hound Huan allows Lúthien to ride him. Although his nature is never quite clear, he is very much in animal form, obviously sentient and even speaks three times.

* In ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'', some horses and most unicorns talk; this is most prominent in ''[[The Horse and His Boy]]''. The two main horses in that book have quite humorous personalities, especially with Bree trying to figure out what is acceptable for a talking horse, having grown up among dumb ones.

** Although it is slightly subverted when it's noted that in Narnia talking horses are only ridden in times of war and that suggesting they be ridden except in great emergencies is very rude.

* ''[[The Neverending Story (novel)|The Neverending Story]]'' has Falcor. Artax also talks in the book.

* ''A Spell for Chameleon'' and ''The Source of Magic'', the first two novels in [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Xanth]]'' series. Bink rides Cherie Centaur, who is intelligent and can speak (like all centaurs).

* The Companions in [[Mercedes Lackey]]'s ''[[Heralds of Valdemar]]'' are Standard Issue. Those recruited late in life have occasionally expressed their annoyance, especially as said steeds are [[Bond Creatures|mentally bonded to their riders]].

** Companions aren't horses, and tend to get quite insulted when somebody refers to them as such. They're high-level Guardian Spirits who have taken on a four-legged form as a matter of convenience.

** Mercedes Lackey's urban fantasies feature Elven Steeds, who can also turn into cars. Or motorcycles, or whatever they feel like, really.. They don't talk but are quite intelligent nonetheless. There are a few occasions where it's hinted that they can communicate, mostly by flashing their headlights, but can't actually talk.

* In P.C. Hodgell's ''[[Chronicles of the Kencyrath]]'' series, the almost immortal Whinno-hir breed of horses understand speech and frequently establish mental links with chosen Kencyr people. They do not speak, but can make themselves understood; they appear to be near human in intelligence. They appear to be able to take human form for brief periods. The carnivorous, armored unicorn-like rathorns, meanwhile, appear to be as intelligent as dolphins or chimpanzees; while they do not have anything like speech, they can still convey fairly complicated concepts over a mental link or with e.g. body language.

* The smallest dragons in the ''[[Temeraire]]'' series play this straight, while most of the others (including the title character) straddle this trope and [[Living Ship]].

* Inverted in ''[[Belgariad]]'' with Hettar, a Horse Lord, capable of speaking to horses and understanding them in return. Since it's not tied to a specific mount, he can do it with any horse he happens to be riding.

** Garion also figures out how to do it, though the horse he tries it on is young, and not too bright, so it doesn't work too well.

** Binky, Death's Horse might be up to this level, but it's never actually stated just 'how much' more intelligent he is than normal. He doesn't talk, though.

* In ''[[Inheritance Cycle|Eragon]]'', dragon-riders can talk to their dragons. Dragons can also talk to other people if they connect to that persons mind.

* In [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[The Dark Side of the Sun]]'', some of the [[Mechanical Horse]]s are Class 5 robots, making them human for all intents and purposes.

* Anna and her descendants in Leo Frankowski's ''Conrad Stargard'' series are guessed to be about as intelligent as a 6-8 year old. Within the books, it's indicated that they might even be smarter than that, but have been hiding their abilities since they're essentially genetically engineered slaves.

* The titular alien dragons of the ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' series are telepathic and intelligent. They can speak to other dragons, firelizards (their genetic precursors), their own riders, and the very rare humans with greater telepathic potential who can communicate with ''all'' dragons. One difference in dragon and human mentality is that dragons don't have a very strong grasp of the past or the future and mostly live in the here and now.

* The [[Our Centaurs Are Different|Titanides]] of the ''[[Gaea Trilogy]]'' do not mind being ridden. Especially when the alternative is checking their speed on behalf of the [[Puny Earthlings|slowpoke humans]].

* The Skybax in ''[[Dinotopia]]'', although you have to either speak their language to communicate, or have a translator Protoceratops around.(with the exception of Windchaser, who did speak human.) And a ton of other dinosaurs in the series as well.

* Used a few times in ''[[Animorphs]]'', when Cassie morphs horse. Once, she's in horse morph with Tobias in Hork-Bajir morph on her back.

 

* In the 1998 ''[[Merlin (TV miniseries)|Merlin-1998]]'' miniseries, Merlin has a horse named Sir Rupert. He can talk. This is not explained in the show itself, but if you [[All There in the Manual|read the novelization]] it'll tell you why.

* ''[[Mister Ed]]'' is a horse, of course.

* [[The Adventures of Brisco County Jr|Brisco County Jr.]] seems to carry on intelligent conversations with Comet 'the wonder horse'.

 

** Inverted in one short scenario from ''Dungeon Adventures'' magazine, in which an evil spellcaster used a ''feeblemind'' spell to render a centaur druid mindless, then hitched him up to pull a wagon. The PCs must rescue this unlucky sentient being from the fate of an unspeaking beast of burden.

** Paladins' mounts have an Intelligence of at least 6 (not as smart as the average Humanoid (10) but smarter than any animal (1 or 2), and they get smarter as the Paladin gains levels.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** The Oracle games feature some rather unusual mounts in Ricky, Moosh, and Dimitri, who are a kangaroo, a flying bear, and a dodongo, respectively. All of them can talk.

* In the backstory of ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' games, there's a type of Khajiit that's basically a tiger somewhere between a horse and an elephant in size. They're just as intelligent as the other Khajiit, but they're used as steeds in battle.

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* In ''[[UNA Frontiers]]'', there are Shiratz, an ancient alien probe built to look like a convincing horse, and the G.E.M.'s - a subspecies of genetically modified Morgan horses about as intelligent as dolphins or gorillas in general. Some of them have "high talent", i.e., psychic abilities to boot.

* Charismatic Seaweed, who is Eva's special [[Cool Horse|Paladin Mount]] in ''[[Our Little Adventure]]''.

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* Thirty/Thirty from ''[[Bravestarr]]'' who is not just sapient, but bipedal when he wants to be.

* Twinkle the Marvel Horse from ''[[Dave the Barbarian]]''.

* Starlite from ''[[Rainbow Brite]]''.

* ''[[Wildfire]]'', from the '80s cartoon of the same name, was a massive black talking horse whose life's mission was to protect Princess Sarah until she grew up sufficiently to get her magical kingdom back.

* [[She-Ra: Princess of Power|She-Ra]]'s horse Spirit, who could transform (with She-Ra's help) into her flying, talking unicorn Swift Wind. One episode revealed that the planet of Etheria was home to an entire ''island'' of talking winged unicorns.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Funny Animal Tropes]]

[[Category:Animal Tropes]]

[[Category:Pet and Animal Companion Tropes]]

[[Category:Cool Horse]]

[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]