By Mary Shaffer
and Jerry Bunin

Moviemakers have always been fascinated by the magical relationships between mankind and horses, telling tales of racing, the bond between horses and youngsters, cowboys, rodeos and the horse as a symbol of the West.

The trend continues this year with the release of "Seabiscuit" (July 25), based on Laura Hillenbrand's best-seller about the legendary racehorse and the men who believed in him, and "Hidalgo" (March 5, 2004), the true story of the first American horse and cowboy (Viggo Mortensen) to compete in a 3,000-mile race across the Arabian desert in 1890.

Whether based on fact or fiction, most horse films have a wholesome family quality, lament the loss of the frontier and the freedom it represents, and reflect how the horse became an integral part of American history and myth.

Originally hunted as food by the earliest North Americans, the wild horse vanished from the continent some 15,000 years ago. Modern domesticated horses were introduced by Spanish colonists in the 1500s and had spread to every Indian tribe by 1770, revolutionizing Native American culture and becoming the nation's dominant form of travel until trains spanned the country 100 years later and the "horseless" carriage arrived in the early 1900s.

We associate horses today with ranching, rodeos, racing, sports, entertainment, and the simple joy of riding.

Radiant young Elizabeth Taylor stars in the classic "National Velvet" (1944), as 12-year-old Velvet Brown, whose dream of being "the best rider in England" is inspired by her mother and realized in winning the Grand National aboard her beloved horse, The Pie.

This warm family drama made Taylor a star, won Oscars for Anne Revere as Mrs. Brown and for Robert Kern's editing, and co-stars Donald Crisp as the practical Mr. Brown and Mickey Rooney as Velvet's and Pie's trainer.

A much older Rooney received an Oscar nomination for a similar role in "The Black Stallion" (1979), an adaptation of Walter Farley's timeless fantasy about youthful empowerment and romantic dreams of glory.

Beautifully photographed by Caleb Deschanel, the directorial debut of former cinematographer Carroll Ballard focuses on the bond between a lonely boy and a wild Arabian stallion aboard a ship, stranded alone on an island after a spectacular shipwreck, and back home in rural post-World War II America.

Rooney mentors the fatherless boy and trains "The Black" for a match race against the world's two fastest horses a few years after Seabiscuit captured national attention. The "Black Stallion" explores the same mystical relationship between boy and horse that John Steinbeck's examines in "The Red Pony" (1949).

Estranged from his emotionally distant father, the solitary and imaginative boy idolizes a ranch hand (Robert Mitchum) who helps him raise and train a pony on the family's small Salinas Valley ranch.

Adapted by Steinbeck with music by Aaron Copland, the coming-of-age story about responsibility and loss uses the horse as symbol of the West through Mitchum's self-sufficient cowboy and the boy's pioneer grandfather reliving his wagon trek across The Plains in colorful tales when horse travel dominated.

In the 1800s, wild horses numbered in the millions; by 1982, only 45,000 remained until movies like "The Misfits" (1961) highlighted the inhumane methods used to capture the noble mustangs and led to Federal protection.

The horse again represents the West and freedom in "The Electric Horseman" (1979). Robert Redford plays a disillusioned ex-rodeo star reduced to selling cereal for a conglomerate that uses a $12 million champion racehorse as its corporate symbol.

The cowboy rides the abused horse out of a Las Vegas casino and into the wilderness, pursued by their employer and a New York television reporter (Jane Fonda) sensing a great story. Filmed on location in Nevada and Utah and accompanied by Willie Nelson songs, the film laments and celebrates the romance of the West.

A similar quality fills "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" (2002), the Oscar-nominated animated tale of a wild mustang who befriends a young Lakota warrior and his pinto mare, battles a Custer-like colonel and endures breathtaking action sequences involving whitewater rapids and a runaway "iron horse" engine.

The first film to realistically animate horses relies on natural vocal sounds, facial gestures, physical movements, Matt Damon's narration and Bryan Adams' songs to express Spirit's thoughts and emotions.

Spirit journeys through an emblematic Western landscape created from Bryce Canyon, Monument Valley, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Yosemite and other familiar landmarks, an unbroken mustang forever galloping in the shadow of a an American bald eagle.

• "Bite the Bullet" (1975)
• "Black Beauty" (1995)
• "Casey's Shadow" (1978)
• "The Horse Whisperer" (1998)
• "Into the West" (1993)
• "Lonely are the Brave" (1962)
• "My Friend Flicka" (1943)
• "Phar Lap" (1983)
• "The Red Pony" (1973)
• "Ride the Wild Pony" (1976)
• "The Rounders" (1965)
• "Shergar" (1999)
• "The Silver Brumby" (1993)
• "Tonka" ("A Horse Named Comanche") (1958)