1981: The Englishwoman and the Horse | BBC Archive @BBCArchive
1981: The Englishwoman and the Horse | BBC Archive  @BBCArchive
Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
*Contains upsetting scenes.*

A kind of love story.

This highly-acclaimed documentary film celebrates the warmth, affection and enthusiasm that women of all ages, and from every background, feel for their horses. It gathers together a rich and varied collection of characters. To many of them, horses have brought fun and happiness; to some, heartbreak. Few are conventionally 'horsey' people, but all share this unbridled passion.

In Suffolk, a lady farrier shoes heavy horses. In Lancashire, a mounted policewoman is engulfed by football fans. A London messenger girl looks for a space to park. In Lincolnshire a church organist, knocked out on Easter Day, and thrown again on Easter Monday, climbs on for more. And in Hampshire a housewife who has given way to temptation five times already wonders if this time she can resist.

Narrated by Candida Lycett Green.


Clip taken from The Englishwoman and the Horse, originally broadcast on BBC Two, 22 November, 1981.





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