It is clear that the horse was one of Shakespeare's favorite animals. His appreciation of the grace, strength and loyalty of horses is evident in the care he took to name so many of the horses mentioned in the plays -- Barbary, Capilet, Dobbin, Surrey, Galathe, Curtal -- and in the intense feelings horses kindle in his characters. The following is a collection of Shakespearean quotations on horses, including the most famous of them all from Richard III: "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!" 

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DAUPHIN. What a long night is this! I will not change my 

horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. 

Ca, ha! he bounds from the earth, as if his 

entrails were hairs; le cheval volant, the Pegasus, 

chez les narines de feu! When I bestride him, I 

soar, I am a hawk: he trots the air; the earth 

sings when he touches it; the basest horn of his 

hoof is more musical than the pipe of Hermes. 

ORLEANS. He's of the colour of the nutmeg. 

DAUPHIN. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast for 

Perseus: he is pure air and fire; and the dull 

elements of earth and water never appear in him, but 

only in Patient stillness while his rider mounts 

him: he is indeed a horse; and all other jades you 

may call beasts. 

CONSATBLE. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and excellent horse. 

Henry V 

GROOM. I was a poor groom of thy stable, king, 

When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York, 

With much ado at length have gotten leave

To look upon my sometimes royal master's face. 

O, how it yearn'd my heart when I beheld 

In London streets, that coronation-day, 

When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary, 

That horse that thou so often hast bestrid, 

That horse that I so carefully have dress'd! 

KING RICHARD II. Rode he on Barbary? Tell me, gentle friend, 

How went he under him? 

GROOM. So proudly as if he disdain'd the ground. 

KING RICHARD II. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back! 

That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand; 

This hand hath made him proud with clapping him. 

Would he not stumble? would he not fall down, 

Since pride must have a fall, and break the neck 

Of that proud man that did usurp his back? 

Forgiveness, horse! why do I rail on thee, 

Since thou, created to be awed by man, 

Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse; 

And yet I bear a burthen like an ass, 

Spurr'd, gall'd and tired by jouncing Bolingbroke. 

Richard II 

My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back 

With joyful tidings; and, being better horsed, 

Out-rode me. After him came spurring hard 

A gentleman, almost forspent with speed, 

That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse. 

He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him 

I did demand what news from Shrewsbury:

He told me that rebellion had bad luck 

And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold. 

With that, he gave his able horse the head, 

And bending forward struck his armed heels 

Against the panting sides of his poor jade 

Up to the rowel-head, and starting so 

He seem'd in running to devour the way.

2 Henry IV 

Let him let the matter slip, 

and I'll give him my horse, grey Capilet. 

Twelfth Night 

GOBBO. Her name is Margery, indeed: I'll be sworn, if thou 

be Launcelot, thou art mine own flesh and blood. 

Lord worshipped might he be! what a beard hast thou 

got! thou hast got more hair on thy chin than 

Dobbin my fill-horse has on his tail. 

LAUNCELOT. It should seem, then, that Dobbin's tail grows 

backward: I am sure he had more hair of his tail 

than I have of my face when I last saw him. 

Twelfth Night 

Now here he fights on Galathe his horse. 

Troilus and Cressida 

The strong-neck'd steed, being tied unto a tree,

Breaketh his rein, and to her straight goes he.

Imperiously he leaps, he neighs, he bounds,

And now his woven girths he breaks asunder; 

The bearing earth with his hard hoof he wounds, 

Whose hollow womb resounds like heaven's thunder; 

The iron bit he crushes 'tween his teeth, 

Controlling what he was controlled with. 

Venus and Adonis (274-81)

Look, when a painter would surpass the life, 

In limning out a well-proportion'd steed, 

His art with nature's workmanship at strife, 

As if the dead the living should exceed; 

So did this horse excel a common one, 

In shape, in courage, colour, pace and bone.

Round-hoof'd, short-jointed, fetlocks shag and long, 

Broad breast, full eye, small head, and nostril wide, 

High crest, short ears, straight legs and passing strong, 

Thin mane, thick tail, broad buttock, tender hide: 

Look, what a horse should have he did not lack, 

Save a proud rider on so proud a back. 

Venus and Adonis (289-301)

I had rather have my horse to my mistress.

Henry V

He doth nothing but talk of his horse.

The Merchant of Venice

I'd give bay Curtal and his furniture, 

My mouth no more were broken than these boys',

And writ as little beard. 

All's Well That Ends Well

Shall pack-horses 

And hollow pamper'd jades of Asia, 

Which cannot go but thirty mile a-day, 

Compare with Caesars, and with Cannibals, 

And Trojan Greeks? 

2 Henry IV

Anger is like 

A full-hot horse, who being allow’d his way,

Self-mettle tires him.

Henry VIII

May it please your honour, Lord Lucius, 

Out of his free love, hath presented to you 

Four milk-white horses, trapp'd in silver. 

Timon of Athens

O Charmian, 

Where think'st thou he is now? Stands he, or sits he?

Or does he walk? or is he on his horse? 

O happy horse, to bear the weight of Antony! 

Do bravely, horse! for wot'st thou whom thou movest? 

The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm 

And burgonet of men.

Antony and Cleopatra

He's mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a 

horse's health, a boy's love, or a whore's oath. 

King Lear

Ever note, Lucilius, 

When love begins to sicken and decay, 

It useth an enforced ceremony. 

There are no tricks in plain and simple faith; 

But hollow men, like horses hot at hand, 

Make gallant show and promise of their mettle; 

But when they should endure the bloody spur, 

They fall their crests, and, like deceitful jades, 

Sink in the trial. 

Julius Caesar

My purpose is, indeed, a horse of that colour.

Twelfth Night

Down, down I come;

Like glistering Phaethon,

Wanting the manage of unruly jades.

Richard II

RICHARD III. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! 

CATE. Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse. 

RICHARD III. Slave! I have set my life upon a cast,

And I will stand the hazard of the die.

I think there be six Richmonds in the field;

Five have I slain to-day, instead of him. 

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse! 

Richard III