Talk:List of fictional horses

Inclusion of mythology and folklore

What are people's thoughts on including mythology and folklore in a page about fiction? By my understanding, and in line with the page Fiction, fiction refers to works that are not intended to be believed by the teller or listener, whereas mythology and folklore are often either believed or have been believed by the relevant audiences. Inclusion of Uchchaihshravas, for example, presupposes the inaccuracy of that part of Hinduism. Would we include the Devil, angels or God (Christianity) in a list of fictional beings? To me, regardless of how we personally feel about their metaphysical reality, mythology, religion and folklore constitute a different genre to fiction and their contents shouldn't be included on a page such as this. Ingwina (talk) 12:15, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

They seem a notable topic for this page. The devil, angels, and gods differ in that they are a source of religious tradition and debate, while mythological horses are not considered ever-present, ever-living, or beings which center a religion. Randy Kryn (talk) 12:33, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

However there are gods in the list such as Dyaus Pita and Epona who are certainly a source of religious tradition. Are they included in error or because not many people actively believe in them now and so they have become fictional, made-up and untrue? I think for deciding genre, we need to consider how they were intended to be recieved and how they were received in the context of their original audience. Folkloric examples such as kelpies are believed to be just as real as any god who the people also worship. You also state that horses in mythology are fiction as they are not considered ever-present, ever-living or the central point of a religion however these do not seem like the best criteria for differentiating traditional beliefs and fiction, or indeed entirely correct. Firstly, the first two aspects are not attributes of all gods in all religions, with the horses that pull Moon and Sun in Nordic religion living for roughly as long as the gods. Secondly, can we actually exclude the possibility that telling stories of the Mares of Diomedes played an important role in the cult of Heracles or that Blóðughófi or Sleipnir were offered to as part of the cult of the gods they bear? Is Azura fictional because they don't seem to be central in religions? I don't think importance assigned to them determines their status as fiction, nor do I think that pulling the sun would have been seen as unimportant matter, separate from religious belief and practice. Ingwina (talk) 08:39, 26 February 2023 (UTC)

Splitting proposal

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

The result of this discussion was to split to List of horses in mythology and folklore. No activity has been seen for just under a month and this discussion has been going on for several months now with all involved folks now supporting. Ingwina (talk) 15:25, 20 May 2023 (UTC)

---

I propose that the section on mythology and folklore should be split into its own page entitled List of horses in mythology and folklore. As laid out in detail in the above section entitled "Inclusion of mythology and folklore", I do not believe this content should be included on this page. The horses are drawn from traditional knowledge rather than created actively like a Character (arts) and do not fall under the definitions given in Fiction. Regardless of one's views on their metaphysical reality, gods and other such figures in belief systems such as those listed here are generally not listed as fictional elsewhere and it misleading and unhelpful to describe them as such in my opinion. What are people's thoughts? Ingwina (talk) 08:23, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

I think this is an excellent suggestion.--Mr Fink (talk) 15:28, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

Maybe, as long as this page is still listed in their leads or, at a minimum, on their "See also" sections. This seems like a proposal to deny reality and push it down the road ("Pegasus, sure he's real, everybody knows that"). Randy Kryn (talk)

Randy Kryn as I stated, I am not trying to deny reality, or even make any claim about what is real or not. I think this matter is completely orthogonal to what extent one may believe in the beings described in the folklore and mythology section. The genre of fiction is not defined as everything that does not exist. It is about intended audience, and contemporary context and reception. The Quran was not intended to be received, or recieved by its intended audience, in the same manner as The Lord of the Rings or Dracula. This distinction is independent of what truth may or may not be proven about the Quran at a later date. If no one was a Christian any longer, it would not put the Bible in the genre of fiction. I think it would make sense to include this page in the "See also" for the new section in addition to other lists about horses and lists of beings in traditional belief. Ingwina (talk) 17:08, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

Hello Ingwina, please go ahead with your plans as you seem passionate about them. Please be careful about which entries you remove or move, as things like the King Arthur works are fictional, and come from fiction, and are not really folklore or myth. Thanks for keeping your focus on the page. Randy Kryn (talk) 12:03, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Hi Randy Kryn. Thanks very much - your words are very appreciated. What I'd propose to do is move everything currently in "Mythology and folklore" to the new page - if anything in there doesn't come under "Mythology" or "folklore" it shouldn't be there anyway and we can always discuss individual cases as they arise. While I would argue in general that King Arthur is principally legendary and folkloric but I do accept there is a blurred boundary in this case due to the number of literary works and the ambiguity over to what extent details were invented by the author :) Ingwina (talk) 12:12, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

Yes, blurred memes. Things like the King Arthur horses could be listed on both lists and not be incorrect. Randy Kryn (talk) 13:50, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Glinky Horse????

referring to the last item the "horses in toys" subsection, i was unable to find anything in English on "Glinky" relating to horses. the user who added the item is also anonymous, so i can't contact them. does anyone know what this might be referencing? i'd like to add a source, if so. Dermasnoke (talk) 16:38, 9 November 2023 (UTC)

Removed as WP:UNSOURCED.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 20:34, 9 September 2024 (UTC)

Inclusion criteria is too lax

This article as it stands today violates WP:INDISCRIMINATE and MOS:TRIVIA, therefore it's inclusion criteria needs to be tightened up, or a little "policing" of indiscriminate entries needs to take place.

It would certainly be okay to include in the list any horse name that is wikilinked because it either has its own article or has a section in another article. Examples: Hwin, Binky, Champion the Wonder Horse, Tornado.

A horse name that is mentioned in, say, a TV show, where the TV show is wikilinked but the horse is not mentioned by name, should not be included in the list. Current examples with no mention: Amigo, Argo, Belle. However, some of these non-wikilinked horse names could be wikilinked by adding an {{anchor}} to the section about the horse in their TV article. Example: Alípio could be fixed by putting an anchor in Cocoricó; Bandit could have an anchor in Caitlin's Way.

It could be argued that a non-wikilinked horse name could be included if there was a citation—though I see none of that happening here—therefore any horse name with no citation and no wikilink should be removed from the list (per WP:Verifiability).

Then I noticed 6 entries about Laura Ingalls. Weren't her books about her real life? How do those horses fit into a list-article of fictional horses?

Please discuss inclusion criteria for this article.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 09:05, 3 September 2024 (UTC)