War Horse
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free War Horse trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
War Horse began as a short novel for children, published in 1982, in which Michael Morpurgo tells the First World War through the eyes of a horse. Joey is sold to the army, carried across the Channel and passed from one side of the fighting to the other, while Albert, the boy who raised him, sets out to bring him home. A quarter of a century later the story became a celebrated stage play with life-size puppets, and then a film nominated for six Academy Awards. This quiz covers all three versions. Most questions follow the book: Joey's early days with Albert, his riders and companions at the front, the people on both sides who care for him, and the reunion at the end. Others ask about the author and what inspired him, the stage production and its cast, and the making of the film, from its actors to its locations. It is written for pupils reading the novel in class, for teachers who want a quick comprehension check, and for anyone who loved the book, the play or the film. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so the quiz works as revision as well as a test.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Michael Morpurgo set the opening of War Horse on a family farm in which English county, where he wrote it?
Devon
Devon is both Joey's first home and Michael Morpurgo's own: he wrote the novel after talking to First World War veterans in his local pub.
Q 02Which director, known for Second World War films, made the 2011 film War Horse his first about the earlier conflict?
Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg saw the London stage show, admitted it moved him to tears, and was announced as the film's director three months later.
Q 03In War Horse, how do a British and a German soldier decide who keeps the wounded Joey in no man's land?
A coin toss
A coin toss gives Joey to the British side, and the two enemies part on friendly terms after a few minutes of peace between the trenches.
Q 04The life-size horse puppets in the stage version of War Horse were built by a company from which country?
South Africa
South Africa is home to the Handspring Puppet Company of Cape Town, whose horses each need three performers: two working the legs and one the head and neck.
Q 05Which black stallion becomes Joey's closest companion after the two meet in army training in War Horse?
Topthorn
Topthorn was never bred for the plough, so he learns farm work from Joey once both horses are behind German lines.
Q 06What traps and wounds the terrified Joey as he bolts across no man's land near the end of War Horse?
Barbed wire
Barbed wire also inspired the book: Michael Morpurgo was haunted by a 1917 painting of British cavalry horses caught in it during a charge.
Q 07Which future Game of Thrones star made his professional debut as Albert in the London stage production of War Horse?
Kit Harington
Kit Harington won the part of Albert while still at drama school, and Jon Snow, his first television role, came soon after.
Q 08In Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, what was Albert's father meant to buy at the auction where he bought Joey instead?
A calf
A calf was the plan, but he came home with a colt bought for three guineas, which his son Albert named and came to love.
Q 09In the 2011 film War Horse, Albert teaches Joey to come when he imitates the call of which bird?
An owl
An owl call is what saves Joey years later, when a bandaged Albert makes it just as an army doctor is about to put the injured horse down.
Q 10Why is Albert turned away when he first tries to join the army to follow Joey in War Horse?
He is too young
He is too young, but Albert promises to come for Joey, and the sequel says he later lied about his age to enlist.
Q 11Which French girl cares for Joey and his companion each night on her grandfather's farm in War Horse?
Emilie
Emilie loves the two horses as Albert loved Joey, and after the war her grandfather tracks Joey down at an army auction.
Q 12In Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, Joey bolts in terror after his first sight of which new weapon of war?
A tank
A tank sends Joey running, and it marked the future: armoured vehicles went on to replace cavalry horses in battle.
Q 13Which composer scored the 2011 film War Horse in the same year he wrote the music for The Adventures of Tintin?
John Williams
John Williams prepared by watching horses each morning at a California farm, and the score brought him another Oscar nomination.
Q 21Which old farm work horse does Joey bond with at Albert's home before the army takes him in War Horse?
Zoey
Zoey is the family's old mare who pulls the plough beside Joey, and in the sequel the pair work the land together after the war.
Q 22In Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, what kills Joey's closest companion soon after the two horses drink together?
Heart failure
Heart failure fells him after long work hauling guns, and the German soldier who loved him dies moments later in an Allied bombardment.
Q 23Which moorland, also the secret code name for the shoot, supplied the family farmhouse in the 2011 film War Horse?
Dartmoor
Dartmoor also gave the film its skies and landscapes, and the director said he had never been handed such natural beauty in his long career.
Q 14Which London company first staged War Horse in 2007, in a run first planned to last just 16 weeks?
National Theatre
National Theatre audiences kept it going far longer: the show moved to the West End for seven years and became the company's most successful production.
Q 15Who is Joey's first rider in the army, killed in a charge soon after reaching France in War Horse?
Captain Nicholls
Captain Nicholls dies in the cavalry's first charge against the Germans, and a nervous new trooper is given Joey to ride.
Q 16Which Michael Morpurgo novel is the sequel to War Horse, picking up the story of Joey and Albert's family years later?
Farm Boy
Farm Boy is told by Albert's great-grandson, and Michael Morpurgo has called it his favourite of his own books.
Q 17In the author's note to War Horse, a portrait shows Joey as a red bay with which marking on his forehead?
A white cross
A white cross marks the Joey of the opening pages; the portrait was invented, but so many visitors asked to see it that a real one was painted in 2011.
Q 18After their capture in War Horse, what do the Germans first set Joey and his companion to pull, saving many lives?
An ambulance cart
An ambulance cart makes the pair famous and respected among the Germans; only later are they taken away to haul artillery.
Q 19In Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, where is Albert serving when the wounded, mud-caked Joey is led in?
A veterinary hospital
A veterinary hospital is where Albert works, yet he knows his old horse only after cleaning off the mud and hearing Joey answer his whistle.
Q 20The 2011 film War Horse was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar but lost to which French-made winner?
The Artist
The Artist, a nearly silent tribute to old Hollywood, took the top prize, while War Horse won nothing from its six nominations.
Q 24In Michael Morpurgo's sequel to War Horse, Joey and the old farm mare win a ploughing bet against which new machine?
A tractor
A tractor, a green Fordson, tips into a ditch near the end of the contest, and the family keeps it in the barn as their prize.
Q 25In the 2011 film War Horse, the medals and pennant of Albert's father come from his service in which war?
The Boer War
The Boer War left Albert's father with a gallantry medal and lasting scars, and Albert ties the pennant to Joey's bridle when the horse is sold.
Q 26Which unknown stage actor made his feature film debut as Albert in the 2011 film War Horse?
Jeremy Irvine
Jeremy Irvine beat hundreds of hopefuls, then spent two months learning to ride and so long in muddy trench scenes that he caught trench foot.
Q 27Which actor plays the army officer who buys Joey and promises Albert to look after him in the 2011 film War Horse?
Tom Hiddleston
Tom Hiddleston plays the doomed officer, with Benedict Cumberbatch as the major who rides beside him into the German guns.
Q 28Michael Morpurgo found he could write War Horse after watching a boy with which difficulty talk freely to a horse?
A stammer
A stammer kept the boy almost silent with people, yet beside the stable door one evening the words flowed, and the horse stood and listened.
Q 29Which German soldier, who never wanted to go to war, befriends Joey while the horses haul artillery in War Horse?
Friedrich
Friedrich tells the horses he did not want to be a soldier, and he is killed by Allied shelling at the spot where his favourite has just died.
Q 30Which Saturday Night Live host played Joey himself, in place of a puppet, in a 2011 sketch mocking War Horse?
Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon galloped about slapping his legs for hoofbeats and ended with a robot dance, watched by Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig as a British couple.