The Littlest Horse Thieves

This is a cute and heartwarming little movie about kids who develop a fantastic heist together, after planning to steal some horses (which are actually just ponies I think) from a mine company's owner who, after deciding to fully mechanize his operation and destroy the horses which are now useless to him and obsolete. It is a great family film but very hard to find here in North America and I eventually tracked down a second hand copy on tape from a television broadcast in I think the 1980s. The movie was originally made in the 1970s if I remember correctly.

The kids are great and the story is fun and realistic and never boring, even though it's a pretty simple plot. The kids will love this one, trust me. Also keep an eye out for Alastair Sim, a really fantastic and under-appreciated actor best known for his role as Scrooge in what I think is the hands down best version of that story ever filmed. I give this one 9/10.

Luckily this is not a syrupy-sweet Disney film. It was filmed entirely in the forbidding Yorkshire moors. And though you know it will be a happy ending, they make no bones about the fact that the small working ponies have spent their entire lives down in the coal mines and are about to be sold to the slaughterhouse. Alistair Sims makes his final movie appearance here - most of you will know him as Scrooge from the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol" or in a featured role in Alfred Hitchcock's "Stage Fright."

I enjoyed learning about the history of pit ponies. I never even knew they existed until I saw this movie. This movie is rich in history, culture, & customs. The story revolves around 3 kids who live in a mining town, two boys & a girl. The girl is the bosses daughter so she has better clothes & instead of going to school she has a live-in Governess who teaches her. She's not supposed to play with the boys because they're minors' kids. See what I mean by history & culture? There's a cave-in accident & some minors get stuck. They are running out of oxygen. The ponies are able to find them. When the boss decides to replace the ponies with machines the kids break tradition & worked together to keep the ponies from being destroyed. Fascinating stuff & a good ending for the ponies.

This movie has a special place for me. As well as being a real tearjerker (if you love horses) all of the pit scenes were filmed at the end of my garden! My mum was an extra as was my grandfather and his brother in law and even his goat! Even 30 years on the "pit tip" were it was filmed is still there, although a little over grown. When I watch this film I can clearly remember the scenes where the children plot to free the ponies. The top of the hill were they lay spying was a grass covered ramp at the end of my paddock.

Other films were also made in and on the same road.. "The Price of Coal" and "The Gamekeeper" by Barry Heines. Yes the village I lived in and where my parent still live was in much demand in the 1970'sw

Alastair Sim, in his last screen role, tasks the manager of his colliery with making it profitable. The proposed solution is to install machines to move the coal about and retire the pit ponies -- and by 'retire' is meant 'send them to the knackers.' Three of the children in the neighborhood work out a scheme to save them.

There's some inconsistency in the writing in this script, particularly in the way Sim's character behaves; it's surprising given the writers: Burt Kennedy and Rosemary Ann Sisson. I also never saw children who could muck about in coal pits and remain so clean as the three the movie centers on, not to mention pit ponies. Nonetheless, the performances are excellence, and Chloe Franks gives a particularly lively and engaging performance. Good location shooting in Yorkshire adds to the pleasures of the film. All in all, it's a strong Disney movie, with milder humor and some actual fear and sadness under the direction of Charles Jarrott.

Equines of many types were used in the mines. In the US, it was mostly mules, but in Britain, it was ponies, who could move through the confined spaces more easily. the first recorded use of ponies was in Durham about 1750. In 1887 the British government began to regulate their use, and the Pit Ponies' Protection Society (later the National Equine Defense League) was founded in 1907. Ponies' use peaked in 1913, with an estimated 70,000 working underground. Use declined with rising mechanization, and the last known pit pony, "Robbie" retired from a Welsh mine in 1999. The last known living pit pony was Tony who died in 2011 aged 40 at the Newcastle Cat and Dog Shelter.