Beauty, Bonny, Daisy, Violet, Grace and Geoffey Morton

Originally broadcast by Thames Television in 1974, this ‘grave and beautiful film’ (Daily Telegraph) looked at a year in the life of the Yorkshire farmer Geoffrey Morton and his farm horses.

Geoffrey chooses a stallion at the Shire Horse Show and puts him to a mare. The birth of a foal is movingly captured and other scenes show how the horses were used on the farm and in the woodland. Throughout the programme Geoffrey talks about his way of life and how he believed that working horses had a part to play in farming.

The film-maker Frank Cvitanovich was described in the Independent as ‘one of the finest and most personal documentary-makers of his time’. This programme was one of his masterpieces – an intimate portrait of a remarkable farmer that went on to win a Bafta award and the Prix Italia for documentaries.

“No one will ever forget the imagery and the way in which the ordinary stuff of rural existence was touched with wonder” – The Independent

Commentary – English

Running Time – 54 Minutes Approx