The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Brooks, Geraldine. Horse. Viking, 2022.

Geraldine Brooks’ novel Horse is written from the third-person perspective. Brooks utilizes the past tense throughout the narrative. While the story unfolds nonlinearly, this summary presents its events in a linear order.

13-year-old Jarret Lewis is a slave on a horse farm in mid-19th century Kentucky. His father, Harry, is emancipated but does not have enough money to purchase his son’s freedom from the farm’s owner, Dr. Warfield. Harry and Jarret each have strong connections to the horses on the farm. In 1850, a new foal named Darley is born. A painter, Thomas Scott, arrives at the property to complete portraits of Dr. Warfield’s horses. Jarret assists him in preparing the horses. Dr. Warfield offers Harry, who he employs as a trainer, ownership of Darley in place of his year’s wages. Jarret begins to establish a strong bond with Darley.

Two years later, Scott returns to the property. He paints a portrait of Darley and gives it to Jarret. Jarret diligently trains Darley, who shows great promise as a racehorse. In 1853, Darley wins his first race and attracts much attention. Scott paints another portrait of the horse. A track owner from Louisiana named Richard Ten Broeck blackmails Dr. Warfield by threatening to reveal that Harry is Darley’s true owner; Dr. Warfield agrees, then, to sell the horse to Ten Broeck. With the help of Dr. Warfield’s granddaughter, Mary Barr, Jarret attempts to escape with Darley. Ten Broeck disrupts the plan and offers to buy Jarret along with the horse.

Ten Broeck and Jarret travel to Mississippi with Darley, now known as Lexington. Ten Broeck plans on training the horse at a farm in Natchez. At the farm, Lexington’s new trainer, Pryor, prohibits Jarret from assisting with the horse. Months later, Pryor calls Jarret to help with Lexington, who has fallen sick with colic. Jarret nurses Lexington back to health. During his time at the farm, Jarret learns to read. Soon, Ten Broeck summons Jarret and Lexington to his track in Louisiana.

In New Orleans, Jarret prepares Lexington for a race against a well-known filly. Scott helps Jarret to place a bet using money that his father gave him. Lexington commandingly wins the race, and the filly dies from exhaustion. Mary Barr writes to Jarret to inform him that Harry has died. Scott begins a romantic relationship with a man in New Orleans.

Ten Broeck hosts a race to determine the fastest thoroughbred in the country. Again, Lexington wins the race. Mary Barr, in New Orleans to watch the competition, warns Jarret about the potential for war around the question of slavery. To Jarret’s dismay, Ten Broeck agrees to race Lexington against Lecompte, a notable rival, just days after his most recent contest. Lecompte beats Lexington; some suspect that Ten Broeck bet against his own horse. Ten Broeck then organizes a ‘Race Against Time’ in which Lexington successfully beats Lecompte’s record. Lexington’s new jockey realizes that the horse is growing blind and that Jarret has been hiding this fact. In a subsequent race, Lexington beats Lecompte. Ten Broeck discovers that Jarret has been concealing Lexington’s blindness; he sells both Jarret and Lexington to Robert Alexander, a landowner in Kentucky.

By 1861, Jarret has helped to establish Lexington as one of the premier stud sires in the country. Scott gives another portrait of Lexington to Jarret. Jarret begins a romantic relationship with May, a slave whose husband had been sold south. At the start of the Civil War, Scott joins the Union Army. In 1865, May’s husband returns to Kentucky. Jarret gives May and her husband one of the portraits of Lexington.

Scott visits Jarret at the farm in Kentucky. He paints a portrait of Lexington and Jarret. A group of Confederate soldiers raids the farm, steals several of Lexington’s progeny, and kidnaps Scott. Jarret, riding Lexington, pursues the rebels and kills two of them before freeing Scott and rescuing the stolen horses. Years later, Jarret—a free man—travels to New York to buy a portrait of Lexington (now dead), painted by Scott. He then returns to his home in Canada.

In 1954, Martha Jackson, an art dealer in New York, visits Jackson Pollock’s studio. Martha’s housekeeper, Annie, asks her to evaluate a painting that has been in her family for many years. Martha contemplates her mother, who died after falling from her horse. Annie brings Martha the painting; it is a portrait of Lexington, the great-grandsire of Martha’s mother’s horse. Although Martha initially attempts to sell the painting to Paul Mellon, she eventually sells her convertible to Pollock and uses the funds to buy the painting for herself.

In 2019, a young Black art historian named Theo finds a painting of a horse in his neighbor’s trash. He recalls his childhood in Australia and the United Kingdom, as well as his diplomat parents and his love for polo. He begins to research equine portraiture and, in particular, depictions of enslaved peoples in these paintings. In a museum, he sees a painting that includes Harry. Meanwhile, Jess—an Australian osteologist working at the Smithsonian—looks for a misplaced horse skeleton. She escorts a researcher, Catherine, to a dilapidated museum attic, where they find the skeleton. Catherine informs her that the skeleton belongs to Lexington, one of the country’s greatest racehorses. They decide to collaborate on a research project involving the skeleton.

As she leaves the museum, Jess sees a Black man (Theo) near a bike that resembles hers; in a moment of accidental but blatant racism, she briefly accuses him of theft. Theo soon takes his painting to the Smithsonian to have it evaluated; he plans to write an article about the process. He learns that the horse in the painting is Lexington. At the Smithsonian, he officially meets Jess, who is embarrassed after their initial encounter. They bond over their shared connection to Australia and, after several meetings, begin a romantic relationship. In the course of her research, Jess discovers that Lexington had gone blind. At a dinner with Theo and Jess, Catherine offends Theo by dismissing the importance of race. Theo continues to research paintings of Lexington; he finds that Martha Jackson left one portrait to the Smithsonian, while a painting with a groom named Jarret remains missing. He soon learns that the painting he found in the trash is worth fifteen thousand dollars; he resolves to return it to his neighbor, who appears somewhat racist. One night, Theo jogs in a park and finds an injured woman. Police arrive as he attempts to help the woman. Showing clear racial bias, the police perceive Theo as a threat and fatally shoot him. Protests and investigations ensue, but the officer is exonerated. Jess, distraught, returns the painting of Lexington to Theo’s neighbor; the neighbor then sells the painting to a museum in Kentucky, which Jess visits. As the coronavirus pandemic sets in, Jess returns to Australia.