The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West

The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West is a novel by Mary Stanton, and was first published in 1988. It is a fantasy novel primarily about horses. A central concept is the Army of One Hundred and Five, each breed of horse represented by a male and female pair in the Courts of the Outermost West.

The main characters of The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West are Duchess, a greyed-out Appaloosa mare, and the Dancer, first in the Army of One Hundred and Five.

Horses are represented as "by instinct and their own Laws, herd animals," with a strictly observed order of precedence: Lead Mare, Second-In-Command, Story-Teller, Caretaker, and unranked. Some herds ... have Dreamspeakers—mares blessed with dreams from the mouth of Equus, the horse god."

A herd Dreamspeaker (or, at great need, some other creature) can walk the path to the moon to communicate with the gods and goddesses, who in turn observe mortal happenings through the Watching Pool. (There are similar concepts in the author's series Unicorns of Balinor.)

The sequel to The Heavenly Horse from the Outermost West is Piper at the Gate.