This was one of those films that got aired in school in lieu of class on the day before a vacation break. IIRC, there was no spoken dialogue (or very little).
The story was about a young lad and his favorite horse. What was most memorable about it to me was one crucial scene - the boy goes out riding alone on a bleak, rainy day and happens to come across another horseback rider in a long tunic & hood. It turns out the rider is Death - the boy peers under the rider’s hood and sees a skeleton. Frightened, the boy rides away, but the horse has an accident, tripping & falling & getting caught in a muddy pond. There is a sequence in which a lot of men try valiantly to pull the horse out of the pond and get it back on it’s feet, but the horse is too panicked, and its’ kicking & flailing only causes it to get sucked further down into the pond, and dying. (Either it drowns or it has to be put down - I can’t remember.)
I just remember being a little traumatized by that film - the rider being revealed as the Grim Reaper was actually very scary for a first grade classroom, and the absence of dialogue and depressing downbeat ending kind of threw me. But for the life of me, I can’t remember what the title of this movie is; does it ring any bells?
If it weren’t for the supernatural aspect, I’d say Run Wild, Run Free (1969). Very little dialogue (main character doesn’t speak). Horse caught in mud. But no Grim Reaper.
-I remember seeing it in first or second grade, which was around '76 or '77.
-It was color.
-I’m guessing it was a children’s movie (since we watched it in first/second grade). At least, it didn’t have anything in it of an offensive nature (except for the skeletal image of Death).
-I don’t remember any overtly religious overtones. Though they might have slipped by me at that age.
-Not quite. Since there was no dialogue, there were no accents or idenitifiable speech patterns. It all took place in a countryside setting (as opposed to a western setting.) It may have been English or European.
Sorry for the vagueness, but I haven’t seen the flick in at least 30 years.