The Grey Horse is a historical fantasy novel by R. A. MacAvoy, first published in 1987.
The novel is set in Carraroe, a fishing village on the west coast of Ireland, in the early part of the twentieth century. Anraí Ó Reachtaire, a horse trainer, finds a magnificent grey stallion wandering without any halter or bridle, and takes it home with the intention of adding it to his stable if nobody claims it. He discovers that the horse is actually a shapeshifting púca named Ruairí, who has taken an interest in one of the village's inhabitants. Ruairí takes employment as one of Anraí's hands, and while pursuing his own business finds himself becoming involved in the various struggles of the villagers, many of which involve clashes between the village's traditional way of life and the impositions of the English.
This work contains examples of:
- Antagonistic Offspring: Anraí has an antagonistic relationship with his son Seosamh, who is a wastrel with a gambling problem. In the course of the novel, Seosamh, facing imminent consequences from his pile of gambling debts, pins his hopes on inheriting Anraí's property; he doesn't have it in him to murder his father outright, but deliberately provokes him to worsen his already poor health, and even tries to have him arrested on a false charge of being part of a nationalist conspiracy.
- Chocolate Baby: Mary Stanton is the result of an affair her mother had, which is obvious to everyone because she's tall and dark in striking contrast to her small, fair father and (half-)sister.
- Destroy the Evidence: After a government agent sent to investigate the villagers for nationalist sedition goes missing, the local landowner who had been hosting him discovers his hidden notes outlining the evidence against two suspected ringleaders. One is an accusation against Anraí, which he knows is a Malicious Slander, and the other is, he (correctly) suspects, proof of genuine seditious activity. After some reflection, he burns both.
- Distant Finale: The final chapter depicts an outsider visiting the village sixty years after the rest of the story, showing how times have changed and what became of the main characters.
- Eyes Are Mental: Ruairí still has horse-like eyes when he shifts into the form of a man, with large irises filling the visible part of the eye. His irises are dark enough that the pupil isn't clearly disguishable, which may be why nobody comments on the shape of his pupils.
- The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Mary and Eileen Stanton. Eileen is pretty, attractive, popular but not especially bright; Mary is an intellectual with political leanings, not so attractive by conventional standards, and not popular. They spend most of the book quarelling, and when Ruairí starts courting Mary, Eileen attempts (with a complete lack of success) to poach him, but when Eileen gets into real trouble at the end of the book Mary instantly has her back.
- Never Gets Drunk: Ruairí is completely unaffected by alcohol. Anraí asks if this is because he's one of the Fair Folk, and he says that really it's because he has the constitution of a horse even when he's in human form. Some of the other men of the village, not knowing his heritage, take him as a challenge and regularly invite him out to the pub in the hope that if they keep buying him drinks he'll eventually start showing some effect.
- Our Fairies Are Different: The Grey Horse takes its cue from Irish legends. The main character, Ruairí, is a púca who can take the form of a horse or a man.
- Rewatch Bonus: When Anraí first encounters the grey horse, it's standing on a hillside overlooking the village and appears to be watching one of John Stanton's fishing boats being unloaded at the harbour, prompting Anraí to remark that he doesn't see what there is in a fishing boat to attract a horse's attention. If the scene is reread with knowledge of Ruairí's nature and mission, it's much clearer what (or rather, who) the attraction is.
- Shapeshifter Baggage: Discussed. After learning that Ruairí is a púca, Father Ó Murchú wonders where his clothes come from when he turns from a horse into a man. Ruairí explains that as part of the magic, whatever clothes he puts on when he's in human form disappear when he changes and come back when he resumes human form again. He acquired his current suit over thirty years earlier, but it's still in excellent condition because in that time it's only actively existed for less than a year.
- Take a Third Option: Seosamh's plans for disposing of his father's property are based on the assumption that the property will be left either to him directly, as his father's only son, or to his mother, who he's always been able to talk into doing what he wants. After his father's death, he learns that his father found a third option that cuts Seosamh out entirely: leaving the property jointly to the hands who helped run the property, on condition that they made sure his widow was cared for.
- Translation Convention: The characters are usually speaking Connacht Irish rather than English; all the dialogue is presented in English, with the narrator noting which language is being spoken and, where appropriate, how badly.
- Translator Microbes: Ruairí can magically understand and speak any language as long as he has his feet on the ground. (Paved roads and houses with proper floors don't count as on the ground.)
