The title above is from a novel by one of the great American writers, Cormac McCarthy, and its German title is translated precisely as All die schönen Pferde. This isn't always the case with book and film titles in German. For instance, the Spaghetti Western classic Once Upon a Time in the West by Sergio Leone is titled Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod  in German—"Play Me the Song of Death"—not a bad alternate title. But this lesson is about horses, not noir Westerns, so let's hop back in the saddle!

A number of German idioms use horses as their subjects:

Wohl aufs falsche Pferd gesetzt, hm?

Probably bet on the wrong horse, hm?

Caption 19, Marga Engel schlägt zurück: Der Engel von Leipzig

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The idiom above happens to have the same meaning as its English translation, which is not always the case.

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Die Griechen hatten ein riesiges hölzernes Pferd auf Rädern gebaut, zwanzigmal größer als ein richtiges Pferd.

The Greeks had built a giant wooden horse on wheels, twenty times larger than a real horse.

Captions 42-43, Märchen - Sagenhaft: Das Trojanische Pferd

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The idiomatic usage of "Trojan horse," which means to accept a gift (or story, etc.) that turns out to have negative effects, is used in both English and German. This is the opposite of the English idiom "don't look a gift horse in the mouth," which means you shouldn't be unappreciative or critical of a gift. If the Trojans had only looked that gift horse in the mouth, they might have won the war.

Solange wir keine Gewissheit haben, sollten wir die Pferde nicht scheu machen.

As long as we aren't certain, we shouldn't make the horses shy.

Caption 11, Großstadtrevier: Schatten der Vergangenheit

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This idiom sounds a bit odd in English, but die Pferde scheu machen means to cause unnecessary alarm. In this case, the police didn't want to tip off the suspects that they were on to their game.

Hans Schmidt ist das beste Pferd im Stall.
Hans Schmidt is the best horse in the stable.

There may be a horse somewhere named Hans Schmidt, but in the context of a person, the phrase das beste Pferd im Stall sein means that somebody is the best coworker or the best person in a group of people.

Wir kommen vom Pferd auf den Esel.
We’re coming from the horse onto the donkey.

The literal English translation of the German idiom above makes little sense, whereas a literary translation would be "We're falling on hard times" or "Things are going badly." But to conclude:

Ein Pferd bleibt immer Pferd.

A horse always remains a horse.

Caption 37, Monsters of Liedermaching: Ein Pferd

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As we have seen in the idioms above, when using the word "horse" metaphorically, it can mean everything but a horse!

Further Learning
Go to Yabla German and search for "horse" or Pferd to see the different usages of the noun in context. You can also read about other idioms relating to das Pferd on the German language website Redensarten-Index. Meanwhile, we at Yabla wish you all a happy ride into the sunset...

After looking at the two-way preposition in last week, let's continue our series with an. This preposition is also a two-way preposition and is used in a multitude of contexts, including with the accusative case to express movement from one place to another.

We use an rather than nach or in in some contexts where we will end up next to or to the side of something rather than in or on it. 

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Sarah, komm du doch mal bitte an die Tafel.

Sarah, come up to the blackboard, please.

Caption 5, Bundesländer und ihre Spezialitäten - Baden-Württemberg

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Ich gehe rüber ans Fenster

I go over to the window

Caption 5, Philipp Poisel - Wie soll ein Mensch das ertragen?

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An is also used when we are going to a place that forms a boundary or edge. In particular, you can memorize an die Küste and an den Strand.

Natali und Florian zieht es zunächst an die Küste Cornwalls.

Natali and Florian proceed first to the coast of Cornwall.

Caption 28, Abenteuer Nordsee - Unter Riesenhaien und Tintenfischen

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In dieser Nacht segelten sie zurück an den Strand von Troja.

That night they sailed back to the beach of Troy.

Caption 80, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Das Trojanische Pferd

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Eine neue Hiobsbotschaft

A new piece of bad news

ist die plötzliche Abberufung Tresckows an die Ostfront.

is the sudden recall of Tresckow to the Eastern Front.

Captions 80-81, Die Stunde der Offiziere - Dokudrama über den 20. Juli 1944

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Und man davonfliegen möchte, so leicht wie eine kleine, weiße Feder,

And you would like to fly away, as light as a little white feather

bis ans Ende der Welt.

to the end of the world.

Captions 32-33, Piggeldy und Frederick - Das Fernweh

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Further Learning
Other places/nouns that are commonly paired with the preposition an when they are the destination include die Kreuzung (the intersection), die Wand (the wall), and die Grenze (the border). With all three of these examples, an + the accusative is only used when the barrier is NOT being crossed or traversed and it is simply a matter of going/driving/walking "up to" it. When you see an on Yabla German, you can quickly note whether it's being used with the accusative to mean "to" or with the dative to mean "at" or "on." Don't forget, however, that an also appears in contexts that have nothing to do with going or being anywhere (for example, an etwas denken).

The German noun das Unglück is often translated as "misfortune" or "bad luck" in English:

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König Priamos erklärte, es würde Unglück bringen.

King Priam said it would bring bad luck.

Caption 51, Märchen - Sagenhaft - Das Trojanische Pferd

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But das Unglück can also be an accident or a disaster: 

Es war ein großes Unglück mit dem Vulkanausbruch in Island.

It has been a big disaster with the volcano erupting in Iceland.

Caption 3, Reisen - während des Vulkanausbruchs

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There is also an idiomatic usage of das Unglück: 

Wir haben Glück im Unglück,

We have luck in misfortune [idiom, a blessing in disguise]

dass wir jetzt ein paar Tage länger hier in Spanien sein dürfen.

that we may now spend a few more days in Spain.

Caption 24, Reisen - während des Vulkanausbruchs

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The rendering as "luck in misfortune" is literal, but the idiom is akin to the English "a blessing in disguise," when good things come out of seemingly bad occurrences.

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Further Learning
But let's not end this lesson on a sour note, instead let's give it das Happy End or das Happyend (a German pseudo-anglicism for a "happy ending"). The opposite of das Unglück is das Glück, which can be translated as "happiness," "good luck," or "good fortune," among other happier words. Do a search for the word Glück on Yabla German and see how the different contexts of its usage can help you understand it better in a real world context.