Based on the name Strawberry alone, I would cast a dappled chestnut. 😍 I'd also love for Fledge to stay chestnut, because of how iconic it would be compared to a gray or black Pegasus. As a girl I loved all the different colors a Pegasus could have in the movie Fantasia.

So I'm going to play horse geek here and mention dapples are actually a sign of a healthy coat. They tend to not be another color and only show in certain light. 

So are you talking about actual dapples or more like white in the coat? 

I could see Strawberry as a liver chestnut as they tend to be dark and get sun bleached and then fledge could be the same color but a deeper red. 

I'm thinking thoroughbred for the breed, but not a racing thoroughbred. My boy was bred for jumping so he was 17.3 (extremely tall for a thoroughbred) and big boned. 

I think it could be a powerful visual choice for Strawberry to stay the same color after gaining wings, as it could emphasize that his transformation is not about becoming something new, but becoming more fully himself? Keeping his original color could reinforce the idea that the magic didn’t replace who he was; it revealed the nobility and potential that was already within him.

Posted by: @starkat

What breed could you see Strawberry being?

Well, canonically, "'is father was a hofficer's charger in the cavalry", according to Frank (MN Chapter 7). I've done a bit of Googling and a variety of horse breeds were used in the cavalry in the UK, but likely ones would be Irish Draught (still used by the Royal Family's Household Cavalry today) or Thoroughbred. Those are very athletic breeds, commonly used for equestrian sports to this day, and Thoroughbreds in particular are known for being high-spirited (they're the standard breed of racehorse in the UK and many other countries).

So that's at least half Strawberry's ancestry — we're not given any information about his mother, unless I'm misremembering and just can't find it in the book. (I think I'm also mentally mixing him up a bit with one of my other favourite literary horses, Black Beauty, who is definitely at least part Thoroughbred, and incidentally also spends part of his life as a London cab horse with a very kind-hearted owner.) 

What color?

I've always felt it's heavily implied by Strawberry's name that he's a strawberry roan — that is, chestnut mixed with very fine white flecks, so that at a distance, the coat looks light red. I've found a website here that gives a description and some good photos.

We're told specifically that when Strawberry becomes Fledge, the feathers in his wings "shone chestnut colour and copper colour", which would match a strawberry roan coat very well, so I'd say that lends further weight to that being his colour (although I don't know how familiar Lewis actually was with horses' coat colours and the terminology for them).

Would you like to see a change of color from Strawberry to Fledge?

I don't think it's necessary, especially with that implication in the text that his wings match his existing colour. It might also feel a bit like laying on the "magic effects" with a trowel if he changes colour... I mean, this isn't The Wizard of Oz.

What kind of voice would you want to hear?

A while back I was doing a comparison of the two radio play adaptations of the Chronicles (I'd like to get back to that, when I have time), and I've just checked my notes... Focus on the Family gave him something like a Cockney accent, which sounded utterly ridiculous for a horse (especially one who ends up becoming Narnia's equivalent of Pegasus). The BBC Radio play made him sound like a rather posh gentleman, which didn't really work for me either, although it was less jarring than the other version. I'm really not sure what would be right, but it would be nice if it sounded like the sort of voice you could believe a horse would speak with, without sounding too comical or exaggerated. 

Who would you like to see in that role?

Well, we won't "see" the actor in question, as it's a voice role... I don't mind, as long as, again, it's someone who sounds convincing. I've also remarked elsewhere that Strawberry — unlike Aslan — is one character who could be gender-swapped without it making any major difference to the character or to the plot as a whole. So if they decide they need another important female character and they make Strawberry a she, I don't think I'd find that a problem. 

Posted by: @starkat

dapples are actually a sign of a healthy coat.

I'm okay with that technicality, as it would be a sign to horse geeks that Frank really cares for his horse.

Posted by: @courtenay

I've always felt it's heavily implied by Strawberry's name that he's a strawberry roan — that is, chestnut mixed with very fine white flecks, so that at a distance, the coat looks light red. I've found a website here that gives a description and some good photos.

We're told specifically that when Strawberry becomes Fledge, the feathers in his wings "shone chestnut colour and copper colour", which would match a strawberry roan coat very well.

Good ideas! And maybe that description is why I was thinking chestnut.

I often have wondered why C. S. Lewis renamed the horse Strawberry Fledge.  Apparently it has to do with the fact that the horse actually learns to fly like a bird leaving the nest. And Fledge may come from the word fledgling, which refers to young birds which are learning to fly. There also is the connection with Pegasus, the flying horse, which is from classical mythology. The reader of The Magician’s Nephew must believe that a horse can actually fly, but since Narnia is a magical land that is possible. 🙂

@narnian78 The verb "to fledge" literally means to grow feathers — that's what a fledgling is, a young bird that has grown its feathers, ready to begin flying. So the name does suit a horse who has just grown wings. Maybe the name change is Lewis's way, through Aslan, of giving the formerly Earthly horse a more Narnian-sounding name and identity. "Strawberry" is a rather cutesy name given to him by humans, whereas "Fledge" is the sort of name many Narnian creatures have — derived from English and suggesting something about their nature (like Trufflehunter, Pattertwig, Glenstorm, Puddleglum, Jewel and so on). It certainly sounds more appropriate for him than the name of a fruit, once he becomes a flying horse! 

Posted by: @starkat

So I'm going to play horse geek here and mention dapples are actually a sign of a healthy coat. They tend to not be another color and only show in certain light. 

So are you talking about actual dapples or more like white in the coat? 

I could see Strawberry as a liver chestnut as they tend to be dark and get sun bleached and then fledge could be the same color but a deeper red. 

I'm thinking thoroughbred for the breed, but not a racing thoroughbred. My boy was bred for jumping so he was 17.3 (extremely tall for a thoroughbred) and big boned. 

I'm not all that well-up in knowledge of which breed of horse is which, internationally, when unlike what seems like much of the rest of Australia's population, my interest in betting on anything, even horses, is usually confined to Melbourne Cup Day, The Big Race & the related Office Sweeps.  So, could someone please explain to me how a Strawberry Roan would actually look like? The main home breed of Australian horses, that I know of, is the Waler, because the Waler was bred in Southern New South Wales, around Wagga Wagga, where the university library there, is said to be used to students tethering their horses outside the library, & when it sponsored the equestrian events at the Sydney Olympics, supplying standard horses for events. Usually, Walers are some kind of deeper shade of brown, and they are the sort of steady, reliable horses, still used for police work, rather than as thoroughbred racehorses, like those arriving over the ditch from New Zealand, or elsewhere, Ireland for instance. 

I remember the only Western I ever attended as a child, in a Saturday afternoon matinee, was called "The Strawberry Roan". When the Cabbie's horse was called Strawberry, in the Magician's Nephew, I immediately assumed the horse must be something like the Strawberry Roan in the movie I had seen. That is to say, maybe a sort of mid tan colour, as far as I could see. What colour is a Roan horse, normally, anyway? I'd go with @starkat's reddish coloured horse, if only because it seems more logical to me to tie the horse to the equine term.  

@Courtenay 

So that's at least half Strawberry's ancestry — we're not given any information about his mother

According to one of the sites you linked to, only one Roan gene is needed for a horse to be a Roan horse. 

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

So, could someone please explain to me how a Strawberry Roan would actually look like?

Hi Wagga, I found this link earlier, which I included in a previous post — it has a couple of really good photos.

"Roan", by the way, doesn't mean the same thing as "dappled" — it's a pretty much even mixture of white hairs with the base colour over most of the horse's body, except for the head, legs, mane and tail. You can also have red roans (mixture of white with bay, a darker brown than chestnut) and blue roans (white with black), but it's the white with chestnut mix that's traditionally called strawberry roan, and that's the most obvious reason I can think of for giving a horse the name Strawberry!  

@Courtenay

Well, canonically, "'is father was a hofficer's charger in the cavalry", according to Frank (MN Chapter 7). 

Thank you for the link.   I also looked at another link, headed About the Waler. I really got a surprise, when the Waler Horse Society of Australia information sheet published this:

Walers were used overseas as remounts for the cavalry, as artillery horses, and as carriage and sport horses for both the British Army and the Raj in India.  By 1867, the Waler was regarded by the British as amongst the finest cavalry horse in the world.  Horses were exported from the colony as early as 1816 through private sales and the flourishing remount trade which ran from the 1830s till the 1960s.

Walers were supplied to the Australian army for the Boer War, where mounted on their strong robust Walers, the Australians established an enviable reputation for their horses and their horsemanship.  Later in WWI, the Waler became legendary with the Australian Light Horse for their feats of endurance and courage in the desert campaigns and later in France.

The picture is black & white which doesn't tell anyone anything, but it is abundantly clear that if Strawberry's father was a cavalry horse, then he could very well have come from Australia, given our heavy reliance on them, and their sterling performance in WW1. It is sad that the Walers had to be left behind in Europe & the Middle East, when Australian soldiers returned to Australia.  

There were only a few horse farms in the area where I live. In fact many people don’t seem to want to keep them because the urbanization of our area. I can understand the problems of riding a horse in areas where the traffic of automobiles has increased. In The Magician’s Nephew the automobile was not yet invented so Strawberry/Fledge did not have to encounter the problems caused by the cars, although the towns were congested enough with horses and buggies. So Fledge was an urban horse that became more like something out of classical mythology. That is quite a transformation. 🙂

I could definitely see a strawberry roan. It would have to be a stronger roan pattern to show up on camera, but hopefully not enough to look overly white. Roans don't show up in thoroughbreds so it would have to be a different breed. 

Courtney, I had forgotten about the charger being part of Strawberry's background. Thanks for that! 

Wagga, roans here in the US tend the be Blue (black base, goes total white as they age), Bay, Red, or strawberry. The difference between a red and strawberry roan is literally the shade of red in the base coat. Breeding for the roan gene over here seems to be currently popular in the quarter horse breed. 

Walers are gorgeous. Even though the picture is black and white, the horse is likely black or a deep red. Lighter reds tend to show up as a brighter gray in black and white photos. I would say bay, but the black socks would be more evident. Thanks for sharing that part of history with us! 

I could see Strawberry going from roan to a solid chestnut with some chrome (white on the legs) during the transformation to Fledge just to emphasize the change. 

The voice, I'd like someone who does tired and worn out into young and energetic really well. I wasn't too crazy about the way FotF Radio theatre did the voice because they kept trying to emphasize the species through the voice. I liked what they did with Phillip in Walden's LWW.