War Horse is, at its core, a story about finding courage through friendship. Though many of the characters are brave on their own, the love and loyalty they have for each other get them through the terrors of war. Victories are made not through leaning on their own strength but by working together and inspiring courage in one another. In the end, only the love shared between the friends makes the war worth fighting.

Joey and Albert have the strongest friendship in the novel. Albert proclaims that he knows Joey “as if he were [his] own brother” (12), and Joey, upon first meeting Albert, knows he has “found a friend for life” (7). The two are inseparable, and when Albert promises Joey he will find him again, he is good for his word. When the two of them are finally reunited again, it is Albert who nurses Joey back to health, and his “constant presence [keeps Joey] alive” (139). In addition to Albert, Joey is surrounded by friends at the veterinary hospital that are “all a source of great encouragement to [him]” (139). They want Joey to live for his own sake and Albert’s because they know how much Joey means to him.