Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-hah

Biography
"Kidnapped, or stolen, or captured - whichever you like to call it. My mother warned me not to range the Southern slopes, into Archenland and beyond, but I wouldn't heed her. And by the Lion's Mane I have paid for my folly. All these years I have been a slave to humans, hiding my true nature and pretending to be dumb and witless like their horses."

- Bree

When he was just a foal, Bree was abducted from Narnia when he strayed too far into the southern slopes. He hid his identity as a Talking Horse and was eventually sold to Anradin, a Calormene Tarkaan. Anradin rode Bree out to war many times, and Bree was treated well because of his value as a battle charger. However, Bree never stopped trying to formulate an escape back to his homeland.

One night, while on a journey, his master stopped to seek hospitality at the cottage of Arsheesh. While spending the night in Bree's poor makeshift stable, a boy named Shasta, who lived with Arsheesh, overheard Arsheesh negotiating with Anradin to sell him as a slave. Seeing his chance for escape, Bree revealed his identity as a Talking Horse to the boy, and talked him into escaping north with him to Narnia.

Also eager for freedom, and for the chance to see Narnia, Shasta quickly agreed, and they set out together. To deceive Anradin and Arsheesh, Bree created a decoy track pointing south.

Because Shasta had no experience at horse riding, Bree had to teach him as they traveled north for several weeks. He reacted scornfully when Shasta told him that the only experience he had at riding was with a donkey, but softened because Shasta was still only a child. Shasta initially found it difficult, he painfully fell off Bree many times, which was very funny in Bree's eyes.

Then, one night, they were attacked by a lion, at which point Bree admitted to Shasta his terror of lions. While fleeing from the lion, the two met Aravis, a high-born Tarkheena escaping an arranged marriage, and another Talking Horse named Hwin. Since both were fleeing to Narnia, the two pairs of refugees agreed to travel together.

While they were traveling through the capital city Tashbaan in disguise, Shasta was mistaken temporarily for Prince Corin of Archenland, who was visiting Calormen under the care of a Narnian delegation, headed by Queen Susan and King Edmund.

Meanwhile, Aravis had snuck into the Tisroc's palace to get help from her friend, Lasaraleen, and accidentally overheard the plans of Prince Rabadash to invade Archenland and abduct Queen Susan. With Lasaraleen's help, Aravis, Bree and Hwin were able to get through Tashbaan, and regroup at the Tombs of the Ancient Kings, where they rejoined with Shasta, who managed to escape the Narnian delegation when he met up with the real Prince Corin.

Bree and his friends then decided to ride to Anvard in Archenland, to warn King Lune about the invasion. They completed a harrowing three-day, nonstop journey across the Great Desert just ahead of Rabadash's invasion force, and fell asleep just soon after arriving at the Winding Arrow River.

The following morning, after they realized that they have lost too much time, they were forced to start out again at a gallop, pursued by Rabadash's army. When they on the verge of collapse, another lion attacked them, forcing them on out of sheer terror, and wounded Aravis. They met the Hermit of the Southern March, who urged Shasta on alone, leaving an utterly exhausted Bree and Hwin behind, along with a badly injured Aravis.

While Shasta was meeting up with King Lune and fighting at Anvard, Bree encountered Aslan at long last, who revealed Himself to be the lion that had chased them all the way through Calormen, and Bree had his know-it-all pride taken down a notch by the Hermit, who reminded him that although he was unique among the dumb beasts of Calormen, he would be "nobody very special in Narnia".

The Hermit is able to see the events of the Battle of Anvard from afar, and related all the happenings to the Horses and Aravis as they occur. Shasta, now revealed to be the long-lost Prince Cor, and the rightful heir to the throne of Archenland, returned to collect Bree, Hwin and Aravis from the Hermit, and after the conflict with Archenland was resolved, the Horses continued on to Narnia.

Little is known about Bree's later life, save that he eventually married a Narnian mare, lived to a ripe old age, and frequently visited Cor and Aravis at Anvard.

After his death, he is known to have entered Aslan's Country.

Personality
Bree is portrayed as rather conceited, and the less sensible of the two Talking Horses. He resists having his tail cut short for their Tashbaan disguise because it ruins his warhorse image, and he frequently brags about his experience in the many wars of Calormen. Hwin teasingly compares Bree's vanity to Lasaraleen's.

Bree is at first critical of Shasta, often deriding him for his ignorance, despite his genuine affection and protectiveness of the boy, while he has no problem chatting with the aristocratic and even more snobbish Aravis. He becomes somewhat more down-to-earth, though, after his encounter with Aslan.

For all his vanity, though, Bree can be very insecure, reluctantly voicing his worry that he will be rejected by his fellow Talking Horses if they see him rolling in the grass, but for the most part he is very brave, his only demonstrated phobia being that of lions.

Bree is also quite nostalgic and patriotic, singing the praises of Narnia over Calormen and even Archenland, and frequently exclaiming, "Narnia and the North!" However, despite his love for Narnia, Bree did not believe that Aslan was in fact a lion; he believed that it was a metaphor to describe Aslan's strength and fierceness. This error in his thinking is possibly related to his terror of lions. Bree thought it would be absurd and disrespectful to call Aslan a literal lion, because he would have to be a Talking Beast. Bree's view of Aslan may be a reference to the Christian heresies of docetism and Arianism, which declared that Christ was not actually a man. Aslan corrected Bree, saying, "Touch me. Smell me. Here are my paws, here is my tail, these are my whiskers. I am a true Beast." The scene has striking parallels both to the Last Supper and to Christ's post-resurrection appearance to St. Thomas.

Trivia

 * Bree's colouring was not mentioned in the book, but Pauline Baynes drew him as a white horse.
 * In J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, "Bree" was the name of a town of men and hobbits in the north of the region of Eriador.

Breehy-hinny-brinny-hoohy-hah