In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the horse who works tirelessly and dies is named Boxer.
Boxer is the farm’s enormous, loyal cart-horse and one of its strongest laborers. His personal mottoes are “I will work harder” and, later, “Napoleon is always right.” He devotes himself to rebuilding the windmill and repeatedly accepts longer hours, even when food is scarce and his body is failing.
After Boxer collapses from age and overwork, Napoleon’s regime claims it is sending him to a veterinary hospital. Benjamin the donkey recognizes that the van actually belongs to a knacker, a horse slaughterer. The animals realize the truth too late: Boxer has been sold, and the pigs use the money to buy whisky. Squealer then invents a false story about Boxer’s compassionate treatment and peaceful death.
Boxer’s fate is central to Orwell’s political allegory. He represents hardworking members of the Russian working class whose loyalty helped sustain the Soviet system but who were exploited by its leadership. Napoleon is the farm’s dictator, Benjamin is the skeptical donkey, and Clover is Boxer’s fellow horse—not the horse who dies.