There are famous horses. I’ll bet you can think of a few with no effort at all.
Off the top of my head there were famous real horses, such as Alexander’s Bucephalous, Caesar’s strange toed-steed which I think was also Bucephalous, the Roman Senator Incitatus, Gen. Custer’s Comanche, and famous race horses like Dan Patch, Man o’ War, Seabiscuit, Secretariat. While the October Horse was real in ancient history, does the Trojan Horse count as historical or fictional? It seems to gallop between history and fiction. But on the fiction side, think of Gandalf’s Shadowfax and Sam’s humbler Bill, Veillantif and Tencendur, Black Beauty, Flika, Trigger, Silver, Ed.
I watch the day by day reporting 150 years after the fact on the Civil War Daily Gazette.
Today we learn about another famous and very real horse, Gen. Robert E. Lee’s horse Traveller. Lee and Traveller met, 150 years ago today.
Canter on over and read about him here.
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After the war, Traveller went with his master to Washington College, later Washington & Lee University. He’s buried just outside the Lee Memorial Chapel where his master lies.
Traveller’s Grave
Rienzi, renamed Winchester, was General Sheridan’s horse and is now stuffed, in the Smithsonian.
Bad taxidermy job
My favorite horse in fiction is Romany Baw in Donn Byrne’s story of that name. Among the racers, I’m partial to Bold Ruler and Northern Dancer because they are both back of my 16hh T’bred, Full of Grace, who is now retired and carrying the Special Olympics kids around. Very atypical T’bred, beauty and brains and a perfect temperament. Have never found a horse good enough to replace her.
Gracie, shoulder-in
Poor Shergar.
Artax, The Neverending Story.
I’m not surprised. My first trail horse was a five gaited American Saddlebred and he was a lot of fun, flashy, honest, willing, and very spirited. I could control him with only the pressure of leg and my pinky finger on the reins. He was very possibly the best trail horse I ever owned. Good endurance too, my sister had an Arabian, and after a days ride we’d cool them out and my Saddlebred would act tired but the Arabian did not–but the NEXT morning, my Saddlebred was always in a good mood and ready to go again, but the Arabian was grumpy. If I had to ride all day every day as they did, I’d either want another Saddlebred or a Missouri Foxtrotter, another excellent AMERICAN breed of horse.
Trigger (& Bullet) will be on a float in the 2012 Rose Parade-
Napoleon’s Marengo, George Washington’s Mockingbird, Tom Mix’s Tony. And dozens of great racehorses, of course.
and then there’s around horsing –
At the Eastern States Exposition in two more days to see most beloved Clydesdales with names of high rank (such as General and Chief) and the draft horse show at the Coliseum. Some of God’s glory to behold. Big eyes and soft hearts.
Remember Fury, Bobby’s horse at 11:00 Sat. morning TV?
Fiction horses: Walter Farley’s Black Stallion, The Blood Bay Colt and the Island Stallion– LOVED those books as a kid. His Little Black a Pony books were darling.
And Anderson’s Billy and Blaze stories– Blaze was wonderful.
The following account of “Lucy Long,” another war-horse of General Lee, appeared in the Abingdon Virginian, of February 13, 1891:
“There have appeared from time to time during the past year announcements in Southern newspapers of war-horses ridden during the war by some Confederate soldier, with the caption, ‘The Last War-horse of the Confederacy,’ or something similar.
“It will be learned, doubtless with surprise by some, that there is yet living and in good health, save for the infirmities common to old age, a horse ridden in battle during the war by General Robert E. Lee. It is ‘Lucy Long,’ a little sorrel mare, which many will recall having seen ladies ride through the streets of Lexington alongside of General Lee astride of his more famous war-horse ‘ Traveller.’
“Lucy Long was a present to General Lee from General J. E. B. Stuart in 1862, when the former was conducting the Sharpsburg campaign. That summer George Lee was standing in a skirmish line holding Traveller.
“The horse was high-spirited, impatient and hard to hold and pulled the General down a steep bank and broke his hands. For a time he found it necessary to travel in an ambulance. It was then that General Stuart found Lucy Long, bought her and gave her to him.
“She was a low, easy moving, and quiet sorrel mare. General Stuart purchased her from Mr. Stephen Dandridge, the owner of ‘The Bower,’ a country place in Jefferson county, famous in that day for its hospitality and a famous resort of Stuart with his staff when in that locality. General Lee rode Lucy Long for two years until, when in the lines around Petersburg, she got with foal, and he sent her to the rear, and once more mounted Traveller. She was stolen just before the close of the war, and after the surrender was found in the eastern part of the State, and Captain R. E. Lee brought her to Lexington to his father.
“Several years after General Lee’s death, and possibly thirteen years ago, while running at large in the grounds in the rear of the University, by some unknown means Lucy Long got the leaders of her hind legs cut. She was henceforth of no service, and General Custis Lee got the late John Riplogle, the greatest horse lover in Rockbridge in his day, to take charge of her on his farm on Buffalo. On Mr. Riplogle’s death, a few years ago, she was turned over to the care of Mr. John R. Mackay, who lives in the same neighborhood, and there she is at this time.
“When purchased by General Stuart she was said to be five years old. She is probably now in her thirty-four year. She is thin in flesh, though her eye has not lost its wonted brightness and her health apparently is good. She eats dry food with difficulty, hence her present condition. During the grazing season she fattens on the soft grasses of the pasture.”
KAS – I loved Billy and Blaze. My mother introduced me to that series and the public library when I was 3 or 4. I loved the black and white illustrations, too. And later on, found walter Farley in that same library.
Misty of Chincoteague wasn’t a bad kid’s book, either.
I love Traveller, and visited his grave (along with that of his master, Gen. Lee) at WLU in Lexington, VA many years ago. He was an exceptional horse!
Another favourite horse was Copenhagen, who belonged to the Duke of Wellington. Don’t know Copenhagen’s final resting place, but I saw the wonderful statue of Copenhagen and his master across the road from Apsley House, the Wellington Museum and residence of the current Duke and his family.
Traveller was one of two “individuals” what is now West Virginia contributed to the Civil War. The other was Stonewall Jackson.
The Tetrarch, voted Britain’s Two-Year-Old of the 20th Century: fantasticly fast, undefeated, with a spotted grey coloring reminiscent of a child’s rocking horse.
Through daughter Mumtaz Mahal, The Tetrarch was also important on the female line of many important horses, including the influential sire Nasrullah, who was in turn the sire of Bold Ruler. Bold Ruler was sire of Secretariat and What a Pleasure (sire of Foolish Pleasure and Honest Pleasure) and also grandsire of Bold Forbes and the splendid and tragic filly, Ruffian.
The Tetrarch is one of many horses brought to life in C.W. Anderson’s “CW Anderson’s Favorite Horse Stories”. Someone told me it was going to be put back in print, but I have yet to see it. If you can find it, it’s a gem!
Black Beauty was one of my favorite books as a boy.
I believe Comanche was not Custer’s, but was Capt. Myles Keogh’s battle steed.
I don’t know any horses names, but I am in pure glee at seeing Fr. Z use a picture from LORD OF THE RINGS!!!!!!
Father writes: …Gen. Custer’s Comanche,…”
Comanche was CPT Myles Keogh’s horse.
=============
“Headquarters Seventh United States Cavalry, Fort A. Lincoln, D. T., April 10th, 1878. General Orders No. 7.
(1.) The horse known as ‘Comanche,’ being the only living representative of the bloody tragedy of the Little Big Horn, June 25th, 1876, his kind treatment and comfort shall be a matter of special pride and solicitude on the part of every member of the Seventh Cavalry to the end that his life be preserved to the utmost limit. Wounded and scarred as he is, his very existence speaks in terms more eloquent than words, of the desperate struggle against overwhelming numbers of the hopeless conflict and the heroic manner in which all went down on that fatal day.
(2.) The commanding officer of Company I will see that a special and comfortable stable is fitted up for him, and he will not be ridden by any person whatsoever, under any circumstances, nor will he be put to any kind of work.
(3.) Hereafter, upon all occasions of ceremony of mounted regimental formation, saddled, bridled, and draped in mourning, and led by a mounted trooper of Company I, will be paraded with the regiment.
By command of Col. Sturgis, E. A. Garlington, First Lieutenant and Adjutant, Seventh Cavalry.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comanche_%28horse%29
CPT Myles Keogh before the 7th Cavalry:
“By 1860, a twenty year old Myles Keogh had volunteered, along with over one thousand of his countrymen, to rally to the defence of Pope Pius IX following a call to arms by the Catholic clergy in Ireland. By August 1860, Keogh was appointed second lieutenant of his unit in the Battalion of St. Patrick, Papal Army under the command of General Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière. He was posted at Ancona, a central port city of Italy. The Papal forces were defeated in September in the Battle of Castelfidardo, and Ancona was surrounded. The soldiers, although having admirable defence, were forced to surrender and Keogh was imprisoned at Genoa. After his quick release by exchange, Keogh went to Rome and was invited to wear the spirited green uniforms of the Company of St. Patrick as a member of the Vatican Guard. During his service, the Holy See awarded him the Medaglia for gallantry – the Pro Petri Sede Medal – and also the Cross of the Order of St. Gregory – Ordine di San Gregorio.”
[ex Wiki]
–Guy Power
Speaking of Trigger, here’s an interesting factoid…
The horse that Maid Marian (i.e. Olivia de Havilland) rode in the movie “The Adventures of Robin Hood” was afterward bought by Roy Rogers and renamed Trigger. Yep – same horse!
BLB,
I had forgotten about C.W. Anderson. Loved those books.
All the T’breds are kin if you go back far enough. Tetrarch was a Bend Or descendant – another great one.
Gracie is something of a surprise though – even with her royal breeding she couldn’t catch cold if you spotted her three furlongs. We were usually back of the field with the hill toppers and the kids on ponies. But that suited me fine – the older I get the less interested I am in riding hot horses. And she would hunt all day – never refused a fence except once, and I don’t blame her, it was an ugly one and I didn’t much like the looks of it either.
Johnny Horton, who wrote so many good American ballads, wrote one about Comanche, the survivor of Little Big Horn. I was not aware of the Catholic connection, though. Thanks. And yes I too spent Saturday mornings with Fury, and Peter Graves in pre-Mission Impossible days.
Traveller is so well thought of by our priest that he named our family dog after him. Traveller came to live with us after life in a busy rectory got to be to hectic for a lab/shepard puppy.
and there are these horses: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoxxix0QQdU
According to Doctor Who (fictional), the Trojan Horse was historical. :^)
For fiction:
We have left out Don Quixote’s “Rocinante” [Good one!]
Semper Fi!
Don’t forget Topper, Hopalong Cassidy’s horse. And on the fictional side, Misty of Chincoteague.
I don’t know any horses names, but I am in pure glee at seeing Fr. Z use a picture from LORD OF THE RINGS!!!!!!
Arod, Hausefel, and Shadowfax.
Not quite as famous.
I’m glad that Black Beauty was mentioned. I read that book when I was in grade school.
WIth regards fictional horses on Saturday morning TV, there was My Friend Flicka.
A set of fictional horses are the ones from the novel and film ‘Ben-Hur’. They were gorgeous, pure white Arabian stallions, all named for stars (I can only remember one, Rigel). The horses were Sheik Ilderan’s ‘children’. He got really ticked off when an inexperienced driver drove them off a practice course in his camp, then ol’ Judah Ben-Hur came on the scene and gave the sheik advice on how to handle the beasts. And right after that, Judah became his driver, and he beat the pants off his former Roman friend Messala in the race at Antioch (not Jersualem, as shown in the film).
How
Whoops-I spelled ‘Jerusalem’ wrong [slap alongside my head]. Guess it happens while sucking chocolate drops and typing at the same time.
And I was going to say, ‘How can you forget The Lone Ranger’s Silver?’. Then I saw it in your post, Father Z! I shoulda deleted ‘How’ before hitting ‘Post’.
Sigh….
Thank you, Joe in Canada, for the link.
It makes me cry whenever I see it-what a touching tribute!
Mustn’t forget the Houyhnhnms from Gulliver’s Travels!
KAS – The Black rules! My son probably watched the video a zillion times while he was small. While we were stationed in Germany it came out dubbed as Der Schwarze Hengst. So we went to see it several times to help learn German. It worked! (Imagine if it had been released in Latin instead!)
My kids are insistent that any list of famous horses is woefully incomplete without mention of the horses of Marguerite Henry, like Misty of Chincoteague or Black Gold.
Little Sorrel, Stonewall Jackson’s horse and in much artwork of the Civil War, is my favorite. Also, Secretariat, one of the first famous racers I recall, is a favorite of mine, as well as the famous horse in my favorite book as a child, King of the Wind
.
Brego, Aragorn’s horse in the film, is not in the book and Viggo Mortensen bought the horse after the filming ended. The real horses of Aragorn are Hasufel and Roheryn, the last given to him by Arwen.
Sore throat, or only a little hoarse?
Another tidbit: The famous car on the Dukes of Hazzard was originally going to be named Traveller. The series was based on the story of a real moonshine runner, Jerry Rushing, who with his brother bought a Chrysler 300D and modified it to do 140 mph, fully loaded with ‘shine, a full 40 mph faster than the cars used by local law enforcement of North Carolina. The show’s writers, alas, unfortunately felt that the original steed was not sufficiently famous outside the South for the TV audience to make the connection. The car in the series was named The General Lee, instead.
Or for historians there’s the great line …
“Not a wholesome trottin’ race, no, but a race where they set down right on the horse!
Like to see some stuck up jockey boy sittin’ on Dan Patch! Makes your blood boil, well I should say.”
“Hidalgo,” Frank T. Hopkins’ cayuse.
Either fact or fiction … or perhaps a bit of both.
–Guy Power
As far as fictional horses go, there is also Nahar, the steed of Orome. Orome was one of the 14 Valar who ruled the earth (The Valar were powerful angelic spirits). This comes from the Silmarillion, Tolkien’s work on the First Age of Arda. (Lord of the Rings takes place at the end of the Third Age.)
Cantor,
Yeah, there’s trouble right here in River City. Trouble begins with T and that stands for “trottin'” . . . but of course Dan Patch was a pacer, not a trotter. Pacers are faster.
I did learn to hitch a horse to a buggy somewhere along the line, but I’m not a harness horse person.
Supertradmum,
King of the Wind was a thinly fictionalized Godolphin Barb. He is one of the three Foundation Sires of the Thoroughbreds, along with the Darley Arabian and the Byerly Turk. They were bred to the native English mares, and the sport of Thoroughbred racing was born! Every single Thoroughbred alive today is descended from one or more of them, sometimes several times over.
And of course there is Bree, the title character of C.S. Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy in the Narnia series.
People have already mentioned the Lone Ranger’s Silver. If I recall correctly, Tonto’s horse was named Scout.
***
As for the Trojan Horse, as a classicist I have always been fond of the theory that the Trojan Horse story is a colorful mask for the real cause of the breach in Troy’s walls: earthquake. Because Poseidon, the god of horses, was also the god of earthquakes. (That’s if one wants to ascribe any historicity to any part of the Trojan War story at all, which is another issue.)
Many of ye have mentioned Trigger. The horse that decorates the south scoreboard at Mile High Stadium is a (much larger than life) statue of the same.
There’s a Kentucky Derby winner who is buried in New York State (yeah, I know that Ruffian is at rest at Belmont Park’s finish line, but I’m talkin’ of Upstate NY here). His ‘professional name’ was Exterminator, but he was always called, ‘Old Bones’.
He’s buried in an animal cemetery near Binghamton, NY, along with his stable buddy, Peanuts the pony. It’s on the site ‘Find A Grave’, under ‘Animals’. http://findagrave.com
I read a book for young people a long time ago called, ‘Old Bones’. Never forgot it….
Red Rum!
“And of course there is Bree….”
And Hwin!
He was called “Old Bones” or “The Hatrack” for good reason. Not a candidate for the conformation ring.
Old Bones
Form really DOES follow function in horses. You sometimes get a horse like Exterminator or Seabiscuit who is spectacular despite poor conformation — but that’s not the way to bet.
I had forgotten Ben-Hur’s horses, silly because I just re-read the book. They were Antares, Aldebaran, Rigel, and Altair.
Pippi Longstocking’s horse was named Lilla Gubben.
And then there’s Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged horsie. Twice as many hooves to pick, and think of what the farrier would charge!
Mariana,
“This mare spoke with the voice of one of the daughters of men and said, ‘O my mistress, do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortune but all the dead are dead alike.'”
“I didn’t say it half so well as that,” muttered the mare.
“Hush, ma’am, hush,” said Bree, who was thoroughly enjoying the story. “She’s telling it in the grand Calormene manner and no story-teller in a Tisroc’s court could do it better. Pray go on, Tarkheena.”
Glad to see someone remembered Tonto’s horse – Scout.
I dont’t fremember if a screen name was ever mentioned, but how about an honorable mention for waht I assume was a long succession of near-identical horses ridden around the Ponderosa by Michael Landon for 14 years.
Unless I’ve missed something, no one yet has mentioned the most famous TV horse at all, the one with his own show — Mr. Ed!
Awwwww, Wiiiiilllllbuuurrrr!
I think George Washington had something like 6 white horses shot out from under him. Dumb luck, or…..??? I don’t recall if they were all named “Mockingbird”
BTW – A horse walks into a bar, and the bartender says: “Hey-why the long face?”
Semper Fi!
Thanks, American Mother : ) !
Here in Scandinavia there’s Streiff, King Gustavus II Adolphus’s horse. The king was killed at the battle of Lützen in 1632.
After Traveller’s death, his skeleton was displayed in Lee Chapel until the 1960s. But students kept hijacking Traveller and putting him in odd places, including, I think, on top of Washington Hall directly opposite of Lee Chapel. So Traveller was then interred just outside the crypt where his master is entombed. It’s common to leave him pennies, carrots, at the like. And as they’ll tell you, the Lee House stable doors are never closed so his spirit can come and go as he pleases.
OK, if we’re striving for completeness here. . .
There are other Narnian horses worth mentioning – Coalblack and Snowflake from the underground kingdom. Prince Caspian was knocked off his horse Destrier (his name, not his type) and in the movie, Edmund’s horse was Phillip, but that doesn’t count. And don’t forget the first Narnian horse, Strawberry, later renamed Fledge. (I’ve only read these books about 300 times).
How about Slieppnir (sp?) the 8-legged steed of Odin?
Then there’s D’Artagnan’s famous yellow horse he rode to Paris and sold as soon as he could. (It showed up again as part of Porthos’s equipment, procured by the miser).
Pegasus? The horses of Achilles weeping for Patroclus?
Re-reading the above reminded me of a missing LOTR horse:
Faithful servant yet master’s bane,
Lightfoot’s foal, swift Snowmane.
I can’t believe no one has mentioned Dale Evens horse Butter Milk or Mat Dillon’s Buck, or Gene Autry’s Champion.
Mariana, I’m so glad you thought of the horses from Narnia
And now at last,
Comes Traveller and his master. Look at them well.
The horse is an iron-grey, sixteen hands high,
Short back, deep chest, strong haunch, flat legs, small head,
Delicate ear, quick eye, black mane and tail,
Wise brain, obedient mouth.
Such horses are
The jewels of the horseman’s hands and thighs,
They go by the word and hardly need the rein.
They bred such horses in Virginia then,
Horses that were remembered after death
And buried not so far from Christian ground
That if their sleeping riders should arise
They could not witch them from the earth again
And ride a printless course along the grass
With the old manage and light ease of hand.
– Stephen Vincent Benet
Blast, Chloesmom beat to it! I was going to mention our Iron Duke’s beloved horse, Copenhagen. Chloesmom, here’s an interesting article about the fearless war-horse, including his final resting place, and the fate of his missing hoof!
http://www.horseshowcentral.com/flex/copenhagen_and_the_duke_of_wellington/271/1
To return the cross-Pond favour of knowing about each others’ famous generals’ horses, let me say that I read in book that Gen. Ulysses Grant had 5 horses, his favourite being Cincinnati. The others were called Jack, Fox, Kangaroo, and Jeff Davis!
Chatto,
Ulysses Grant married my cousin Julia Dent. Since we are very Southern and have all sorts of Confederates clinging to the family tree, that caused a bit of a stir!
He did love a fast trotting horse. When he was President, he got pulled over in D.C. for speeding with one of his fine Clay trotters. The police officer was horrified when he saw who he had stopped, but the President said, “Officer, do your duty!” He paid the fine without complaint.
Ah, I see that Fr. Z did mention Mr. Ed in his original post. Sorry about that. Serves me right for skimming.
Can’t forget Fatty Lumpkin, Tom Bombadil’s pony, who I always imagined looked something like my Welsh pony.
“Faithful servant yet master’s bane,
Lightfoot’s foal, swift Snowmane.”
Thanks, Wolskerj! I was going to add that last night (it’s now morning here) but it was too late!
And
Sharp-ears, Wise-nose, Swishtail and Bumpkin,
White-socks my little lad, and old Fatty Lumpkin!
Moving closer to non-fiction than fiction, I recall Pet & Patty, Bunny the mule colt, Sam & David (the Christmas horses), Skip & Barnum, Starlight, and Prince & Lady – the horses from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s stories of her and her husband’s childhoods and courtship.
C.Rob,
And the scout galloping ahead of the wagon train into Indian territory, riding bareback and free as the wind —
That image has always stayed with me from the Little House books.
There is a horse in the Lonesome Dove series with an unmentionable name. She eventually threw Newt and killed him. I always liked her name though.
Thanks, AmericanMother, for the names of Ben-Hur’s horses! ; ) A gorgeous set of animals, weren’t they? And you’re also related to Julia Grant? Whoa, that probably started some interesting battles in your Southern household! How ironic….
Paul D-the students at Washington-Lee did WHAT to Traveler’s bones? That’s awful! Good thing he was finally buried near his master, General Lee! I’ve seen Traveler’s grave on ‘Find A Grave’; people leave pennies and apples on it. Pretty darn cool!
Traveler’s name lives on today, at USC. He’s the big white horse that comes out at the start of the football games. His rider is dressed in a Trojan uniform (the historical kind, not the football kind, haha). Another gorgeous animal-looks like The Lone Ranger’s Silver.
Chatto-read the piece about Copenhagen, the Duke of Wellington’s horse. Interesting! Seems that the ‘Iron Duke’ nearly got kicked by the horse when he patted it on the rump for a job well done-a horse kick is nothing to fool around with!
Another historical horse I remember: Black Jack, the riderless cavalry horse from JFK’s funeral. He was so restless during the processions! The horse was so exhausted (and his handler as well) by the time the proceedings ended at Arlington Cemetery!
irishgirl,
I really liked the description of the four horses in the book. Lew Wallace may have been a Union general, but he loved horses and really got into that. Really in those days, everybody was closer to horses than they are now. Only those of who own them and have worked them day-to-day still have that same connection. Not putting down those of us who love horses through books — but it’s a different sort of experience. What my mom the dancer would call “kinetically experential” – your body knows them as well as your mind.
Wrt Cousin Julia, my dad’s generation thinks it’s funny, his mom’s generation not so much so, and HER mom’s generation turned Julia’s picture to the wall and wrote her out of the family Bible . . . . Oddly enough, that generation liked General Sherman but didn’t like General Grant very much.