Famous Horses

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Shadowfax became famous as the horse of Gandalf in the War of the Ring. The photos are from http://www.lordoftherings.net/

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Secretariat is considered the best dirt horse ever, and

John Henry the best turf horse. These horses are so specialized that they do not race both on grass and on dirt.

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Secretariat taking the 1973 Triple Crown winning the Belmont Stakes by 31 lengths in
World Record time.  See http://iconicphotos.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/secretariat-wins-the-belmont-stakes/

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Man O’War is remembered as the best race horse of all times, the winner in all his races except one. The photo is from 1929.

He set three track records, two American records, and three world records in his racing career.  The photo is from
http://www.horsesensations.com/

And  when he was still a foal:

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Bucephalos was afraid of his own shadow and considered useless.

At the time Alexander was only 12 years old. He wanted that beautiful horse for himself.

He took hold of his bridle and turned him towards the sun. He walked beside him and talked to him while never allowing their shadows to get ahead of them.

See this  at the the museum of  The Connecticut Historical Society

Finally he lightly put his own jacket on its back. When he saw that the horse accepted the jacket, he jumped on.

Bucephalos accompanied Alexander in his campaigns all the way from Europe to India. The photo is from  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alexander_Sarcophagus.jpg

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Hamlet of Bavaria, Germany, is known to photographers for his dream world  elegance.

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Don Quixote made his horse fit for battle by giving him a new name : Rocinante means “formerly an old horse” : rocín antes.

By changing its name, Don Quixote expected to change the way people saw and remembered his horse. This is how the Quixote became the precursor and patron of the advertising industry.

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The Trojan Horse :

There was a war and according to legend the Greeks built a gigantic horse and left it to the Trojans as a good-bye present.

As the story is old, it is no longer quite believable. Mostly the explanation for the stratagem is that the best Greek soldiers were hiding in the belly of the horse. Some also say that the Trojans had to pull down part of their city wall to take that horse into their city, and that left them defenseless.

At any rate, once the Greeks were inside Troy  they killed everything within reach and destroyed the city.

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And then there is that horse that became proverbial when it was not there.

King Richard III was leading his people in battle when he saw himself surrounded by enemies and his horse was wounded and fell. The king shouted :

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

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Pegasus was the winged horse and difficult to control.

The hero Bellerophon  was sleeping in the temple and the goddess Athena came and gave him a golden bridle.

When Pegasus saw that bridle in Bellerophon’s hands, he came over and asked to wear it.

Bellerophon was probably the son of Poseidon, the powerful ruler of the Sea.

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Horse racing is dangerous, comparable in risk to sky diving and considerably more risky than hang gliding.

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May I introduce you to Her Majesty Elizabeth, the Queen of England ?

She owns horses, but no photos could be found on Google, and so I took this one which is also really nice. (I had never seen her without one of those hats.)

Her horses must be the most beautiful on Earth, since they rarely win at the races, which is a  v e r y good sign, because by now there is artifice and cruelty in horse racing, just as there is in other sports.

Also, it means there is no rigging. That’s really something.

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The Spanish Riding School established during the Austrian Empire in 1572 in Vienna where the horses dance in a palace.

The two photos are from  http://Spanish Riding School in Vienna

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The anonymous horse of General Martinez Campos modelled in clay and cast in bronze by Benlliure. It is in the Madrid Retiro park.

The fall photo is from Wikipedia. It is in public domain — and the author is given as “Daderot” without further details.

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First published in Otober 2008
Added November 6, 2009

I did find photos of two of the Queen’s horses:  Whitton Poppy, the mom, and Sandringham Sailor II, her foal:

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Horses are great to watch and photograph on the race tracks where they get paraded before and after the races, presumably for the betting public to make up trheir minds.

(C) by MAO with permission

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(C) by MAO with permission

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