Horse Sensations
Famous Horses and Horse Breeds

 

Horse Sensations

Famous Horses and Horse Breeds

Articles by Horseman Magazine

Famous Horses

COMANCHE was the only known survivor of General Custer’s troops at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. The bay mustang was ridden into battle by Captain Myles Keogh and was found two days later, severely wounded and near death. He was taken to Fort Lincoln by steamer and spent the next twelve years there with the 7th Cavalry. He was never ridden but sometimes led military processions, carrying reversed boots. Along with the Cavalry, he moved to Fort Riley, Kansas in 1888. He died of colic at the age of 29, in 1891. He’s now in a glass case at the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History.

TRAVELLER perhaps the best-known horse from the Civil War, was the favorite mount of General Robert E. Lee. He was a Saddlebred, foaled in 1857. Before becoming Lee’s mount, Traveller was a successful show horse. He stood 16 hands tall and weighed 1,100 pounds and was a good war horse because of his great courage. He was euthanized in 1871 after he developed incurable tetanus. Traveller’s bones were moved several times before coming to rest at the Lee Chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. A volume of books about the Civil War as seen through the eyes of a horse was supposedly ghost-written by Traveler.


SEABISCUIT was a great Thoroughbred racehorse who became even more famous due to a 1949 film, a 2001 book, and a 2003 movie about him. He was born in 1933, and his early racing career was unimpressive. His trainers felt he was lazy, and he was often the butt of jokes. He was purchased by Charles S. Howard, who hired Tom Smith to train the colt. Smith was able to help Seabiscuit realize his potential, and in 1937, he won 11 of his 15 races, making him the top money earner in the US that year. He became a celebrity on the West Coast, with a huge crowd of adoring fans. Eastern race enthusiasts were unimpressed, however. To them, the best horse in America was War Admiral, the Triple Crown winner. In 1938, the “Match of the Century” was held, between Seabiscuit and War Admiral. Seabiscuit won by four lengths and was named “Horse of the Year” for 1938. Seabiscuit died in 1947 and was buried in a secret location known only to the Howard family.


TRIGGER was the palomino stallion ridden by Roy Rogers. He appeared with Rogers in 90 movies and over a hundred television shows. Trigger was the son of a Thoroughbred racehorse and was said to be intelligent and very gentle. He died of old age in 1965 at the age of 33. Rogers had the horse mounted in his bridle and saddle, and he’s on display at the Roy Rogers – Dale Evans Museum in Branson, Missouri.


LITTLE SORREL was captured by the Confederates at the Battle of Harpers Ferry. General Stonewall Jackson thought the horse would be a good mount for his wife, but when the general’s own horse proved to be unreliable in battle, he took Little Sorrel for his own. After Jackson’s death, the horse became the mascot for the Virginia Military Institute and was frequently on exhibition throughout the South. At the age of 35, he was retired to the Confederate Soldiers’ Home in 1885. In 1886, he died from a broken back and was mounted and displayed at the Veterans’ Home. In 1949, he was moved to the Virginia Military Institute’s Museum and is still on display there.

Little Sorrel


MAN o’ WAR, probably the most famous racehorse of all time, was born in 1917. He was purchased as a yearling by Samuel D. Riddle and won 20 of his 21 races, often beating the competition by several lengths, even when carrying more weight. He set three track records, two American records, and three world records in his racing career. He was retired to stud at an early age and sired such famous horses as Triple Crown winner War Admiral, and Hard Tack, the sire of Seabiscuit. In his old age he was sent to Faraway Farm, where he died of a heart condition in 1947, at the age of 30. He was buried at Faraway, in a coffin lined with his racing silks. His life-size likeness in bronze was placed over his grave. His remains and statue were moved to the Kentucky Horse Park in the 1970s.

ManOWar