THE 30 MOST FAMOUS HORSES IN HISTORY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

There are famous horses in the history of mankind that have stood out either for their performance in races, in war or because their performance has been important in any area of ​​society. Here is a list of some of them.

Phar Lap

Phar Lap (October 4, 1926 - April 5, 1932) was a thoroughbred racehorse whose accomplishments were admired by the public during the Great Depression years.

He was born in New Zealand and raised in Australia by Harry Telford. He was the winner of many of the cups in Australia and became the third horse that won the most bets at the time. After a mysterious and sudden illness, he died in 1932.

John henry

John Henry (March 9, 1975 - October 8, 2007) was a thoroughbred racehorse from the United States, who had a total of 39 victories that meant $ 6,591,860 in earnings at the time.

He managed to win a total of 7 Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year. He retired on June 21, 1985 after a tendon injury at the age of 10.

War Admiral

War Admiral (May 2, 1934 - October 30, 1959) was a thoroughbred racehorse from the United States. He is known for being the fourth winner of the American Triple Crown and Horse of the Year in 1937.

His career, which spanned the end of the Great Depression, left him a total of 21 of 26 innings with earnings of $ 273,240 at the time.

Affirmed

Affirmed (February 2, 1975 - January 12, 2001) was a thoroughbred racehorse from the United States. He is known for being the 11th winner of the American Triple Crown in Thoroughbred Racing. His fiercest competitor was Alydar, with whom he competed 10 times.

Barbarian

Barbaro (April 29, 2003 - January 29, 2007) was a thoroughbred racehorse from the United States. He was the winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2006, but destroyed his leg two weeks later at the 2006 Preakness Stakes. This injury ended his career and eventually led to his death.

Smarty jones

Smarty Jones (February 28, 2001) is a thoroughbred racehorse from the United States. He finished second at the Belmont Stakes on June 5, 2004.

He is a descendant of other racehorses such as Mr. Prospector, Secretariat, War Admiral, among others. In 2015 he became the winner of the Triple Crown after his triumph at the Belmont Stakes.

Secretariat

Secretariat (March 30, 1970 - October 4, 1989) was a thoroughbred racehorse from the United States. IN 1973, he became the first Triple Crown winner in 25 years.

The record achieved at the Belmont Stakes is known as one of the great races of all time. During her career she went on to win 5 Eclipse Awards including Horse of the Year. He was inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame in 1974.

Citation

Citation (April 11, 1945 - August 8, 1970) was a thoroughbred racehorse from the United States. He was the eighth winner of the Triple Crown and one of three North American horses to win at least 16 consecutive races in major competitions.

It is considered the first horse in history to generate wagers of US $ 1,000,000.

Seabiscuit

Seacbiscuit (May 23, 1933 - May 17, 1947) was a thoroughbred racehorse from the United States. Being a small horse, his start in racing was rather dubious.

Nonetheless, he managed to become a champion and attracted public attention during the Great Depression. It has been the subject of many books and movies, notably the 2003 film Seabiscuit, nominated for an Academy Award for best picture.

Man o 'war

Man O 'War (March 29, 1917 - November 1, 1947) was an American thoroughbred racehorse, considered one of the greatest of its kind of all time.

During his career that began after World War I, Man O 'War managed to win 20 of 21 races for a total of $ 249,465 at the time.

Military horses

fool

Babieca was the war horse of El Cid (Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar), who was a member of the nobility and military leader of medieval Spain. According to one of the stories, Rodrigo's grandfather, Pedro El Grande, let him choose a horse as a gift.

He chose the weakest of the horses to which the grandfather replied: Babieca! Another version says that it was a gift from King Sancho for the knight.

Bucephalus

Bucephalus (335 BC - 326 BC) was the horse that accompanied Alexander the Great. One story goes that he died after the Battle of Hispades in what is now Pakistan, and is buried at Jalalpur Sharif on the outskirts of Jhelum.

Another version tells that Bucephalus is buried in Phalia, a town in the Mandi Bahauddin district in Pakistan.

Chetak

Chetak was the horse of Maharana Pratap and that he was riding during the Battle of Haldighati on June 21, 1576 where he died. This horse was of the Kathiawari breed and is said to have had a blue tint to its coat.

Call me

Llamrei was a mare belonging to King Arthur according to the Welsh story "Culhwch And Olwen". Near Llyn Barfog in Wales, there is a rock with a hoof mark supposedly attributed to Llamrei when the King was capturing the terrible Addanc monster from the lake.

Marengo

Marengo (1793 to 1831) was the famous war horse of Napolon I of France. It was named for the Battle of Marengo, through which it carried its rider.

He also led the emperor in the battles of Austerlitz, Jena-Auerstedt, Wagram, and Waterloo. His skeleton is preserved in the National Army Museum in Chelsea, London.

Matsukaze

Matzukaze (Wind in the Pines) was the horse of Maeda Toshimasu, a famous Japanese samurai of the Sengoku and Edo periods. According to legend, he was bred from the finest horses and refused to be ridden by anyone. Toshimasu was the only one who managed to tame the horse.

Tencendur

Tencendur or Tencendor was King Charlemagne's war horse that he used according to the epic poem, El Cantar de Roldán. The King obtained this horse by defeating and killing Malpalin of Narbonne.

Pigeon

Palomo was the horse of the South American liberator Simón Bolívar. This accompanied him in his national liberation campaigns and was a gift from a woman from Santa Rosa de Viterbo, just before the Battle of Boyacá, Colombia in 1819.

The horse was white, tall and with a tail that reached the ground according to descriptions of the time. His horseshoes are in the Mulaló museum in Tumbo, Colombia.

Copenhagen

Copenhagen (1808 to February 12, 1836) was the Duke of Wellington's war horse that he rode in the famous Battle of Waterloo.

This horse was a mix between a thoroughbred and an Arabian and was named in honor of the English victory in the Second Battle of Copenhagen.

Incitatus

Incitatus was the favorite horse of the Roman Emperor Caligula. Its name is derived from the Latin meaning "impetuous". This horse is said to have had a stable made of marble, with an ivory trough, purple sheets, and a necklace made of precious stones.

Other horses

Burmese

Burmese (1962-1990) was a Canadian Mounted Police service horse that was given to Queen Elizabeth II of England.

This was riding for the Queen for the Banner Parade for 18 consecutive years from 1969 to 1986. The Queen unwrapped a bronze statue in Regina, Canada where she can be seen riding Burmese.

Muhamed

Muhamed was a German horse that was supposedly capable of extracting the cube root of numbers, which he then pointed to by stomping on its hooves.

He was raised in the village of Elberfeld by Karl Krall in the 19th century. This horse was also known for making music and being able to distinguish between harmonic and discordant sounds. Muhamed disappeared in World War I where he served as a pack animal.

Prometea

Prometea, born on May 28, 2003, a filly of the Haflinger breed, was the first horse cloned and the first to be born and carried by the mother from whom it was cloned.

She was born with 36 kg of weight in a natural birth, after a pregnancy carried to term in Cremona, Italy. This birth marked the horse as the seventh species to be cloned.

Marocco

Marocco (1586 to 1606), also known as the Banke Horse, was a performance horse that lived between the 16th and 17th centuries. This horse was described as small and muscular with great agility.

He was particularly smart and easy to educate. Together with its owner William Banks they performed throughout Europe until 1605.

Sampson

Sampson was a shire horse from 1846 at Toddington Mills, Bedforshire, England. It is known for being the tallest and heaviest horse ever recorded, at 219 cm at its withers by the time it was 4 years old.

His maximum weight was estimated at 1,524 kg. He was neutered when he was one and a half years old, and his testicles were the size of soccer balls.

Fictional horses

Pegasus

The Pegasus is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. It is described as a winged stallion usually white in color. His father was Poseidon and he was raised by the Gorgon Medusa.

It was the brother Chrysaor, both of whom were born at the same time when their mother's head was decapitated by Perseus. Pegasus was the subject of much of the iconography engraved on Greek paintings and vessels and on Renaissance sculptures.

Mister Ed

Bamboo Harvester (1949 to 1970) was the name of the palomino horse that played Mister Ed in the 1961 to 1966 comedy series of the same name. He was raised in El Monte, California and trained by Les Hilton.

Two years after the show ended, this horse began to suffer from age-related ailments until he died in 1970. There was a second horse that replaced him as Mr. Ed in some commercials.

Silver

Silver (Silver) was how the horse that accompanied the protagonist was known in the 1949 series "The Lone Ranger". At the beginning of each episode, the magnificent stallion would get up on his hind legs with the rider on his back and they started to to run.

Twister

Tornado is the horse that the Zorro character rode in many movies and books. Tornado is described as a very intelligent and fast black Andalusian horse.

In Isabel Allende's original story, Tornado is given to Don Diego de la Vega upon his return to California by his brother Bernardo.

Bullseye

Bullseye (Target Shooting as it is known in Latin America) is Woody's horse and one of the characters that were introduced in the Disney Pixar film Toy Story 2.

Although he is shown as a horse, he actually acts like a dog. One of the most well-known phrases in the movies is the one that Woody's character recites every time he rides his horse: "Run like the wind I shoot the target."

References

1. PharLap.com.au. THE PHAR LAP STORY. 2013. Taken from pharlap.com.au.
2. The Horse. Legendary Racehorse John Henry Euthanatized at 32. October 8, 2007. Taken from thehorse.com.
3. National Museum of Racing. War Admiral. 2016. Taken from racingmuseum.org.
4. Mitchell, Ron. Blood Horse. Triple Crown Winner Affirmed Euthanized. January 12, 2001. Taken from bloodhorse.com.
5. Fox News. Kentucky Derby Winner Barbaro Euthanized After Numerous Injuries. January 29, 2007. Taken from foxnews.com.