Horses

Napolean's horse Le Vizir

rachel — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:35:02 +0000

Of Napolean's many horses, perhaps the most famous was Le Vizir, a gift from the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire in 1808 during Napolean's second exile on the island of Saint Helena. The horse died in 1829, eight years after Napolean. Here he is stuffed at the Musee d'Armee de l'Hotel des Invalides in Paris. He looks a little scrawny, but it really is Le Vizir.

Notice the rump branding.

World's Largest Horse

rachel — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 16:43:24 +0000

The world's largest stuffed horse is reputably "General," on display at the Virginia State Farm Museum in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. According to Roadside America:

"General," who looks like Mr. Ed, was the third heaviest (2850 pounds) and third tallest (six feet, six inches) horse ever recorded. And he is still the world's largest stuffed horse, at a cost of $10,000, according to one of the many helpful signs around the stable. Despite his size, another sign insists that General was "gentle as a puppy." Yet another sign claims that his stuffed hide is valued at $25,000, a low estimate in our eyes. A newspaper clipping from 1982 quotes a local bigwig as saying that General, once stuffed, would make a sure-fire tourist attraction.

Check out all the delights of the museum including a two-headed calf that froze to death in the winter of 1926. [Go +]

Comanche

rachel — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 18:21:50 +0000

As legend has it, the sole survivor of the infamous Battle of the Little Big Horn was Comanche, Captain Keogh's horse. As the Members of the besieged group of soldiers from the Reno Hill picked their way through the dead and destruction on Custer Hill, they heard a faint whinny from what was left of Comanche. The blood and gore spattered horse had at least seven wounds, but none of them fatal, and Comanche lived for another 15 years. When he died, Comanche was stuffed and put on display at the Dyche Hall of the Natural History Museum in Kansas, where he still stands today.

While I have a problems with stuffing a hero (be it human or
animal) what it even more morbidly sensationalist is the series
of photographs documenting the process of stuffing Comanche.

The image was taken from Garry Owen's web narration of his quest to see Comanche. Not being an American, I can't fully understand the emotion, but as Owen writes, Comanche "stands as a physical link for all of us to Custer, Keogh, the 7th Cavalry, the Little Bighorn, and to that intangible inner spirit that defines us as Americans."

In other words, Comanche has become what Judith Pascoe terms an "association object," that is, "a means of literal and imaginative transport" back in time to a particular moment or event. There is always something sensationalist in the association object especially if it - like Comanche - is on public display. Like tours to murder scenes or displaying the body parts of heros and criminals, Comanche is physical evidence of a real historical event and its human and animal players. But however real the Battle of the Little Big Horn was, Comanche like all souvenirs is laden with a culture's fantasies and reveries about what that particular event has come to embody.

Read about Comanche's big move +

Roy Roger's Trigger

rachel — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 01:43:47 +0000

Roy Roger’s Trigger is on display alongside Buttermilk (Dale Evans' horse) and Bullet (the Rogers' German Shepherd) at the Roy Roger and Dale Evans Museum in Missouri. In 2003, the museum moved from Victorville, California to its new location in Branson. The museum is filled with Roy's and Dale's personal memoriabilia including family photographs and scrapbooks. Of course Trigger is one of the most popular exhibits, still rearing up on his hind legs.

Read more:
The Official Roy Roger and Dale Evans website: http://www.royrogers.com/museum-index.html

Roadside America: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/attract/CAVICroyrogers.html