Transcript
Heather Cox Richardson (0:00)
Foreign.
Michael S. Green (0:07)
2026 today was 152nd running of the Kentucky Derby, which was launched in 1875 as horse racing with its famous black jockeys who won more than half of the first 28 derbies was gaining an audience in the U.S. a horse based event gives me the opportunity to repost a piece my friend Michael S. Green and I wrote together a number years ago on 10 famous American horses. While it has no deep meaning, it does illustrate that there is history all around us, a theme you'll hear more about from me and my team soon.
Heather Cox Richardson (0:45)
And it was totally fun to research too.
Michael S. Green (0:47)
I spent hours watching Mr. Ed shows and reading entertainment Theory, but the insightful detail and the inclusion of Khartoum is all Michael this piece remains one of my favorite things I ever had a hand in writing. So tonight let's take the night off from the craziness of today's America and recall past eras when horses could make history.
Heather Cox Richardson (1:12)
1. Traveler General Robert E. Lee rode Traveler, spelled with two L's in the British style, from February 1862 until the general's death in 1870. Traveler was a gray American Saddlebred of 16 hands. He had great endurance for long marches and was generally unflappable in battle, although he once broke both of General Lee's hands when he shied at enemy movements. Lee brought Traveler with him when he assumed the presidency of Washington and Lee University. Traveler died of tetanus in 1871. He is buried on campus where the Saferide program still uses his name. Number two Comanche Comanche was attached to General Custer's detachment of the 7th Cavalry when it engaged the Lakota in 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The troops in the detachment were all killed in the engagement, but soldiers found Comanche badly wounded two days later. They nursed him back to health and he became the 7th Cavalry's mascot. The commanding officer decreed that the horse would never again be ridden and that he would always be paraded, draped in black in all military ceremonies involving the 7th Cavalry. When Comanche died of colic in 1891, he was given a full military funeral. The only other horse so honored was Black Jack, who served in more than 1,000 military funerals in the 1950s and 1960s. Comanche's taxidermied body is preserved in the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas. 3. Beautiful Jim Key Beautiful Jim Key was a performing horse trained by formerly enslaved veterinarian Dr. William Key. Key demonstrated how Beautiful Jim could read, write, do math, tell time, spell, sort, mail, and recite the Bible. Beautiful Jim performed from 1897 to 1906 and became a legend. An estimated 10 million Americans saw him perform, and others collected his memorabilia, buttons, photos and postcards or danced the Beautiful Jim Key Two Step. Dr. Key insisted that he had taught Beautiful Jim using only kindness and Beautiful Jim Key's popularity was important in preventing cruelty to animals in America, with more than 2 million children signing the Jim Key Band of Mercy, in which they pledged I promise always to be kind to animals. Number four Man O War named for his breeder August Belmont Jr. Who was overseas in World War I, Man O War is widely regarded as the top thoroughbred racehorse of all time. He won 20 of his 21 races and almost a quarter of a million dollars in the early 20th century. His one loss to upset came after a bad start. Man of War sired many of America's famous racehorses, including Hardtack, which in turn sired Seabiscuit, the small horse that came to symbolize hope during the Great Depression. Number five Trigger Entertainer Roy Rogers chose the Palomino Trigger from five rented horses to be his mount in a Western film in the 1930s, changing his name from Golden Cloud to Trigger because of his quick mind and feet. Rogers rode trigger in his 1950s television series, making the horse a household name. When Trigger died, Rogers had his skin draped over a Styrofoam mold and displayed it in the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in California. He also had a 24 foot statue of Trigger made from steel and fiberglass. One other copy of that mold was also made. It is Bucky the Bronco, which rears above the Denver Broncos stadium south scoreboard.