Being unsure whether this thread belongs here or in Animal Safari Hi, ASp!, I take my cue from the recently-resurrected thread of similar title.

In my college days at an all-male school, a friend nicknamed his car, the trusty steed by which we traveled to the all-female schools for weekend gatherings. said last word was chosen with care. He named it after a famous literary steed, altering his choice from week to week according to mood: sometimes it was named for Don Juan's horse, sometimes for Don Quixote's.

Those names have long since faded from recall. Who then are the horses who supported our famous figures of literature and history?

Don Quixote's horse was Rosinante, which was supposed to connote something like "broken-down fleabag" per Professor John Bullitt.

Didn't ever stop to think that Don Juan _had_ a horse. Though of course he must have.

Perhaps, given his proclivities, he simply didn't need one. Most of his riding wasn't done outoors!

CapK, am I gonna have to turn you in to the Gutter Police?

Ah, on second thought, [sigh] they ain't any anymore... Jackie done upped and got herse'f corrupted. And it's all the Aussies' fault.

I read somewhere that the name of Don Quixote's horse was a double jest. "Rosin" meant a low grade cart horse, and the "ante" meant "used to be". I never heard any mention of Don Giovanni having any special horse. I wonder if the Don Juan referred to could be Hispanic hero of the Southwest, Don Juan de Oñate, whose statue is to be three stories high, on his rearing Andalusian, "Helicon". Trust the Texans to do it on a grand scale.

I'm not Aussie but I'll take a little of the credit for helping to corrupt the Gutter Police [raising hand timidly-e]

The wood nymph

Fellow I work with has a vanity plate on his truck that reads ROSNANTE. NY state won't let him have enough letters to spell it out in its entirety.

And it's all the Aussies' fault.

Hey, stop singing NZ's national anthem.

I love it, Maxie! Ho ha, here we go again!

Why not brainstorm the great horses' names?

Let's see: There's Bucephalus (sp?)--was that Alex the Great's steed?

Then the noble General Lee's Traveler (sp? again?)

Plath's Ariel...

Rogers' Trigger...

Christopher Robin's Eeyore--yeh, it's a donkey, but what the heh!

Black Beauty--but I don't know exactly who owned her all those times...

And what was the name of that most remarkable horse--a mare, I suppose--who ran one race of the Triple Crown with a broken leg and won it? I cannot remember her name...something tripping like "Pit-a-Pan" or "Tip-a-Can"? She had the best spirit of all.

And Flicka. Who owned her?

And my daughter's pony, an Arabian mare who was a flash of copper on cross country--Rosalar, the wild-hearted "Rosie" or "Rosasita." Had to include her on this list.

What other great horses or donkeys or, in general, long-legged fliers?

Oh, Pegasus. Can't forget Pegasus.

Best regards,
Wordwind

You guys jumped the gun on me. I was planning on starting a horse thread as we got closer to Chinese New Year. The coming year is the Year of the Horse. I would like to know where and when the phrase "Rode hard and put away wet." comes from. My understanding is that it refers to improper horse maintenence but is generally used as a description of someone who does not wear their years well.

WW, a filly has never won the Triple Crown--very few even enter. The name you were probably thinking of is Lil E. Tee, a colt. The story you may be thinking of is that of Ruffian, one of the gamest horses ever. I saw it on TV --you could tell the animal was done for-- and reading about it on this link made tears come to my eyes all over again.
http://www.thoroughbredchampions.com/gallery/ruffian1.htm

=========================================================
Consuelo, horses, like humans, sweat during hard exercise. They must be walked afterwards until they have cooled down and the sweat has at least mostly dried (a good brushing at this point helps, too). If they are "put away wet", they can catch a chill, and will also get very stiff.

Why not brainstorm the great horses' names? suggests Wordwind.

Great idea. Make a game out of it? Maybe a variation of Steve Allen's "The Question Man," if we can really be clever. But start simple. So far we have

Rosinante was owned by Don Quixote, and
Bucephalus was owned by Alexander the Great
Traveller was owned by General Robert E Lee
Ariel was owned by Plath (don't know who he is, sorry to admit)
Trigger was owned by Roy Rogers
Eeyore was owned by Christopher Robin Milne ( +/- for that one)

and have been challenged to give the owners (if any) of

Black Beauty was owned by _____
Flicka was owned by _____ answered by Jackie
Pegasus was owned by _____ (fill in the blanks)

So now let's add a few:

Who owned
-- Silver
-- Scout
-- Champion
-- Topper

and -- play it in either direction --
what was the name of Dale Evans' horse?
the Cisco Kid's?
Did Gabby Hayes' horse have a name?

I'm sure there are plenty of famous horses, real or fictitious or mythological, that I don't know (not that I know all of these, either!) - let's have more names ?!

All together now: "A horse is a horse, of course, of course...

my name...is Mr. Ed! Hi, Wilburrrrrrrrrrrr!"

Flicka was owned by Ken McLaughlin, a young boy on a ranch in Wyoming.

Dear Jackie: Do you ever use a strigil? My grandfather bred trotting horses. To combat the boredom of winters in Maine over a hundred years ago, he made hundreds of strigils, out of red cedar, with beautiful workmanship. He had a horse stall four feet deep with them, which I saw when I was quite small.
I have wondered whatever became of them.

OK, here's my two cents to add to the mix.

Lucas McCain rode "Razor" and Mark McCain rode "Blueboy" on "The Rifleman".

"Paint" and "Chochise" were ridden by Little Joe Cartright on Bonanza and "Chub", "Paiute" and "Ginger" were ridden by Hoss. Adam rode both "Beauty" and "Sport" and Ben rode both "Buck" and "Waggoner".

"Hi Ho Silver"...the Lone Ranger

"Topper"...Hopalong Cassidy

"Buttermilk" was Dale Evans horse

I'll leave a few for the rest of you to figure out!

Oooooooo! Ooooooooo! Lookie what I found!

http://www.naglefarms.com/fquiz.html

Oh, dear, I only got 39%. I got the important ones right, though! Thanks for the link, Angel.

Dick Turpin's horse was Black Bess.

Bingley

42%, Jackie--but, if I took it again, I'd end up with different answers. Lots of guessing there.

Mr. Happy Socks???

No, Ruffian isn't the horse I'm thinking of. This was a filly, yes. And it must have been the Kentucky Derby she won with that broken leg. And it really was a name that was hyphenated--and kind of tripping along. Saw a film of her race--what a marvel.

Beast regards,
DubDub

When Eddie the eighth was still Prince of Wales, he was noted for having his ass fall off many polo ponies

Asfaloth The horse of Glorfindel. The horse of Glorfindel, who
bore Frodo Baggins to safety at the Ford of Rivendell. ... .

How about the horse that was made a senator. Anyone know its name (I don't but ICLIU) and whose it was (I *do know that)?

I found a site that said Caligula proposed making his horse Incitatus a Senator.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~kvenjb/madmonarchs/caligula/caligula_bio.htm

That's who I had in mind, Dr. Bill. But according to this site (http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/caligula.html) it was consul and he didn't so much do it as make a joke about it that others took seriously. Scroll down to 39CE.

Interesting that Helicon, chamberlain to Caligula, gave his name to Don Juan Oñate's horse.

We have here in Richmond, VA, a statue of the infamous Caligula. Sorry, he isn't mounted on a horse. He just stands there looking handsome. What a very strange man he was! Wonder whether it's a fake? It's not supposed to be, but you never know. I think the statue has the date somewhere about on a plaque or something: 1 A.D. I could look it up, but won't. Someone here will know.

WW

Who ordered the construction of the Trojan Horse? Odysseus, some say with the help of Athena Who built it? the artist Epeius And who talked the Trojans into allowing the structure into the city? the Greek soldier Sinon, the only one left behind when the Greek fleet departed as a ploy to get the horse into the city Helen?

One thing about Caligula that I did not know before was most of his siblings were murdered on command of Tiberius.

Pegasus was owned by Bellerophon (sp?), right?

Pegasus was owned by Bellopheron, according to this URL:

http://www.dsokids.com/1/kidsstoryofpegasus.htm

Joke on me. I was tempted to think Bellopheron was the name of a horse.

One thing about Caligula that I did not know

Know where he got that name? It was a nickname.

42%, Jackie--but, if I took it again, I'd end up with different answers. Lots of guessing there.

Boy, you sure are right DubDub! I took it 3 times...3 different days, got a 25, a 38 and a 55.....and not in that order!

I read a long time ago that Caligula=Little Boots was so named by the soldiers when he was a boy in Germany. Perhaps he was proud of their having liked him. But I wonder if he was called that to his face after he go into power.

Caligula=Little Boots was so named by the soldiers when he was a boy in Germany

Two more points for Dr. Bill. He had a little army uniform that he strutted around in. His father was the general Germanicus. He was the pet of the troops and named for the little boots he wore. I think he would have continued to be proud of the name but I don't know for sure.

WW, why in the world (w/w) do you have a statue of Caligula in Richmond? It's not like he was an early R.E. Lee, or something?

All this about horses brings to mind a poem, I forget by whom (Ogden Nash ? Sounds like him):

I know two things about a horse
And one of them is rather coarse.

Very nice, but not Nash, I can assure you. I L'edIU and found Naomi Royde-Smith (1875-1964)

WW, Thirty-eight fillies have started in the Kentucky Derby with three
winning: Regret (1915), Genuine Risk (1980) and Winning Colors (1988). In
1999, two fillies, Excellent Meeting and Three Ring, competed in the Derby.
They finished fifth and last, respectively.

from AMERICAN TURF MONTHLY.

The Cisco Kid was no friend of mine but his horse was a friend of my sidekick "Andy". Andy met Diablo in San Francisco when he was army brat. Andy got a certificate to authenticate the event but lost it. Andy also met Topper, Hopalong Cassidy's horse when he came to the base. Andy claims that very few sidekicks could afford a horse of their own.
Gabby hayes: No horse
Tonto: Scout
Andy Devine: No permanent horse
Smiley Burnett: No horse
Poncho: Had horse
Pat Butrum: Nellybelle, but it was a jeep.
Chill Wills: no horse, but rode the bomb.

Andy did only a little better in remembering the horses of heros.

Red Ryder: Thunder
Lash Larue: can't remember
Tom Mix: a two horse shooter, Old Blue and Tony.
Wild Bill Elliot: not known for his horse but for always saying... ordinarily I'm a peaceful man...
Paladin: rode stage into town, then rented horse.
The Green Hornet: Black Beauty OK the Black Beauty was his car but he was the great nephew of The Lone Ranger and Andy just added this for incidental value.

And if Andy ever runs out of incidentals I will dump my sidekick and start using URL's.

WW, why in the world (w/w) do you have a statue of Caligula in Richmond? It's not like he was an early R.E. Lee, or something?

Sure it's Caligula? Could be Richard Milhouse Nixon in a toga. Oh hang on, he got the boot, didn't he? Sorry ...

I'm starting to do a Bill here.

Caligula as someone has pointed out above, was the son of Germanicus, whom rumour hath it was killed by Augustus for some personal slight (or by Livia so that Tiberius would inherit the throne). He was well-educated, but knew full well that those in power around him had pretty much put paid to his family and trusted no one. He became bi-polar (well, that's the explanation I read somewhere; I'm no psychiatrist).

I'm not sure if there's any truth in the rumour that he murdered Tiberius on Capri (or had him murdered). Tiberius was actually not all that young and hadn't lived what you might call a healthy life since becoming emperor.

Caligula gradually completely lost touch with reality. I've read commentaries which suggest that Sejanus' murderous regime in Rome gradually eliminated all those around Caligula who might have kept him on an even keel.

I think that John Hurt's role as Caligula was something of a caricature. Still, he was a quite horrid little man, although probably not the worst of the Roman emperors from the point of view of the average vir in the via.

Nope, Maxie, read it again. I said that Sejanus eliminated anyone around Caligula who might have supported him and perhaps kept him acting sanely.

Although I would actually like to think that it could be possible that in one of our countries, when cash was short, the Prime Minister or President or Grand Panjandrum might order the MPs' wifes to go on the game (on the State's behalf, of course) to fatten the Treasury's coffers.

Tiberius was not your upstanding role model for young Romans. He was fond of vacationing on Capri because he could indulge his penchant for pretty boys without all the finger-pointing and whispering that would have incited in Rome.

Giving names to cars is also an interesting subject. My father bought a 1948 Chevrolet sedan new, and drove it until until the mid-'60s. He was a railroad car repair foreman and always had to go to wrecks to supervise the removal of rail cars from the tracks or wherever, and to get to a wreck he had to drive down the narrow bumpy dirt access roads to the tracks. This beat up the car so badly that by the late '50s it was practically a wreck itself. It was such a heap (as we used to call an old beat-up car) that we took to calling it Uriah (my father was a great Dickens fan).

Any other names of cars y'all want to share?

*Vaguely* relative to the horse thread, even! My first car was a hand-me-down 1976 fire engine red Ford Pinto. yes, that's where I'm claiming the vague relation to horses starts. And ends. It quickly proved itself to be, well, a Pinto (the biggest joke of a car since the Nova went to South America) and it was consequently dubbed "Hell". Not coincidentally, I felt like I was in Hell every time I got behind the wheel. Lucky me, the fiery furnace never did erupt while I owned the thing ~ but I was mercifully able to avoid being rear-ended.

The next car was a vomitous little Plymouth Horizon. Not a whole lot better, but enough so that its name became "Purgatory". It was inoffensive enough, especially by comparison to Hell.

After that was a 1973 green Volvo station wagon/tank. I arbitrarily decided that naming my cars was somehow jinxing them, so this one didn't get a name. But its engine seemed to run better when I spoke Spanish to it. It was 16 years old when I got it, I had to try something!!!

Of the cars that I have owned that received names:
1965 German Opel Kadet El Burro Blanco
1968 Dodge van Grandma Dodge
1976 Monte Carlo Nelliebelle
1977 Datsun station wagon Rusty
1982 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Johnny B Goode

Rusty's n fell off, if you must know.
and yes, Rusty was. Very.

Tiberius was not your upstanding role model for young Romans. He was fond of vacationing on Capri because he could indulge his penchant for pretty boys without all the finger-pointing and whispering that would have incited in Rome.

True enough. And yet, withall, he was actually well regarded as an army officer and actually began the fashion for emperors, militarily-trained or not, to wear military uniforms. Something which continues to this day, I suppose.

Of course, indulging in little boys was also a fine old army tradition, particularly, I understand, in Germania, where the women weren't, shall we say, all that safely compliant.