Table of Contents
In October of 1949, Amy McGilvray, an eighth grade student from Mertzon, Texas was named World Champion All-Around Cowgirl by the fledgling Girls Rodeo Association. She was one of the youngest participants to ever receive this honor. That year Amy also won the barrel racing World Championship on her Quarter Horse Pee Wee, and ranked third in bull riding. Later, Amy's talents led to a scholarship at Texas Christian University.
In the ranch country of West Texas and throughout the West, the rodeo still serves as a magnet for young people, many of
whom learn to ride almost before learning to walk. The formation of the Girls Rodeo Association in 1947, which became the
Woman's Professional Rodeo Association in 1980, provides a governing body which today sanction more than 700 events and
has a membership of 1 500. Amy McGilvray was a founding member of WPRA.
For more information about women's rodeo, visit the WPRA site.
With the advent of television, another host of heroes entered: the Lone Ranger and Silver, Tonto and Scout, Hopalong Cassidy and Topper, as well as such individual stars as Fury, Flicka, and the sage, Mr. Ed.
Like their human counterparts, horses in the movie world can be divided into three classes: The stars, the stunt horses, and the extras. The brilliance of a particular horse is based more on his training than on his breed or pedigree. Both star and stunt horses receive systematic schooling so that they will respond to their rider's or trainer's commands. They must be of even temperament since a film set is a bustle of equipment, bright lights, and unfamiliar sounds and faces.
Horses on the set must respond to the trainer's visual commands since verbal commands interfere with the recorded sound. Stunt horses must have the skill and courage to run over cliffs or crash to the ground from a full gallop. Stunt horses are carefully watched by members of humane societies to insure their safety. What appears to be a bone shattering crash on rocky ground is, in reality, a well-rehearsed fall on soft mattresses covered with plowed earth. Whether star or extra, the talented movie horses have a special place in the equine world.
Roy Rogers and Trigger
Rogers purchased Trigger in 1938 for $2,500. He was out of a Thoroughbred stallion and a Quarter Horse mare. Trigger's
striking gold coat with white mane and tail greatly helped to popularize the Palomino. In June 1965, Trigger died at over 30
years of age with more than 100 films to his credit.
The Lone Ranger and Silver
These two stars thrilled TV viewers week after week, as well as adorned plastic wallets and lunch pails of school
children. "Hi Ho, Silver!"
Gene Autry and Champion
This honest, clean-cut, singing cowboy and his handsome horse were the heroes of all American children. There were three
Champions, but the one that starred the most was a Tennessee Walking Horse. They made many personal appearance tours
together.
The circus is an exciting American tradition in which the horse has played a prominent role. In the early days, the circus parade
announced the coming show. All the horses and rolling stock paraded through the village streets to advertise the animals and
performers on the bill. Surely no parent could resist the pleas of the children to attend the show under the Big Top.
The Excitment of the Show and the Hard Work of the Circus Both Depended on the Horse
The world of the circus has created excitement for millions, young and old alike, who have sat under the "big top."
Like everyday life, the world of the circus is both romantic and arduous for man and horse alike. In the early 1900s, the Barnum
and Bailey Circus used 750 horses in draft and performance. Ringling Brothers had 650 horses at the turn of the century.
The circus was moved almost exclusively by horses, first from town to town, and later, to and from railroad yards. The dappled gray Percheron was one of the trademarks of the Ringling Brothers Circus. By 1938, the circus was mechanized and the beautiful baggage stock teams had virtually disappeared.
The Show Stealers Have Always Been the Performing Horses
The variety of equine acts ranges from sensational feats of acrobatics to clever stunts and the execution of the elegant
"airs" from classical equitation. There are no specific performing breeds, since ability alone determines the
particular horse used. Most of the horses are stallions and geldings since they tend to be more athletic than mares.
Great amounts of time are spent in training horses to perform moves that are intricate and physically demanding. The owner of an English circus very simply summed up the requirements necessary to train a performing horse: "Patience, understanding, and carrots."
The American Circus
The American circus grew out of eighteenth-century riding schools. Trick horses and riders and equestrian dramas were the first
circus acts. The horse continued to be a main event in all the later circuses.
The great horse, Black Eagle, appears with the American circus, Howes and Cushing, at the Alhambra in London, 1858. Black Eagle was billed as "The Horse of Beauty." He could waltz, polka, and stand erect on his hind legs.
Horse racing has known many "rags-to-riches" stories, but one of the most poignant is that of Jay Trump. Jay Trump
began as an accident. His dam, Be Trump, by Bernborough, was thought to be sterile and was turned out to pasture by her
owner, Jay Sensenich of Pennsylvania. In the same pasture was a stallion named Tonga Prince, by Polynesian, who also sired
Native Dancer.
The unplanned breeding of these two produced Jay Trump, foaled on April 1, 1957. He was a dark bay colt with a white diamond between wide-set eyes. In early training, a jockey struck the colt in the eye with a whip. In terror, he crashed through the track fence. The jockey went to the hospital, and Jay Trump suffered a nasty gash on his right foreleg. Jay Trump acquired the reputation of a killer and no one wanted to ride him. His racing was a dismal failure and he was relugated to $1,500 claiming races.
The Misfit Worked Hard to Become a Winner
Chapter two in Jay Trump's career began
when a perceptive young steeplechase jockey named Tommy Smith from Virginia purchased the young colt for $2,000 for
Mrs. Mary Cunningham Stephenson. Under Smith's training, Jay Trump developed quickly into a fine steeplechase horse.
Smith first raced him over fences on May 17, 1962. By 1964, after two exciting seasons, Jay Trump and Tommy Smith won Maryland's timber racing Triple Crown. Tommy Smith's ultimate ambition was the Grand National in Aintree, England, the most important steeplechase event in the world.
The Great Race
Arriving in England in July of 1964, horse and jockey began training under the supervision of the brilliant Fred Winter. They
successfully qualified for the Grant National by winning two steeplechases.
Jay Trump went off at odds of 100 to 6. The total of 30 jumps, over roughly a 4.5 mile distance, proved the undoing of the odds-makers. Jay Trump surged past the field to victory, and became an instant celebrity. American horses had competed in the Grand National before; but only Man o' War's son, Battleship, ridden by an English jockey, had ever won. Jay Trump's victory was a great first, for he was American bred, American owned, and American ridden.
After his death, Jay Trump was buried at the finish line of the Kentucky Horse Park's steeplechase course.
The Maryland Hunt Cup is among the most important steeplechase events in the United States. This event was first run in 1894,
and is staged annually on a four-mile course in Glyndon, Maryland, some ten miles outside of Baltimore. Until 1972, there was
not a purse but rather a silver cup awarded to the winner. There is no official betting, admission charge, or grandstand facilities.
The race is run over solid timber fences which stand up to 5 1/2 feet (1.6 meters) in height. Among the most famous horses
which have won the Maryland Hunt Cup are Billy Barton, who won in 1926 and went on to finish second in the Aintree Grand
National in 1928; and Jay Trump, who won the cup three times and who, in 1964, became the only horse American bred,
owned, and ridden, to win the Aintree Grand National.
Next Exhibit - The Horse in Sport