Written By: TIME Staff
Horses are majestic creatures who have played many roles in American culture. They’re athletes (Seabiscuit), movie stars (National Velvet), military troops, and farm workers—not to mention beloved companions. In one 1952 gimmick, a horse that supposedly possessed clairvoyant powers even composed a headline for a LIFE story about herself. (She was clairvoyant, but not creative: the headline was “Talking Horse.”)
To celebrate horses now and then, here’s a look back at 25 of the most memorable horses in LIFE’s pages.
Polo ponies at the Peachtree Ranch in Texas, 1939.
Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Championship horse Seabiscuit after winning the Santa Anita Handicap, 1940.
Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A doctor listened to a horse’s heart at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Veterinary Medicine, 1940.
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A Moroccan soldier of the French expeditionary force held the General’s Arabian horse, 1940.
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A stallion tried to make friends with a barn cat, 1943.
Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A man watched his work horse drink from a water trough, 1944.
Fritz Goro The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Elizabeth Taylor posed with a saddle horse after her smash movie debut in “National Velvet,” 1945.
Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
These boys rode their horse to school, 1946.
Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A lucky horse joined the roulette action in Las Vegas, 1947.
Jon Brenneis The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock
Gene Autry, astride his horse Champion, surveyed his Ranch, 1948.
Loomis Dean The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The foreman of the JA Ranch, Clarence, Hailey Long, sat with his horse, 1949.
Leonard McCombe The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock
Mary Breckenridge ran the Frontier Nursing Service in Leslie Country, Kentucky, 1949.
Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
“Lady Wonder,” a clairvoyant 27 year old talking horse, could count and spell its name by tipping over lettered panels, 1952.
Hank Walker The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
This child could look his miniature horse in the eye, 1952.
Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Baby horses scampered down the stretch at Los Alamitos track, 1952.
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
The horse sailed gracefully toward its tank in Atlantic City, N.J., 1953.
Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Midget thoroughbred filly, Big Bertha, and her mother on Woodland farm, 1954.
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A six-year-old cowboy learned how to shoe a horse, 1954.
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
This young girl rode her pony as a colt followed, 1956.
Robert W. Kelley The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
“Misty of Chincoteague,” a wild horse, indulged before returning home to Chincoteague Island, 1957.
Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Harness racing at the All-Russia horse show at the Hippodrome, 1958.
Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Trader Horn nuzzled a young friend at Roosevelt Raceway, 1959.
Donald Uhrbrock The LIFE Images Collection/Shutterstock
Israeli children of the Habad sect at a farm village, 1960.
Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
A troika race at Hippodrome, 1963.
Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
Jimmy the horse rollerskated in front of his farm, 1963.
Joseph Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Shutterstock
