A Horse, of Course with Don Blazer

You don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don't say Silver was a weakling or had poor eyesight.

And you don't call El Cid "babieca" (idiot), or express doubts about the choice of horses ridden by Emperor Hirohito of Japan, or Napoleon or Gen. Zachary Taylor.

They all rode Albinos, as did many kings, queens, knights, commanding generals and Indian chiefs.

If you made disparaging remarks about their horses you might find they didn't take it kindly, and some of them could be pretty rough characters.

But to make matters worse, you'd be perpetuating the misconceptions that the albino horse is weak, has poor eyes, dies young and is white. You see, most albinos aren't.

The true albino, which may occur in any form of animal or plant life, is a freak of nature with no color pigment. And since nature takes care of her own faults, the true albino animal is weak and often does die at an early age.

But in the vast majority of cases, the white horse is just that--white--not albino.

There actually was an active American Albino association with registered white horses as a color type rather than a no-color breed.

The foundation sire of the American Albino Association of Crabtree, Ore., was Old King, a horse said to be 15.2 hands, strongly built, with the necessary pink skin color, snow-white hair and silky mane and tail. He was believed to be of Arabian-Morgan stock and exhibited great endurance and vigorous character. Foaled in 1906, Old Kind had the reputation of throwing all white foals from solid-colored mares.

While coloring was the primary requisite for registration in the Albino association, ancestry was of any breed.

The association had three color categories, American White, American Albino and American Creme. All had snow, or milk-white hairs with underlying pinkish skin, brown, blue, black or hazel eyes. None had "pink eyes" as the name Albino would suggest.

It is said the horses registered are exceptionally docile, smart and tractable. Albinos are popular as pleasure riding horses, as well as for draft work and entertainment spectaculars such as six abreast jumping exhibitions. You have, of course, seen many white horses as circus performers.

Throughout history the white horse has always been associated with the purity of the hero. White horse, white hat. Middle Age and Renaissance painters often pictured their subjects on white horses, especially when the subjects were kings and queens.

Knights like white horses too, and maybe for the same reason that many cavalry commanders picked them. They are easily seen during the heat of battle, which is good for morale and as a rallying point.

El Cid chose a white horse which was scrawny, ugly and bedraggled. His choice of a horse caused people to refer to El Cid as 'babieca', which mean idiot. But the horse wasn't, nor, as it turn out, was El Cid. Through proper care, El Cid turned the colt into a magnificent war horse which carried his master to many victories.

Other famous generals who rode white horses were Napoleon, who owned more than 50 of them, and Gen. Zachary Taylor, who owned only one--Old Whitey.

Mont Blanc, winner of the l966 Woodmansterne Handicap in Epsom Down, England, was only one of several good white Thoroughbred race horses.

And finally, there are the famous white horses of American folklore, those ridden by the cowboy heroes who entertained us on the silver screen.

Hoppalong Cassidy rode a white horse. But do you remember his name?

I don't.

But I'll never forget the name of the Lone Ranger's horse.

"Hi ho, Silver (Silver Pride) ......away." And the masked man rode off on the fiery horse with the speed of light.

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