Written By: TIME Staff
In 2004, when the Senate agreed to designate December 13 as the National Day of the Horse, the resolution acknowledged that “horses continue to permeate the society of the United States, as witnessed on movie screens, on open land, and in our own backyards” and are “a vital part of the collective experience of the United States.”
Nowhere is that vital role clearer than in the archive of LIFE Magazine’s great 20th century photography, which features these majestic creatures in all of their many roles. They’re athletes (Seabiscuit), movie stars (National Velvet), military troops, farm workers, even gamblers 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, not creative: the headline was “Talking Horse.”)
To mark the celebration of horses now and then, here’s a look back at 25 of the most memorable horses in LIFE’s pages.
LIFE’s Best Horses
Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Fritz Goro The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Jon Brenneis The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Loomis Dean The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Leonard McCombe The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Hank Walker The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Robert W. Kelley The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Donald Uhrbrock The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE’s Best Horses
Joseph Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
