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.

Polo ponies standing in corral at the Peachtree Ranch in Texas, 1939.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Carl Mydans The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Championship horse Seabiscuit standing in stall after winning Santa Anita Handicap, 1940.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Doctor listening to horse's heart beats with stethoscope and recording them on Stetho-Cardiette at University of Pennsylvania's School of Veterinary Medicine, 1940.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Alfred Eisenstaedt The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Moroccan soldier of the French expeditionary force, holding the General's Arabian horse, at garrison in the great citadel, 1940.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Margaret Bourke-White The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Stallion trying to make friends with a barn cat, 1943.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Hansel Mieth The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Man watching his work horse drink from a water trough, 1944.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Fritz Goro The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Elizabeth Taylor posing with saddle horse after her smash movie debut in "National Velvet," 1945.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Boys riding a horse to schools, 1946.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Bernard Hoffman The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Lucky horse playing roulette in Las Vegas, 1947.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Jon Brenneis The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Gene Autry astride his horse Champion surveying his Ranch, 1948.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Loomis Dean The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Foreman of the JA Ranch Clarence Hailey Long sitting in shade of his horse on prairie, 1949.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Leonard McCombe The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Mrs. Mary Breckenridge who runs Frontier Nursing Service, petting her horse. Leslie Country, Kentucky, 1949.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Eliot Elisofon The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

"Lady Wonder," a clairvoyant 27 year old talking horse, can count and spell its name by tipping over lettered panels, 1952.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Hank Walker The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Child standing beside a miniature horse, showing size comparison, 1952.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Ed Clark The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Baby horses scampering down the stretch at Los Alamitos track, 1952.

LIFE’s Best Horses

George Silk The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

In mid air the horse sails gracefully toward the tank, 1953.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Peter Stackpole The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Midget thoroughbred filly, Big Bertha, and her mother on Woodland farm, 1954.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Lisa Larsen The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

6 year old cowboy learning how to shoe a horse, 1954.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Allan Grant The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Young girl riding her pony as colt follows, 1956.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Robert W. Kelley The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

"Misty of Chincoteague" wild horse at farewell party before returning home to Chincoteague Island, 1957.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Grey Villet The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Harness racing at All-Russia horse show at the Hippodrome, 1958.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Howard Sochurek The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Trader Horn nuzzling young friend in stall at Roosevelt Raceway, 1959.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Donald Uhrbrock The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Israeli children of Habad sect, frolic with horse and cart at farm village, 1960.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Paul Schutzer The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Troika race at Hippodrome, 1963.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Stan Wayman The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

Jimmy the horse rollerskating down road in front of its farm, 1963.

LIFE’s Best Horses

Joseph Scherschel The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

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