May 3rd, 2025.

I had thought to post a picture tonight and then realized that today was the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby.

The event was launched in 1875 as horse racing with its famous black black jockeys, who won more than half of the first 28 derbies, was gaining an audience in the U.S.

A horse-based event gives me the opportunity to repost a piece my friend Michael S. Green and I wrote together a number of years ago on 10 famous American horses.

While it has no deep meaning, it does illustrate that there is history all around us,

a theme you'll hear more about from me soon. And it was totally fun to research, too.

I spent hours watching Mr. Ed shows and reading entertainment theory, but the insightful detail

and the inclusion of Khartoum is all Michael. This piece remains one of my favorite things I ever

had a hand in writing. So tonight, let's take the night off from the craziness of today's America

and recall past eras when horses could make history.

Number one, Traveler. General Robert E. Lee rode Traveler, spelled with two L's in the British style,

from February 1862 until the General's death in 1870. Traveler was a gray American saddlebread of 16 hands. He had

great endurance for long marches and was generally unflappable in battle, although he once broke

both of General Lee's hands when he shied at enemy movements. Lee brought Traveler with him

when he assumed the presidency of Washington

and Lee University. Traveler died of Tetanus in 1871. He is buried on campus, where the Safe

Ride Program still uses his name. Number two, Comanche. Comanche was attached to General Custer's detachment of the 7th Cavalry when it engaged the Lakota in 1876 at the Battle of Little Big Horn.

The troops in the detachment were all killed in the engagement, but soldiers found Comanchee, badly wounded two days later.

They nursed him back to health, and he became

the 7th Cavalry's mascot. The commanding officer decreed that the horse would never again be

ridden and that he would always be paraded, draped in black, in all military ceremonies involving

the 7th Cavalry. When Comanchee died of Colic in 1891, he was given a full military funeral.

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