Blackie was an American horse who became locally famous in

Tiburon, California Tiburon (; es, Tiburón, ) is an incorporated town in Marin County, California. It is located on the Tiburon Peninsula, which reaches south into the San Francisco Bay. It shares a ZIP code with the smaller incorporated city of Belvedere (forme ...

, for standing in the same spot in his pasture for 28 years. After his death, a statue of the horse was erected in a park called Blackie's Pasture.

Life

The recorded history of Blackie's early life is limited. According to his owners, brothers John and Anthony Connell (also called Anthony L. O’Connell in articles), Blackie, a black horse, arrived in California in 1926 or 1927, reportedly from Kansas, and was used as a

cutting horse A cutting horse is a stock horse, typically an American Quarter Horse, bred and trained for cutting, a modern equestrian competition requiring a horse and rider to separate a single cow from a herd of cattle and prevent it from getting back to th ...

in rodeos. Some sources claim that after his rodeo career, he was acquired by the

U.S. Cavalry The United States Cavalry, or U.S. Cavalry, was the designation of the mounted force of the United States Army by an act of Congress on 3 August 1861.Price (1883) p. 103, 104 This act converted the U.S. Army's two regiments of dragoons, one r ...

and served in

Yosemite Valley Yosemite Valley ( ; ''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a U-shaped valley, glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California. The valley is about long and deep, surroun ...

. Connell put Blackie out in what would become his "famous" pasture at the corner of Tiburon Boulevard and Trestle Glen Road around 1938. The horse soon became a familiar sight standing in his favorite spot and was reportedly fed apples and carrots by local children. In 1965, Tiburon Town Council approved plans for Tiburon Boulevard to be re-routed through Blackie's pasture. However, residents convinced the town council to preserve the pasture. When the road was built, John Connell and Blackie attended the

ribbon-cutting ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

Death and legacy

Blackie died on February 27, 1966, after collapsing the previous day. The Marin County Health Department approved his burial in his pasture. A plaque was installed at the grave with a dedication ceremony where a local teenager described Blackie as "a special horse, a children's horse." The Tiburon Peninsula Foundation erected the life-size bronze statue of Blackie by artist Albert Guibara in Blackie's Pasture in 1995. In 2006, a children's book, ''Blackie, the Horse Who Stood Still'', was published by an imprint of Random House. It was written by Christopher Cerf and illustrated by Paige Peterson.

References

External links

The Trestle and Blackie's Pasture
historical markers at Blackie's Pasture 1966 animal deaths Horse monuments Cutting horses Marin County, California Tiburon, California Horses in art

Life

Death and legacy

References

Further reading

External links