Talk:Trigger (horse)

Untitled
Can someone clarify the statement that there was more than one Trigger? The IMDB entry does not clarify this. Trigger was supposedly born in 1932, he kept on making film appearances fairly frequently until what many would regard as his best known appearance, his 2nd last listed appearance, in Son of Paleface in 1952. Is this a particularly lengthy or implausible life span for a horse? PatGallacher 23:55, 2005 July 14 (UTC)

Following is a transcript of an interview taped in December, 2009 with my father, Edmond A Cook, from Lusk, Wyoming: ''This kid rode a horse into a ranch up by Douglas [Wyoming]. A silver-gray mare and he got a job at the ranch. All he owned at the time was what was on the horse – his bedroll and some clothes. He got drafted into World War Two but he didn’t want to sell the horse. The ranch owner said, “Well, I’ll buy the mare from ya and when you come back from the Army I’ll sell her back to ya for the same money”. But the boy never came back from World War Two. Shortly after this, the mare got bred to a son of the first Triple Crown winner*. She had twin Palomino stallion colts - that were grandsons of his. Hey were pets from day one. Very likeable, very trainable. They got a little too big for house pets and then the yard, so they decided to sell ‘em one day. Otto Bible says, “bring ‘em down to the Lusk sale barn. I’m sure I can get a good price out of ‘em. So he takes ‘em down to the Lusk sale barn and a rancher, Walt Rhimall, from south of Lusk, about right on the Goshen/Niobrara county line, buys ‘em for $250 each. Two or three days later, the family from Douglas comes down and says, “can we have one of those colts back?”. They were such pets. They went ahead and let him take one of ‘em home. Well the rancher had an old jockey working for him by the name of Robinson. He said, “this horse is very trainable”. He was shoeing him and taking care of him as he was growing up and training him. After awhile he says, “ya know, he can do every trick that ‘Trigger” can – there’s 60 of ‘em. That was three or four times more than any other horses that were in the movies at that time. So, they got in touch with Roy Rogers and told him, and boy, he came out in the mid 1940s and picked him up for $2,500 and used him as a replacement for Trigger - so the two horses could spell off back and forth. That’s a neat story. There’s a statue in the park in Douglas [Wyoming] of Trigger II. It’s unusual that a Triple Crown winner would be in Wyoming and then for Trigger II to be a grandson of his is kind of a claim to fame.''

- contributed by TeeLLeCee1

I have see sources on the Internet that indicate there were three Triggers. I don't have enough confidence in my sources to update Wiki, however.

It is a bit of an over-statement to say that Trigger appeared in ALL Roy's movies. He certainly did not appear in McIntosh and TJ, which was filmed after his death, and I don;t think he was in Dark Command. Cdixon 15:13, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

=Silver Cloud= I've heard he was registered as such with the American Palomino Assn. Can anybody confirm? Trekphiler 14:00, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

=The rest of the story...= After a fair amount of research, it appears that there was only one Trigger that Roy rode. I think Trigger II and Trigger Jr. were not sired by Trigger and were just extra props for the TV show. Horses are like people; an active, well cared for horse can live longer. 25-35 years is not unusual but over 35 is very rare. I have a 21 year old Arabian mare that still wants to run even with my big butt on her. Roy was smaller than I am and Trigger was bigger than my horse. Alias Jesse James was released in 1959, which would make Trigger 27. I don't have a problem believing in one Trigger through Roy's career of westerns.

PS- His name was Golden Cloud, not Silver Cloud. I don't know about any Palamino Association registration, but he wasn't pure Palamino. (half Thoroughbred)

Boyledad 04:12, 24 January 2007 (UTC)boyledad

Wikiproject Biography
Does the horse really belong in Wikiproject biography? Ealdgyth | Talk 21:00, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't understand what this means.
"They were said to have run out of places to cue Trigger." WilliamSommerwerck (talk) 19:01, 14 March 2010 (UTC)


 * Basically, I think they were referencing that tapping the horse in various places on the body is a cue for a trick or behavior. For example, most horses learn to move sideways when touched or tapped on the side by a rider's foot.  Some are taught to lower their heads when a human rests a hand between the horse's ears.  Most begin learning to back up by being touched on the chest.   Some trick horses are cued  to "bow" by a gentle tap with a stick or crop on a specific spot on the neck or foreleg.   Trick horses are sometimes taught to rear with a specific combination of hand and leg cues from a rider.  Horses also respond to verbal cues.  And so on.   Presumably, Trigger knew so many separate commands, they ran out of spots on his body to give him unique cues.  Montanabw (talk) 04:36, 15 March 2010 (UTC)

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Birth inconsistency
It says here he was born 1934, but the Roy Rogers wikipedia article has "In 1932, a palomino colt foaled in California was named "Golden Cloud"; when Rogers acquired him, he renamed him Trigger." Carlm0404 (talk) 03:16, 17 September 2020 (UTC)