365 Days in Horse Country – Trigger
One of the most famous horses to ever emerge from Hollywood was
a part Thoroughbred palomino stallion named Trigger. During his career, Trigger stared in
eighty-two movies. The trusty mount of
singing cowboy star Roy Rogers, Trigger was named Golden Cloud before he became
Roy Rogers’ horse. Trigger made his
first appearance with Rogers in a film called Under Western Stars, in 1938.
Trigger was trained by well-known movie horse trainer Glenn Randall, who taught the stallion to rear on command, as well as many other tricks. Like famous actors, Trigger had doubles for most daring stunts, but he did a lot of the less risky, but no less spectacular, stunts himself.
Rogers and Trigger also made many personal appearances together during the 1940s and ‘50s; touring all over the United States.
When Trigger died at the age of thirty-three, Rogers had his remains mounted and put on display in the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Victorville, California. The museum moved to Branson, Missouri in 2003, and it still features Trigger on Display.
Michael