Horseback statues

[telaw]

I believe the stance of the horse on a military statue indicates how the rider died. ie. if the horse is stood on all fours he died peacefully, if it's rearing he died in battle. Does anyone know the correct details? Or is it just a fable?

Tom

[Guest Pete Wood]

The other bit of this (legend?) is that if one hoof is off the ground, the rider was wounded in battle.

The other so-called convention, applicable to civil war (in the USA!!) statues, is that if the statue faces north they were killed in battle, and if they face south they survived.

While there are many statues that DO appear to follow the so-many-hooves-off-the-ground-is-how-the-rider-died theory, there are plenty that DON'T.

[jdajd]

According to Snopes.com a webiste on urban myths it is just that a myth as is the tradition of the direction a Confederate general is facing signifying when he died. snopes.com. I remeber being taught this as a child on a tour of Washington DC and was crushed when I learned it was not true.

Jon

[Aurel Sercu]

The other bit of this (legend?) is that if one hoof is off the ground, the rider was wounded in battle.

I'm certainly not an expert, and I didn't know anything about this symbolism until I heard someone on television speak about our Belgian King Albert I's statue at Nieuwpoort, and confirmed what Tom wrote (standing on all fours = peaceful death ; rearing = died in battle)

But referring to the King's statue (horse with one leg raised) said that this indicated that the king died in a non-battle related incident. (Mountain climber King Albert fell off a rock.)

I really don't know whether this is correct.

Aurel