Seven Horses of Highly Effective People

Bucephalus and Alexander the Great

BUCEPHALUS owes his fame mainly to the historian Plutarch, who described the horse in his biography of world-beater ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Plutarch tells the tale of how Alexander, audacious even as a boy, took his father's challenge and tamed the wild horse by turning its head into the sun, thereby preventing it from being frightened by its own shadow. That story may or may not be true, but Bucephalus was indeed Alexander's mount for many of his military campaigns. The horse was eventually killed in battle and given a solemn funeral by Alexander himself.