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Trigger Biography

Horse / Actor

Trigger was billed as "the smartest horse in the movies" during his heyday with singing cowboy Roy Rogers. Rogers was the real star of the show, but as the cowboy's favorite ride, Trigger became a popular public figure right along with him. The pair starred in dozens of westerns in the 1930s and 1940s; Trigger even shared the title in two, My Pal Trigger (1946) and Trigger, Jr. (1950). (Rogers's wife and co-star Dale Evans had her own favorite horse, Buttermilk.) After his death in 1965, Trigger's hide was mounted on a plaster frame and placed in the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum in California.

Extra credit: The Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum moved to Branson, Missouri in 2003; Trigger made the move along with the rest of the museum's memorabilia.

Trigger and Roy Rogers appear with Pegasus and Bellerophon in our loop Seven Horses of Highly Effective People.