War statues

collinsc · 284265. Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:42 am

What was the one about the war status and the horses legs?
i.e. if one leg is up the rider died in battle...

was that true ofr false? what was the full description?

thanks

Flash · 284349. Mon Feb 25, 2008 7:39 am

It's just a bit of internet lore - no truth to it, so no point repeating it here.

collinsc · 284458. Mon Feb 25, 2008 8:45 am

thanks for the response. can anyone back that up with evidence?

thanks

djgordy · 284482. Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:07 am

This is about statues in America:

Flash · 284527. Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:09 am

Collinsc - seems to me that the challenge would be to find evidence that there is a relationship of the sort described. Actually that's a piece of research you could do without moving from your desk - look up some statues on google images, then look up the biographies of the people depicted to see how they died, then see if there's any link.

Flash · 284530. Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:13 am

But if you can't be arsed, Snopes has done it for you as far as the USA is concerned: http://www.snopes.com/military/statue.asp.

dr.bob · 284897. Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:42 am

If anyone still believes that raised hooves denotes death in battle, they should come and visit Edinburgh and take a look at the statue of Wellington outside Register House. He's sitting on a horse rearing up with both front hooves off the ground, despite the fact that he'd not been anywhere near a battle for quite a long time when he died.

collinsc · 287691. Fri Feb 29, 2008 2:39 pm

Thanks everyone.