The Little Horse That Could, All Over Portland

One night the week before the return of "Dancing With the Stars," Lamont, Lindsay, Mama and I walked down NW 23rd to eat supper. We ended up at the Santa Fe Taqueria, on the corner of NW 23rd Avenue and Johnson. On the way there and back, we saw several plastic horses of varying sizes tied to these metal horse rings at the curb, on both sides of the street. The seeds to curiosity took hold, but I didn't have my camera with me to document what I saw!

This past Saturday I rode the #15 bus to the bank at the corner of NW 23rd and Lovejoy, then I moseyed back up the avenue towards our street. (Honest, that's how Merriam-Webster spells the past tense of mosey.)

Imagine my joy at spying a little plastic horse tied to a ring at the corner of 23rd and Hoyt! Even better, a small shop occupied the basement floor of the building there, its door a few steps below sidewalk level, affording me a great view of said horse. Quickly I got my shot, determined to Google at the first opportunity to see what other Portlanders had to say about the cute little hooved animals.



Now you can see the ring better, to the right of the horse. I particularly love the flowing mane and tail as well as the four stockings, black over white.



I Googled "curb horse rings portland oregon" and thanks to a photo posted July 10, 2006, at www.portlandground.com and the text that accompanies it, I found "the horse project," at horseproject.home.comcast.net. Background there says:

"It all began ... with a man named Scott Wayne Indiana. He knew about the horse rings in many Portland sidewalks and thought it was a shame that we don't tie our horses to them anymore. Scott decided to change that and tied his first pony to a horse ring in the fall of 2005 in the revitalized Pearl District in Northwest Portland. After a few months, he decided to expand the horse project and get some help. Now these horses are showing up all over Portland. You can find them in most parts of Portland now."

I'll keep you posted about others that I come across. Maybe I'll even get myself a Goodwill toy horse, decorate it and tie it up to a ring in my neighborhood. Hey, Jacksonians, does this remind you a teensy little bit of the catfish around town? Sort of?