The horse has been a determining factor in the history of human development, since the men on its back have developed the campaigns that have moved the world over the centuries. So when we look back we always find the presence of the horse. There were then mythological horses such as the Pegasus which, in addition to their legs, had wings which allowed them to move from one place to another with great speed.
It is not surprising that great men who tell the story felt an intense love for their horses and it is easy to remember for example Alexander the Great, who named his horse Bucephalus general and no less famous was Babieca Rodrigo Diaz's horse to live, the CID Champion, who with his formidable commanding officer expelled the Arabs from Spain, just as the black horse of King Boabdil was famous for this same period, when he was beaten affectionately on the neck and began to weep, and according to history his angry mother reprimanded him, saying that he was crying as a woman what he had not defended as a man.
History does not mention the name of Attila's horse king of the Huns, but this boastful man said:
Where I stepped on my horse, the grass was never born again.
As far as the American continent is concerned, the Spanish brought the horse and it is also to be assumed that the English did the same when they conquered North American territory, including Canada.
The great wars that moved humanity were carried out with the active participation of the horse: the Christian crusades, the Napoleonic battles and then the independence struggles in North America and the war of independence in Latin America.
In one battle King Henry IV in the heat of the battle was killed his horse and then screamed at the top of his lungs:
I'll trade my kingdom for a horse!
As far as Venezuela is concerned, I can say that all its military components were on their horses, but many of them were left without names; General Páez's was killed in the battle of Carabobo along with Colonel Ambrosio Plaza's and Pedro Camejo's "El negro primero" (The Black First); that of Marshal Antonio José De Sucre was killed over there in the Bolivian highlands; The one of Bermúdez in the battle of Aragua de Barcelona where he induced Libertador to present a battle in the streets of the town without thinking that the inhabitants were realistic and entrenched in the roofs and windows of the houses, shooting at the patriotic forces, causing a defeat to the liberator and leaving on the battlefield more than two thousand dead, one thousand wounded and unfortunately all Venezuelans. Among the dead was Colonel Francisco Carvajal, nicknamed El Tigre Encaramado (The Incarnate Tiger), a native of the town, who led the horse with his reins in his mouth and a spear in both hands. Many years later the Goths or Mantuans of this population boasted that they had defeated the liberator Simon Bolivar. General Piar's horse was killed in the battle of San Félix; that of General José Félix Ribas in the town of Tucupido; that of General José Tomás Rodríguez Boves in the battle of Úrica and where he died speared by an anonymous arm attributed to General Pedro Zaraza, but perhaps this one was not overwhelmed by this feat of modesty.
When Dr. Prospero Reverend examined the body of our Liberator, in the medical report he said that in addition to the physical annihilation caused by tuberculosis, he could see that the body had large calluses on the buttocks and crotch caused by the continuous and many years of riding on horseback.
All the horses that ride our heroes died without pain or glory, but there are three that have survived through time and have been inscribed for eternity. The first is the one that appears on our National Shield symbolizing freedom, But how many rulers already far away in history and closer now have violated their meaning by subjecting to prison or exile the dissident men and women of the political thought of the current ruler and the other is the horse that the Peruvian authorities gave to the Liberator and that he gave him the name of Palomo and is the one who rides our Liberator in the public squares of the towns and cities of Venezuela and the world as an eternal tribute to that noble animal made for deed and glory. And the other is the Rocinante horse that rode the horse, Don Quixote de la Mancha, and that will continue to gallop every time a person reads the book that tells the adventures and misfortunes of the Knight of the Sad Figure.
By: Angel Solorzano
