duds designed by Nudie, the famed Cowboy Couturiere, striking the iconic pose that captured the imaginations of millions of wanna-be cowboys and cowgirls.
Billed as the “King of the Cowboys,” Rogers was an excellent horseman. He did running mounts and dismounts on Trigger, who took it all in stride. Like most star horses, Trigger had doubles for dangerous stunts and rough-riding long shots. Contrary to rumors that Rogers owned many Trigger doubles, these horses were rentals from Hudkins or Glenn Randall. The good care Trigger received and his overall hardiness meant a horse that was never lame.
Rogers never gelded Trigger for fear of dulling his famous spark, yet never bred him either. According to Roy’s son Dusty Rogers, “Dad was afraid to breed because he was worried that Trigger might decide he liked breeding better than making movies.”
Like his famous predecessors, Fritz, Tony, and Champion, Trigger inspired movies that revolved around him. One of the most beloved was The Golden Stallion (1949). Trigger costarred with Roy Rogers in eighty-two movies between 1938 and 1953. Together they made the transition from film to television in December 1951 with the debut of The Roy Rogers Show. Trigger costarred in all one hundred episodes.
Rogers made the most of their fame. Roy Rogers’ and Trigger’s names and likenesses appeared on sixty-five products marketed in 1949. Roy Rogers’ Trigger, a Dell comic-book series based on the palomino’s escapades, sold millions of copies.
Trigger and Roy Rogers inspired scores of toys, such as this one.
Trigger worked well into his twenties and was eventually retired in 1957 at the Rogers’ ranch. After he died on July 3, 1964, at the age of thirty-three, Rogers had him mounted so the public could view Trigger at the Roy Rogers–Dale Evans Museum.
Little Trigger and Trigger Jr.
A couple of years after he acquired Trigger, Roy Rogers purchased another blaze-faced palomino stallion, known by insiders as Little Trigger (aka the Little Horse). A Morgan, this horse was smaller than Trigger (who then became known to the Rogers and Randall families as Old Trigger) and lighter in color. He had four white stockings. Seen on his own, however, Little Trigger looked enough like Old Trigger, with his handsome body and long flowing white locks, that he could pass for the original. He was presented to the public as simply Trigger. Just as Gene Autry always had one Champion, Roy Rogers perpetuated the myth of one Trigger and never mentioned Little Trigger in an interview.
Little Trigger was, according to both Rogers and Glenn Randall, truly the smartest horse in movies—or anywhere else for that matter. Highly intelligent, he learned quickly and retained more than a hundred cues for tricks and dances. Most astonishing of all, he was housebroken, a quality that allowed him to accompany Rogers on his many appearances in hospitals to visit sick children and into fancy hotels without worrying about an embarrassing mishap. He is the only celebrity horse of record who could accomplish this feat.
Little Trigger was also notoriously ornery and quick to show his displeasure by biting. According to Cheryl Rogers-Burnett, he didn’t like kids or women, which is ironic considering they composed much of his fan base. He did love the spotlight, however, and he knew that as long as he was performing in front of a crowd, Rogers wouldn’t discipline him. On one occasion, Little Trigger ruined a dramatic routine during which he and Rogers played dead. The stallion tried to sneak out of the stadium as the houselights were dimmed, leaving Rogers lying alone in the middle of the arena. The actor grabbed for Little Trigger’s reins and found his saddle horn. When the houselights came on, Little Trigger was gleefully galloping around the arena with Rogers hanging off the saddle. Furious, the actor intended to reprimand Little Trigger backstage and backed him into a corner. However, when Rogers approached the horse, the wily stallion started desperately going through his tricks, finally sitting down and bowing his head in prayer. Instead of punishing Little Trigger, Rogers cracked up laughing, along with the cowboys who had witnessed the amazing display.
Little Trigger doubled Trigger in dancing sequences in Don’t Fence Me In (1945). He also masqueraded as Trigger in the 1952 musical comedy Son of Paleface, starring Rogers, Bob Hope, and Jane Russell. He danced and performed many tricks, including untying ropes, running up a staircase, and sharing a bed with Hope, fighting over the covers. “Trigger” stole the show and won a PATSY, the American Humane Association’s version of the Academy Award, for his work.
Rogers and Little Trigger toured the country regularly, but their most famous appearance—and most notorious publicity stunt—took place in New York City during a 1944 Madison Square Garden engagement. Rogers led the stallion into the lobby of the Hotel Astor and offered him a pencil. Holding the pencil in his teeth, Little Trigger marked “X” on the guest register. Later, he attended a cocktail party honoring him in the hotel’s Grand Ballroom.
According to trainer Buford “Corky” Randall, son of Glenn Randall, Little Trigger lived well into his twenties and was humanely put down due to complications of old age. Rogers purchased a third palomino to understudy Little Trigger. Named Trigger Jr., he took over as Rogers’s personal appearance horse when Little Trigger was retired in the early 1950s. A flashy dark palomino with a blaze and four white stockings, Trigger Jr. was also trained by Glenn Randall. The new horse specialized in crowd-pleasing dance routines. Corky Randall showed Trigger Jr., a Tennessee Walking Horse, under his registered name of Golden Zephyr. Trigger Jr. appeared in a namesake film, Trigger Jr. (1950), alongside Trigger, who was six years his senior. Trigger Jr. was nine years old when Rogers purchased him. He died at twenty-eight and was also mounted and put on display at the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum.
Trainer Corky Randall and Trigger Jr.—as Golden Zephyr—demonstrate the elegant Spanish walk at a horse show.
Jane Russell and Bob Hope share a meal with their costars Roy Rogers and Little Trigger on the set of 1952’s Son of Paleface.
Little Trigger and Glenn Randall play jump rope with Roy Rogers.
The Queen of the West and Buttermilk
In 1944, Rogers made his first picture with a dynamic singer and dancer named Dale Evans. The Cowboy and the Senorita proved to be a hit, and Rogers and Evans went on to make twenty-eight more features and one hundred television shows together. Along the way, they fell in love. Rogers proposed to Evans as they were about to ride into Madison Square Garden for a public appearance by asking, “What are you doing New Year’s Eve?” They married on December 31, 1947. The wife of the “King of the Cowboys” became known as the “Queen of the West.”
In her early Rogers films, such as 1945’s Bells of San Angelo, Evans rides a pinto. Rogers decided the Paint was too flashy, and Glenn Randall found a gentle palomino gelding called Pal for Evans. Rogers worried, though, that the horse’s color would draw attention away from Trigger. The quest began for a horse of just the right color.
Glenn Randall spotted an athletic little buckskin Quarter Horse named Soda on a Wyoming ranch. Soda had an extremely shaggy winter coat, but Randall could see his potential through the hair. He purchased the buckskin and hauled him back to California. When Soda shed his winter coat, his pretty conformation was revealed. Randall brought him to the location of one of Rogers and Evans’s movies and tied him next to Trigger. The two looked
