StarHorsePax Fun

*Note: Link takes you off site to the museum.*  All onsite text @T.A.Paxton

The Roy Rogers Museum is closing. I grieve at the thought I?ll never get to visit. Today, it seems a thing of the distant past. But what horse lover hasn?t heard of Trigger? I only knew him thanks to the magic marvelous invention called a vcr and a few books.
Modern movies have complicated heroes. They have obvious flaws, tempers , drug problems, marital problems and more. Sometimes its hard to know who the hero of a movie or show is, they shift across the lines so easily. In contrast the old western seems innocent, childlike. The good guys wore white hats, only shoot the bad guy?s guns out of their hands and are faithful and kind. At most they ignore a no trespassing sign, tell a white lie or break jail-the charges being false, of course! Every once in a while its refreshing to look at the old stuff. It gives the brain a break from sorting things out. The actors themselves are usually predicable. It?s rare to see Roy Rogers as the villain.
Old westerns are a great place for the horse lover to visit. Especially if the horse is as famous and heroic as his rider. But as an animal lover, no-one should doubt Roy. In one episode Trigger kills a man in self defense. With no witnesses, he is labeled a ?killer stallion? and sentenced to death. Roy steps up, lies and claims he killed the man by accident, not his horse. He ends up in jail on a chain gang. How many people love their horses enough for that? Naturally a whole dastardly plot must be exposed by the end, Trigger and Roy cleared. That?s just one example. Mind you, from the biographies it seems clear that the movie cowboy and the real man were of one mind in the animal department. He may not have been perfect but compassion was something he believed in, toward man and beast.
The day I read Roy Rogers died, I imagined Trigger running up to him and saying in horse ?come on partner. Let?s go to our real home. There are people waiting for you!? I?m sorry the museum is closing. What will become of the relics now? To anyone out there who loves horses, don?t dismiss the old movies. You?ll miss out on fabulous horses and great values. If you dismiss them because they are in black and white-in more ways than one-you?ll never know what you?re missing.