Lotsa cowboy heroes rode white horses in the movies. Let's see how many we can name. To spread the work a mite, let's say it's one horse and rider for each buckaroo each day. That way everyone in the bunkhouse can have a toss.

A double - Silver - Buck Jones and Silver - The Lone Ranger (several actors)

In an old California way, Reed Hadley in Zorro's Fighting Legion was the only Zorro I remember that rode a white horse. The rest rode darker steeds.

Ken Maynard and his horse, Tarzan.

Sunset Carson and his white steed, "Cactus"

Johnny Mack Brown on his white steed "Scout." He rode Scout in some of his Universal serials. BTW: As I compose this, it is 2:30 a.m. in the eastern time zone on Saturday, Dec. 14th. This is just to clarify the 2 back to back entries. One for Friday and one for Saturday. I hope the moderators will forgive this minor indiscretion. I wanted to catch up and stay on an even keel with the rest of my fellow Nostalgia Leaguers.

Well, pardners, we're building a nice list. Here are some notes I found on the bunkhouse wall:
The main white stallions in the two Lone Ranger serials were Silver Chief and Silver King.
Ken Maynard's horse Tarzan was actually a palomino, but he photgraphed white. (We'll leave him on the list.)
The white horse who played El Rey, or Le Rey, in Zorro's Fighting Legion, says he figgers he should have name credit.
Sonny "Sunset" Carson favored a big, and purty smart, horse whose name was Silver. Before old Buck got his Silver, he rode one called White Eagle.
Johnny Mack Brown gave several horses a chance to be in his movies. Guess his favorite was a palomino named Rebel.
Well, that all the bunkhouse notes for now. And, Chief, nothing wrong with using the genuine separation of days. Just keep sending in those white horses.

Durango Kid (Charles Starrett) and his horse, Raider.

Well, let's see, There's Hoppy and Topper, Livingston as Stony Brook with I believe Shamrock, also John Wayne as Stony Brook, and Livingston as the Eagle in THE VIGILANTES ARE COMING, however I do not know the name of these white horses, and then there's....

There were two Starlights around. One ridden by Tim McCoy and the other ridden by Hoot Gibson.

Starlight was a good name for movie horses. Bob Livingston rode one with that handle. And Hoot Gibson, who never hankered to stay with a single horse, rode a palomino of that name for a spell. The Starlght who got the most work, though, was ridden by a cowboy whose biggest days came in the silents. Guess he and Starlight made almost three dozen movies together. The horse even got his name in the title once or twice. Anybody recollect his rider?

Jack Perrin?

You got it, Jerry. Get some extra chow tonight. Jack Perrin's career was waning by the mid-thirties, but he got to play Davy Crockett in "The Painted Stallion" alongside the palomino Starlight rider, Hoot Gibson.

I wonder if someone who hasn't posted yet today is gonna mention a white horse ridden by a singing cowboy of the 30s and 40s?

I'll bet you're referring to Tex Ritter, and his white steed, White Flash.
Oh my darling don't forsake me, on this our wedding day. I just had to do it.

Chief, you sound just like ol' Tex. In his first years in the movies, Ritter rode studio horses they called White Flash for the film of the moment. But in 1941 Tex bought the White Flash that stayed with him till the end of his movie career--lotsa times doin tricks that got the singing cowboy outa trouble. Tex took a real liking to White Flash, who was with him a long time, and Tex sure suffered when he had to put him to sleep in the in the mid 1960s. White Flash was 27.

A note on the bunkhouse wall reminds me that Tom Mix's biggest rival in the 1920s had a white horse that was almost as well known as Tony and was darn smart too. The cowboy's sorta forgotten now, and that's too bad, but does anyone remember him and his horse? Nobody's mentioned him yet.

I don't know...did Broncho Billy Anderson or William S. Hart have white horses? I'll guess the latter....?

William S. Hart's Fritz was the first famous horse in the movies, but he had only a bit of white on him. No, the cowboy in the bunkhouse note was really only of the 1920s. He was so popular then it is hard to believe that few people today know his name. But there is a reason for that. And it is sorta sad.

Could it possibly be John Wayne's boyhood western hero Mr. Harry Carey, Sr.? Duke idolized him. This is a pure guess on my part. I've only seen one of Harry Sr.'s silent westerns and a few of his talkies in the early '30s.

How about Fred Thompson?

I know that Jack Hoxie starred in the silent western serial, "Lightning Bryce." I've seen pictures of him on a white horse, Lightning. Could it be he? I don't know if anything untoward harmed his career.

Pardners, you've been doing some good thinking. But only one guy fits here by making all his movies in the 1920s and by being a top rival to Tom Mix in the roarin decade. That feller was Fred Thomson, the actor that English Bill Everson said was "possibly the most popular Western Star of the Twenties."
Thomson's famous horse was Silver King, who battled an arena bull in "Thundering Hoofs," till Thomson arrived to take over the struggle.
Fred Thomson was a good-lookin college athlete who came to the movies in 1921, was Mary Pickford's boy friend in "The Love Light," made a serial called "The Eagle's Talon," and soon was in the saddle for a string of lively Westerns. The movies, which had their share of chuckles, were full of great stunts. Stories were clean cut too, maybe because Fred Thomson was an ordained Presbyterian minister.
Thomson moved from FBO to Paramount to make a big movie called "Jesse James" (1927). But right when Fred had reached the top of the mountain, misfortune came callin'. The cowboy everyone liked was done in by pneumonia and died in 1928. He surely would have been just fine in talkies, but never had a chance to carry off the switch.
We'll be writing more about him later on.

The Wrangler said that, even though we're workin on black horses right now, it was OK for me to ask why no one has mentioned the white horse that co-starred with John Wayne in half-a-dozen oaters. Anyone know his name?

The white horse that John Wayne rode was named "Duke". Smiley

Thank you, KanSmiley, for remembering old Duke.

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