Blackie (horse)

Blackie was a swaybacked horse who, for twenty-eight years, was a well-known fixture in Tiburon, California. He not only stood in the same spot in a pasture at the corner of Tiburon Boulevard and Trestle Glen Road, rarely moving, day after day, but he faced in the same direction, becoming the local mascot of several generations. Born in Kansas, Blackie was brought to California to become a cutting horse at rodeos. After his rodeo career, he was sold to the Army and became a cavalry horse. He was retired when he was 12 years old.

A short time later, Anthony Connell, his new owner, put him in the Tiburon pasture where he found his spot and stood, day after day in the same place, for 28 years. When Blackie collapsed and died while standing in “his” spot on February 27, 1966, the Marin County Health Department approved his burial in the pasture. His grave was marked by a simple cross and a memorial plaque made possible by contributions from citizens of the peninsula. In June 1995, the Tiburon Peninsula Foundation erected a life-sized sculpture of Blackie in what is now known as Blackie’s Pasture.

Tiburon Blackie was not the horse who made history swimming San Francisco Bay. Tiburon Blackie had three white socks not found on the film of the bay swimmer. Tiburon Blackie was a cavalry horse at the Presidio of San Francisco and was later owned by local retired military man.

Contrary to some reports, neither did Blackie accompany the Army horses stabled at the Presidio of San Francisco which the "Buffalo Soldiers," the famous African-American cavalry and infantry troops, rode to the Sierra Nevada Mountains each spring to patrol the National Parks there. Blackie died at age forty in 1966. Although the U.S. Army stationed cavalry units at the Presidio of San Francisco through the end of World War II, it ceased patrolling the National Parks in 1913, long before Blackie was born.

Further reading
  • Staats, Jim (2007-04-17). "Blackie and Seabiscuit side by side". Marin Independent Journal. Archived from the original on 2007-09-29. Retrieved 2007-07-11.
  • McMahon, Regan (2006-09-27). "Tiburon's beloved Blackie is galloping again in a new book". San Francisco Chronicle.
  • Polito, Rick (2006-09-29). "New book, party honor Blackie - a Tiburon icon". Marin Independent Journal. Archived from the original on 2007-09-26.
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References
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