tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34647587.post-28742293989494007072008-05-09T10:02:00.005-04:002008-05-09T10:43:06.722-04:002008-05-09T10:43:06.722-04:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_2sYXHRFeJNk/SCRba6t5P9I/AAAAAAAADJc/Gx4qkNNDSeo/s1600-h/Horace.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_2sYXHRFeJNk/SCRba6t5P9I/AAAAAAAADJc/Gx4qkNNDSeo/s400/Horace.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5198380387888873426" border="0" /></a>Horace Horsecollar is certainly one of the better known of Disney's secondary cartoon players. Like his female counterpart of sorts Clarabelle Cow, Horace predated even Goofy, Donald Duck and Pluto. Significantly, his debut was in the Mickey Mouse short <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Plow Boy</span>, which was released on this date in 1929.<br /><br />In Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland, Horace is a fitness entrepreneur, being the proprietor of the Horace Horsecollar Gym. The image that appears on a punching bag sign is drawn from the 1941 color version of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Orphan's Benefit</span>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://bp3.blogger.com/_2sYXHRFeJNk/SCRhgKt5P-I/AAAAAAAADJk/06fD0j3cZkQ/s1600-h/Horace+OB.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://bp3.blogger.com/_2sYXHRFeJNk/SCRhgKt5P-I/AAAAAAAADJk/06fD0j3cZkQ/s400/Horace+OB.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5198387075152953314" border="0" /></a>In the book <span style="font-style: italic;">Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters</span>, author John Grant noted:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">" . . . it must have been galling for Horace and Clarabelle to take part in so many of the early Disney "greats" and then watch Johnny-come-latelies like Goofy and Donald Duck ascend to the heights while they remained forever struggling to reach the first rung of the ladder of stardom."</span>Jeff Pepperhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00990997892044489714noreply@blogger.com