(From Old Corral image collection) Above is Rex Allen, 'The Arizona Cowboy', with his chocolate brown Koko, 'The Miracle Horse of the Movies'.  Many B western fans consider Koko as the most beautiful of the movie horses.  (Scuttlebutt is that Koko was originally going to be the mount of Dale Evans, but the horse was too much for her.) Koko was a Morgan with a distinctive white mane, tail and blaze as well as a dark-brown coat (which appeared to be black in the black-and-white films). Jim Tipton's Find A Grave website has a picture of the grave marker for Koko (1940 - 1967). The horse is buried at the Railroad Park in Willcox, Arizona: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=8425882 (From Old Corral image collection) Above - Rex Allen on Koko.

(From Old Corral image collection)

The photo on the left is often identified as being Rex and Koko, but that is incorrect. This horse is a 'no name' that Allen rode in his first oater before acquiring Koko. (Thanks to Sky Corbin for his help on straightening out this Koko vs 'no-name' horse issue.)

(From Old Corral image collection) As the B western era faded, Monte Hale rode the trails in a series at Republic Pictures, and the name of his trusty steed was Pardner or Partner. This horse shown above is easy to identify because of the unique face blaze, and also appears in many of the photo covers from Monte's Fawcett comic book series. In actuality, Monte never owned his own horse during his stay at Republic. He rode several steeds that Republic (probably) rented from a local stable. The Grand Comics Database has covers showing Monte with a variety of horses. There are several covers showing the above horse - pay close attention as some are correct (see issues #60, 69, 70 and 74). But Fawcett erred on other covers when they reversed the photo (see issues #57 and 63). Go to: http://www.comics.org/series/14336/covers/ Where did the Partner/Pardner name originate? Monte's third starring oater was the Trucolor OUT CALIFORNIA WAY (Republic, 1946) and was another film about "shootin' a western movie within a western movie". There's a subplot with Robert "Bobby" Blake trying to get his trusty hoss "Pardner" into films. (From Old Corral image collection) Am unsure what horse Monte is riding in the above lobby card from UNDER COLORADO SKIES (Republic, 1947). Don't be fooled by the gray/black color of this horse - that color shows up in the lobby card, but when viewing the film, Monte's horse is brown with a tannish mane. It isn't Banner which had been earlier used by Don Barry and Allan Lane. Banner had a thin face blaze that ended above the nostrils. Click HERE for Andy Devine, Roy Rogers on the original Trigger, and Bob Nolan in a scene cropped from a lobby card from the Trucolor UNDER CALIFORNIA STARS (Republic, 1948). Devine is riding Banner, and Nolan is riding the same horse in the above lobby card.