What does the horse in Rochester symbolise? (Buffalo, Boston: house, companies)

[cheese9988]

Hi,

We moved to Rochester about a year ago and just purchased a house in the Merchants area on the east side.

Just a question. I see multicolored horse statues all over. There is one on the 490, one on (i think) east ave. I have seen them downtown and outside the city in a couple of places. What does the horse stand for or mean?

[notasmoker]

Originally Posted by cheese9988

Hi,

We moved to Rochester about a year ago and just purchased a house in the Merchants area on the east side.

Just a question. I see multicolored horse statues all over. There is one on the 490, one on (i think) east ave. I have seen them downtown and outside the city in a couple of places. What does the horse stand for or mean?

There was some sort of "civic pride" movement about ten years ago called "Horses on Parade." Various government bodies & companies could "sponsor" multi-colored, decorated horses outside their establishments. At one point there was a book published depicting the location of every horse in the area. I think it was a take-off from what was being done at the time in other cities...Chicago had cows, maybe, Minneapolis had something else, etc. I am not sure if the horse has any unique significance in Rochester, or it just happened to be an animal that another city had not yet claimed. Anyone else who was here at the time...feel free to add/correct this explanation as needed.

[rochacha]

Agreed with the other posters. This was a pretty popular city event recently in the Northeast. I think Boston had cows, Buffalo had Bison, something is Toronto also. They are usually called "{Animal name} on parade", so you should be able to find a lot on Google.

[cheese9988]

Thanks for the info, wasn't sure if it was a culture thing in the area or a sports team. Either way a good idea.

[DJ-Uno]

I believe they chose horses because of Genny Beer's "12 Horse Ale"...

Not sure how accurate that is, but I seem to remember something like that.