For several centuries in a row, horses have existed side by side with humans. Movies are made about them, books are written and songs are dedicated to them. 
But among them there are also quite famous representatives who have glorified themselves and their owners. Here are a few horses that almost the whole world knows about.
Pumpkin 
The world's tiniest horse was born in South Carolina in 1973.
The stallion was named Little Pumpkin and is from the rarest breed of small Falabella horses. As an adult, Pumpkin was 35 cm tall at the withers and weighed only 9.7 kg.
Bucephalus 
He was a faithful friend of Alexander the Great, and the king even named the city, now named Jalalpur, in his honor. It is located in a province of Pakistan.
Macedonian and Bucephalus met when the future king was 12 years old. The horse had character and no one had ever managed to ride it, not even Alexander’s father, to whom, in fact, this horse was given. Having observed Bucephalus, the boy realized that he was afraid of the shadows cast by the riders and turned his horse’s face to the sun. Bucephalus began to move, and Alexander ran next to him and only when the horse began to breathe calmly did he fly up onto his back. That's how their strong friendship began.
Bucephalus went through many battles with his owner, and when he became old, he was transported on campaigns on a special cart built for him. Bucephalus died heroically, just as he lived - in the next battle of Alexander.
Samson 
For almost two centuries (since 1846), this giant gelding of the heavy Shire breed has been remembered by horse breeders. By the age of four, which is still almost adolescence for a horse, Samson had grown to 2 meters and 20 cm. At that moment this “tiny” weighed one and a half tons.
He still remains the largest horse in the world.
Billy 
So far, no one has survived the Cleveland bay gelding. Usually horses live on average 25-30 years, but Billy lived to be 62! And this despite the fact that he worked hard every day - towing cargo ships. This was common in 1700s England.
There is only one lithograph of Billy, made a couple of years before his death (1820). The skull of this horse is kept in the Manchester Museum, and a stuffed head is shown in the Belford Museum.
Eclipse the Invincible 
This horse has the title “Horse of the Century” and it was thanks to him that the horse prize for speed appeared. Eclipse competed at the races for 23 years and no one managed to defeat him. He received 11 "Royal Cups", which are awarded to the best and fastest horses in England. No one has managed to receive so many awards, and when he was born, experts predicted that he would have no prospects in equestrian sports due to his short stature. But Eclipse was resilient, his heart weighed 6 kg 300 grams. And today, at the Newmarket Hippodrome there is a bronze monument of him.
Incitatus 
He was a good horse, performed well at the races, but he became world famous thanks to his owner, Caligula. The eccentric ruler was known for his strange antics, so it was no surprise that he built a stable of marble for Incitatus, placing ivory feeders there. He had a purple blanket made of expensive fabric and an ornament of precious stones.
Well, then Incitatus became a Roman citizen, “got married,” Caligula gave him a house and... made him a senator. The horse even attended meetings. The horse was about to receive consul status, but Caligula was killed.
Linus 
All the girls in those days were probably jealous of Linus. He was a direct descendant of the wild Oregon Longhair and was an excellent representative of that now defunct breed.
His mane was 4 meters 27 cm long, and his luxurious tail was 3 meters 66 cm. Linus's body was chestnut in color, and his tail and mane were golden flaxen. The owners sold the horse to a traveling circus, where he was a stunning success in any city.
It was not easy for Linus, because his mane and tail were combed for hours, then braided into beautiful buns. Unfortunately, Linus lived only 10 years - in 1894 he was killed by lightning.
Absinthe 
He was an Olympic legend of the Soviet Union. Famous artists painted it, Absinthe took part in the filming of a documentary about himself, and a book was written about him.
The black Akhal-Teke gave 18 years to Soviet sports, and today the whole world knows about him and he is nicknamed the “Black Swan”.
Absinthe in 1960 received the first gold (at the Olympic Games) in the history of equestrian sports of the Soviet Union.
He received bronze in Tokyo in 1964, became a seven-time USSR dressage champion and the world's best sport horse in 1968. And his father was no less famous - a real show jumping star, Zhukov’s favorite, at which he took part in the 1945 Victory Parade. It was Absinthe’s father who became a participant in the Ashgabat-Moscow horse race in 1935: 34 riders from Turkmenistan covered 4,300 km across the Karakum sands in 84 days.
Absinthe, by mistake of the stud farm workers, was almost sent to the stud farm, but they managed to save him and he lived calmly and peacefully until the end of his days at the stud farm in Issyk-Kul.
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