Bred by the Nez Perce Tribe in Idaho, the Appaloosa horse is a beautiful, agile horse.  With this issue I stepped over a  self-drawn line in the sand, that I would have no “state flowers or birds” on these Greetings From America issues.  It wasn’t until Janice and I were deep in the research, while I was inking the rendering, that we discovered the Appaloosa is the state horse of Idaho.   Hey, I didn’t know states had a “state horse”.

GREETINGS FROM IDAHO

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FIRST DAY OF ISSUE

OCTOBER 25, 2002

NEW YORK, NY 10199

DECEMBER 2014

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            In this month’s packet, I am going to

break my own rules by focusing on an animal that has been named the state horse.  Because I personally find state facts a little boring, I thought I would steer away from highlighting such and concentrate on “interesting” topics.   But after doing my homework, I must confess, what I found for Idaho is very interesting.  As well, this will tie in nicely with the cachet I produced for Oregon.     I really like the connection and believe you will too.   Featured on your cachet is a strikingly beautiful and  spirited horse known as an Appaloosa.  Now the name Appaloosa didn’t become official until 1938.   Long before that date, the name varied from “A Palouse Horse”, “Palousey”, “Appalousey”, and finally “Appaloosa.”  The name originated from the Palouse River which runs through northern Idaho and from which the horses made their homes.  I can imagine folks saying, “there goes a Palouse horse”  and after much repeating and running the words together, out comes “Appaloosa” with the spelling variances.  Let’s back up a moment and get some history on the origin of this horse breed.  The Spanish introduced horses to Mexico in...

CONTINUED IN THE BEVIL NEWSLETTER-