Original Champion (b. circa 1926 – d. 1943)

• Dark sorrel-colored
• 3 stockings—right front leg solid
• T-shaped blaze starting high on his forehead and extending over his muzzle
• Gelding
• Appeared in films possibly as early as The Phantom Empire (1935), definitely in Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935), last movie was Bells of Capistrano (1942)
• First "official" screen Champion
• First received screen credit in Melody Trail (1935)
• Known as “Wonder Horse of the West”
• Had as many as four doubles
• Died of an apparent heart attack while Gene was in the army
• Highlights: could untie knots, roll over and play dead, bow, shake his head “yes” and “no,” and come to Gene’s whistle

Research assistance provided by author Petrine Mitchum.