Melbourne Cup Form Guide: Ten car brands with horses as their emblems

To celebrate the ‘Race That Stops a Nation’, here are the stories behind some of our favourite car logos featuring horses.

Horses, an ancient symbol of power and independence. A symbol of nobility, endurance, triumph. A totem of strength and of courage. Above all, horses represent freedom, providing the ability to move unfettered.

Humans began domesticating horses over 6000 years ago, putting the large mammal to work. We used them to till the soil, we used them in battle and to haul cargo. Most of all, we used horses as transport, the beasts of burden carrying us over vast distances with endurance and stamina.

Horses and transportation have been intrinsically linked for millennia. Whether carrying people on their backs or hauling carts and wagons filled with cargo, horses have long done the heavy lifting for humans.

The advent of the automobile in the late 19th century changed transportation forever, the humble yet effective horse and cart making way for the motor car which soon took over our urban and rural landscapes.

And in a simple measurement of power, the term ‘horsepower’ took on a new meaning.

Horsepower as unit of measurement had been around since the mid-1700s when Scottish inventor James Watt was looking for a relatable measurement of power to help him sell his new steam engine. You can read all about Watt’s calculations and how he arrived at his numbers here.

And for the record, one horsepower does not equate to the power of one horse, which can actually be as high as 15hp. Similarly, average humans can hit a peak output of 1.2 horsepower, albeit briefly, while our sustained output measures in at around 0.1hp.

That number rises for elite athletes who can pump our 2.5hp over short bursts of energy and 0.35hp over a sustained period.

Horses. They equate to power. And to freedom, a perfect symbol for the automobile then.

And it didn’t take carmakers too long to cotton on to the correlation between the old and the new, the horse becoming emblematic from the very earliest days of the car.

Here then is our form guide for 10 of the best brands which feature horses in their logos.

Scratched: Corre La Licorne

Form guide: An early scratching, Corre La Licorne was the original automotive unicorn.

The French company started life as simply Corre, producing cars from 1901, having already established itself as a maker of bicycles in the 1890s. Corre might have been an automotive pioneer, but he was no financial manager and in 1907, on the brink of bankruptcy, sold the company to Firmin Lestienne.

Now renamed Corre La Licorne, the car maker’s emblem featured a white unicorn (la Licorne translates to the unicorn in French) against a red background, derived from Lestienne’s family coat of arms.

Corre La Licorne remained in business until 1947, by which time it had produced over 33,000 cars.

Scratched: Pegaso

Form guide: Took its time coming out of the blocks, but when it did, Pegaso proved faster than anything else going at the time.

The Spanish maker of trucks, buses, tractors and even armoured vehicles, founded in 1946, wanted to shed its utilitarian image so in 1951 turned its attention to producing sportscars.

It didn’t muck around either, the very first car – the Pegaso Z-102 – to come from the Spanish brand instantly earning the honour of fastest production car in the world when it was launched in 1951.

The car- (and truck- and bus- and tractor-) maker’s logo featured the winged horse, Pegasus, or Pegaso in Spanish. Why? That has mystery has been lost to time but perhaps truck giant Iveco might have a record of the origins of the logo, having bought the company outright in 1990.

100-to-1: Kamaz

Form guide: Lumbering workhorses that have shown surprising turns of speed at times, especially on sandy tracks.

The partially state-owned Russian maker of trucks, buses and engines, adopted the horse as its emblem as a symbol of strength, and oddly for a company making cumbersome trucks and anything-but-agile buses, agility.

Still, Kamaz trucks have won the Dakar Rally 19 times in the Truck category, the most victories by a single manufacturer in any category.

70-to-1: Iran Khodro

Form guide: Largely unknown outside of its native Iran, but has the numbers on board.

The little-known car maker from Iran, famous for models as diverse at the Tara and the Arisun ute, adopted a horse head as its emblematic talisman when it started operations in 1962.

Largely a manufacturer of cars under licence from Peugeot, Renault, Mercedes-Benz and the Rootes Groupe (the Paykan, a locally-built version of the Hillman Hunter remained in production until 2005, some 30 years after the end of the Hunter’s life), Iran Khodro also designed and built its own range of vehicles, the most notable the Samand, which inherited the mantle of Iran’s national car from the Paykan.

While little-known outside of Iran, Iran Khodro employs 72,000 people across 11 manufacturing plants in six countries with an annual output of around 650,000 cars.

70-to-1: Eicher

Form guide: Certified mud-runner who does better off track than on.

Another truck and tractor manufacturer, this one from India, and another horse head logo.

Eicher Motors started operations as Goodearth Company in India in 1948 as a distributor for imported tractors. By 1982, the company – now part of a joint venture with German tractor manufacturer Eicher – entered into an agreement with Mitsubishi to manufacture light commercial vehicles for the Indian domestic market.

Rebranded as Eicher Motors, the company continued to expand and in 1993 acquired a majority shareholding in trad-Brit motorcycle manufacturer, Royal Enfield.

70-to-1: Baojun

Form guide: Despite star parents, is yet to prove itself on the big stage.

Baojun is a marque co-owned by Chinese automotive powerhouse SAIC and American giant General Motors. Established in 2010 as a more affordable alternative to GM’s Chevrolet and Buick brands in China, the Chinese word Baojun literally translates to ‘treasured horse’, hence the equine emblem on the grille of its vehicles.

20-to-1: Ford Bronco

Form guide: Wild for much of its life has only recently discovered the form needed to make it in the modern world.

It’s in the name, obvs, but it almost wasn’t so.

In 1963, Ford was hunting around for a name for its new rugged off-roader. Given the internal project name ‘Bronco’ during development, the name was never intended for the final production vehicle.

Wrangler was suggested, but rejected (and 20 years later Jeep said ‘thank you very much’), before Blue Oval executives promoted the SUV’s project designation to full-time nameplate, creating a synergy with the Ford Mustang that it enjoys to this day.

5-to-1: Ford Mustang

Form guide: Brawny and muscular with incredible power but struggles to use that power on a wet track. Could get overwhelmed on tight turns.

There are differing stories around the origins of the Mustang name to Ford’s iconic sportscar. One popular tale – and the one Ford credits with being the official story – is that Ford’s executive stylist, John Naijar, suggested the name inspired by one his favourite World War II fighter planes, the P-51 Mustang.

Another story goes that Ford’s market research manager Robert J Eggert was the first to suggest the company’s new sportscar be called Mustang. It’s said he was inspired by the title of a book, The Mustangs, given to his wife.

Eggert added Mustang to a list of potential names to be tested by focus groups. They included, among others, Cougar (early styling exercises featured a Cougar emblem on the grille, pictured in the gallery above), Torino (the front-runner, so much so advertising material had already been prepared) and T-bird II (Henry Ford II’s personal favourite).

Mustang was the overwhelming favourite of the focus group. And an icon was born.

2-to-1: Porsche

Form guide: Clinical, precise, fast. One of the favourites.

Horses, antlers, and black-and-red stripes. Porsche’s emblem is instantly recognisable. But, what does it all mean?

In short, Porsche’s logo is inspired by the old coat of arms of Württemberg and the city crest of Stuttgart with some tweaks to make it more personal to the German carmaker. Stuttgart, where Porsche is headquartered, is the capital of Württemberg.

The crest acknowledges the history of the area, Stuttgart built over what was once an area reserved for horse breeding (Stuttgart literally translates to ‘mare garden’), hence the black horse housed inside the crest.

The antlers as well as the red and black stripes are taken from the crest of Württemberg-Hohenzollen.

Porsche’s crest has remained largely unchanged since Xaver Reimspieß (who also likely designed the Volkswagen logo) penned the emblematic shield in 1952, with only subtle tweaks made over the intervening 70 years. Classic.

Evens: Ferrari

From guide: The unbackable favourite, with power and speed matched only by its enduring legacy.

The famous Prancing Horse was born out of a promise company founder Enzo Ferrari made to a war hero’s mother.

The now-immediately recognisable horse graced the fuselage of a World War I fighter plane piloted by Italian hero Francesco Baracca (pictured, below).

When Ferrari began his racing career (he was a handy driver before turning his attention to team management and ultimately, racecar constructor), a chance meeting with Baracca’s mother resulted in one of the most iconic emblems in automotive history.

In Enzo’s own words: “When I won my first Savio Circuit in Ravenna in 1923, I met Count Enrico Baracca and Countess Paolina, parents of the flying hero. One day the Countess said to me, ‘Ferrari, why don’t you put my son’s prancing horse on your cars? It’ll bring you good luck’. The Horse was and will always be black; I added the canary yellow background, the colour of the city of Modena.”

So, did we miss any? And what is your favourite horse-related emblem? Let us know in the comments below.

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