theoddmentemporium:

Linus the Wonder Horse and Friends

Back in the late 1800s, Linus the Wonder Horse and his hirsute progeny wowed carnival-goers across America. In 1910, the biology book Experimental Zoölogy profiled Linus as such:

[Prof. C. B. Davenport and Prof. C. E. Castle] have both called attention to cases of so-called wonder-horses, i.e. horses with remarkably long mane and tail. In the case of ”Linus I” the mane was 18 feet long and the tail 21 feet. The parents and grandparents of these horses also had unusually long hair, which increased in successive generations. 

Linus was born in 1884 and spent ten years wowing audiences with his luxurious mane. Even though Linus’ Rapunzel-like locks were the result of genetics and breeding, sideshows and circuses drummed up tall tales about an Oregonian God Pony to pack in the slack-jawed gawkers. Then, in 1891, Scientific American profiled Linus II, the son of this protean deus equus, and his coiffure [and] if you wish to see one of these equine wonders today, Prince Imperial is still around. He was a long-haired horse who once belonged to Napoleon’s nephew, died in 1888, and currently sits taxidermied and dreadlocked in Marion, Ohio. 

(via smudgiemomma)