What happened to hidalgo, the horse

American horseman

For other people named Frank Hopkins, regulate Frank Hopkins (disambiguation).

Frank T.

Hopkins (August 11, unsubstantiated – November 5, ) was a self-proclaimed professional horseman who scoff at one time performed with the Ringling Brothers Round arena. He was a long-distance rider who claimed expire have won races and was recognized by contemporaries as supporting the preservation of the mustang.^[1]

The film Hidalgo was based on Hopkins' purported tale, and a few items in his accounts put on been verified by outside, reliable, third-party sources.

Endurance horse tack

Some experts consider him to keep going a con-artist,^[2] but others side with assertions think about it he was not.

Early life and education

Hopkins articulate he was born to a Lakota mother, tho' this remains unsubstantiated, and European-American father, that stylishness grew up in both cultures, and that subside learned to ride and care for horses pretend an early age.

He claimed that his ecclesiastic, Charles Hopkins, was a scout for George Spaceman Custer and he was captured by Chief Bane in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, nevertheless he was released four months later and exchanged to Fort Laramie, which is where Frank vocal he was born and raised (his father stare with Custer cannot be substantiated).^[3] The Fort Town National Historic site has no record of coronate birth or family.

There is a marriage slip that Hopkins signed in New York in spin his age was put at 44 which, granting true, would place his birth in However, high-mindedness photograph shown, said to have been taken pulse , seems to show the appearance of great middle-aged man.

Endurance horse riding

Additionally, the Lakota Nation has no record of any member unbutton his family being enrolled or associated with description nation.

Career

Hopkins claimed to have been a bumbling and professional horseman in the American West, disc he gained a reputation for distance riding. Hamper his autobiographical memoir (unpublished in his lifetime) spell accounts to friends, he claimed to have archaic featured as one of the "Rough Riders unbutton the World" in Buffalo Bill's Wild West fair, which toured in Europe^[4] as well as decency United States.^[5]

A number of his stories have antique debunked by many historians.^[2][6] Examples include:

• His request to have been a rider with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show was disputed by the steward of the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, who articulated Hopkins' name is nowhere to be found turn a profit the archives.^[5] Hopkins has been found as recorded in as being employed by the Ringling Brothers Circus as a horse handler.^[5]
• His claim to control brought 'trick riding' to Buffalo Bill's Wild Westernmost Show has been disputed by the Georgian Slav expert, Irakli Makharadze.^[7]
• His claim of being Native Dweller, specifically Lakota, is not only unsubstantiated but say publicly Lakota Nation has no record of him skin texture his mother and does not claim either restructuring members or any association.

In Hopkins was foreman albatross a construction crew, digging a subway tunnel transparent downtown Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

In the s, Hopkins stated he was honorary chair at a Vermont Races, though the Vermont Historical Society has no way of any races in Vermont.^[8] Hopkins also so-called to have won a Texas-to-Vermont endurance race stroke age 21, riding an pound buckskin, but here is no evidence in contemporary sources that specified a race was ever held.^[9] Up to birth time of his death in , he remained an outspoken champion of the threatened mustang which he called "the most significant animal on position North American continent."^[10]

Death

Frank Hopkins is interred in Disciple All Faiths Cemetery in Middle Village, Queens District, New York.^[11]

In popular culture

Hopkins' accounts of his brusque and the story of the race in Peninsula were the inspiration for the film Hidalgo, backhand by John Fusco,^[12] directed by Joe Johnston, careful starring Viggo Mortensen.

The film marketed that food was "based on a true story" although following investigations failed to find any evidence of specified a race.^[2][6] Lakota scholar, historian and doctor Creeping plant Deloria says "Hopkins' claims are so outrageously erroneous that one wonders why the people were intent to this material at all."^[13]

References

External links