The prospect of General Harrison's phantom stirrups - Cincinnati's equine enigma

Nestled in the heart of Cincinnati's Piatt Park stands the captivating equestrian statue of General William Henry Harrison, a soldier turned US President. What's intriguing about this four-legged warrior is the absence of stirrups on his mount. Let's ride along and uncover the unexplained mystery of Piatt Park's equine anomaly. Born in Virginia in 1773, Harrison joined the Regular Army and fought in the Northwest Indian War. Afterward, he made his way into the political scene, eventuallybeing elected as the 9th President of the United States in 1840.

In 1886, a contest was held to design a grand statue for Harrison, with the French sculptor Louis Rebisso's design, outshining that of American sculptor Moses Jacob Ezekiel, among others. The statue was crafted at the M. H. Mosman foundry in Massachusetts and was initially dedicated in Chicago in 1893, later moving to Piatt Park in Cincinnati in 1896. However, it wasn't unveiled to the public until some years later, as there was insufficient public interest to finance its installation.

Fast-forward to 2020, during the George Floyd protests, this equestrian statue caught attention, with protesters demanding its removal due to Harrison's past as a slaveholder. The Harrison/Symmes Memorial Foundation offered to relocate the statue to their museum in North Bend, Ohio, but the city council and the Cincinnati Park Board had the final say. The statue features a bronze equestrian figure of Harrison riding his beloved horse, but without a saddle and, you guessed it, stirrups.

This prompts the question - what's keeping the saddle in place, mate? When it was first displayed, the statue faced east but it was turned west after its relocation in 1988.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons