Post by Charnell
1955 Stolem (sic) Horses, Courtesy of Bruce Hartman
Much has been written about the Horses of the Sun in Navajo mythology. Look up a Navajo legend about horses and you’ll find a version of this story.
Johano-ai, the Navajo Sun God, starts each day from his hogan in the east, and rides across the skies to his hogan in the west, carrying the shining golden disk, the sun.
1952, King of the Stallions, print courtesy of Charnell Havens
He has five horses: a horse of turquoise (blue), a horse of white shell, a horse of pearl shell, a horse of red shell, and a horse of coal. When the skies are blue and the weather is fair, Johano-ai is riding his turquoise horse or his horse of white shell or of pearl; but when the heavens are dark with storm, he has mounted the red horse, or the horse of coal.
And a further interpretation of the colors is found in this accounting: The five horses of the Sun Father are a way of telling time, Navajo style. White shell and pearl horses represent dawn, turquoise is noon, red shell is sunset, and jet or coal is night.
I don’t know whether Navajo artist Quincy Tahoma had Horses of the Sun in mind when he painted those marvelous portraits of statuesque horses. Some horses were standing on a mesa, some showed butterflies tickling their noses, and all included birds for bringing them happiness and Godspeed. Tahoma painted the mighty turquoise horse, sometimes in sky blue and dapply grey/blue tones, showing the majesty of the Sun God’s preferred steed. He painted the white and pearl (palomino) horses, in their daylight settings, but I have yet to see a Tahoma painting of a solitary red horse at sunset or a jet black horse at night. His black horses do, however, have white stockings to light the sky so the Sun God can see at night.
1950, black stallion, Courtesy of Patricia Packard LaCroix
In his stunning painting above of Indians stealing horses, Tahoma brings together all the colors of Horses of the Sun, and tosses in a few pintos (the working man’s horse) to boot!
Which horse color is your favorite? Have you ever seen either a red or black horse painted in an evening setting?
