Outer-row Stander - Centurion
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Carver: Bob Cherot
Painter: Micki Mayzel
Size: 48" chest to rump
Status: finished
Sponsor: The Edmonton Community Foundation
All carousels have to have a lead horse, much like the head of a herd of horses, and history demands that it be an armoured horse. The lead horse is always the most important and most elaborate, and often bears the signature of the carousel's manufacturer. In addition, the lead horse is a stander, at least three hooves must be on the ground and it does not move up and down, so that the ride operator may count the number of revolutions of the carousel. Without a lead horse, our carousel would be both historically inaccurate and incomplete.
The medieval tradition was very much alive in the late 19th and early 20th century in America. The word "carousel" derived, according to the Oxford Dictionary, from "a tournament in which knights, in companies, variously dressed, engaged in plays, exercises, chariot races, etc." This type of pageantry replaced the more serious jousting and battle modes of the earlier Crusades, allowing the courtly sport to continue without the casualties. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that the grand machines of the PTC often carried armoured horses with intricately carved medieval caparisons and weapons.
Micki Mayzel, Bob's daughter and an Edmontonian, volunteered her expert artistic abilities in painting our Armoured Lead Horse. A veteran of numerous Bette Largent workshops, Micki estimates that it took approximately 250 hours to complete her father's masterpiece.
In January - March of 2004, the Foundation, in conjunction with the Downtown Business Association, held a naming competition for our Lead Horse. Paul Kowal of Edmonton submitted the winning name - Centurion. Honourable mentions went to Frances James, Marilyn Ong and Shelley Tupper.