El Alamein, a white Arabian stallion, was given to Reagan by Mexican President Portillo. The Secret Service frowned on Reagan riding the high-spirited El Alamein. When he would not relent, the Secret Service began sending an advance team to the ranch to try and wear the horse down a little before the President would ride him.
If I had a hot horse, I'd longe him anyhow, just to get the kinks out.
I should have known you would be all over this. lol Ping for the guys I work with. We all love Reagan here in this litte office.
Well, at one point he did have one, though-
Posted on Sun, Jun. 06, 2004
From campaigning to horseback riding, Reagan colleague recalls president's integrity, vision
BY CYNTHIA NEFF
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT) - William P. Clark was on horseback at a social gathering in late 1965 the first time he encountered Ronald Reagan.
Clark, a new member of Republican Party, was invited to the event to consider entering the race for the State Assembly. But as a young lawyer with five children, he determined that "it was too early to consider entering the political thicket."
However Reagan, a radio commentator and former actor who had not yet been approached to run for governor, mentioned to Clark that if he ever ran for office, he would want Clark to consider joining him.
"Little did I know..." Clark quipped.
Clark, 72, served as county campaign chairman the first time Reagan later ran for governor of California in 1966, and then became his chief of staff in Sacramento. He served as Reagan¹s national security advisor and Interior Department secretary after the president was elected to his first term in 1980.
"He was a gentle man," Clark said. "He reminded me of my father for his integrity and discretion, his vision and his good judgment."
On Sunday, Clark remembered the man he spent several decades working for as motivational, hard-working and a dedicated letter writer who, during his public office, penned thousands of letters in response to people he'd never met.
"Only Jefferson and Washington wrote more," Clark said.
Clark routinely reviewed letters and position papers that involved national security.
"If we felt a letter needed work or a tonal change, we put it over for the following morning...and then we'd come back to it."
The pair also rode frequently, often at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia.
They couldn't ride for long periods, Clark said, because their full schedules wouldn't allow it.
But the president believed it to be important recreation - so valuable that Clark set up a school for the president's Secret Service agents so they could learn to ride and keep pace with himself and Reagan.
"He would say: `There's nothing better for the inside of a man than the outside of a horse,' " Clark said.
Leaders from other countries also knew Reagan loved the animals.
Protocol required they bring a state gift to Washington on their official visits, Clark recalled.
Many wanted to give the president a horse, which created logistical problems for the staff.
"The question arose, what do you do with all these horses?" The answer? Some were retained by the United States Park Police at the Washington stables.
When the Austrians sent one of their famed Lipizzaner stallions to the White House, first lady Nancy Reagan and the secret service felt it too risky for the president to ride the high-spirited animal routinely.
So, the task fell to the new Secretary of the Interior.
"Of course, I performed this duty at great inconvenience and sacrifice," Clark said, jokingly.
"I was raised on a ranch," he added. "To be able to get on a horse in the middle of Washington at 6 a.m. each day for 30 minutes was a marvelous break. ... He (Reagan) watched this in great envy."
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© 2004, The Tribune, San Luis Obispo, Calif.
His Lippizanner was named Amadeus.